Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-07-19
LprA OF TIE GLOBE.
os ti.s Scientists to Ascertain the
 1rxaet Distances.

.-.s..st4 os the Scientists to Ascertain ehs
 Exact Distances.
 IA, thousand years men have been 4..s,;,,& fo determine the exact distance ' ra,,s5d the world. The distance was 5<no ago calculated approximately at o4 ss1,0 miles but the time has passed ,.,1<43,s seientists can be content with a -ss,,lt expressed merely in round num- bers of miles. Andrew Braid, execu- t;ve of the coast and geodetic survey, secently said that he believed the dis sanee would eventually be computed so 4hnt the error in the diameter would not exeeed 50 feet
 gsbe basis for this statement is to be ga,,na in the fact that the United 14afas coast and geodetic survey will in ! few months take up this huge mathematical problem for solution. l3'be flask is one of great magnitude, and will require from two to three sears of solid mathematical grind ;no such as would turn the majority of Students pale.
 q'he most recent authorities differ a,saah with each other. The tive whose conclusions are accepted, sriederich ". Bessel, d distinguished ser,nan astronomer, and Col. A, R. 1arlye. an English engineer, are at Sariance with each other about the Iianeter to the extent of one mile, and lurinp the last thirty years, since the .esnlts of Col. Clarke were promul- rated. the surveyors of different coun- rieslaave been divided against them elves on this question.
 Tho Preparation for this mammoth undertaking of the mathematical men < the survey requires the actual measurement of the longest possible istanee on the earth's surface. This what is technically called an arc, be- a9lse it comprises a portion of the artia's scireumference. The surveyors sill soon have an are of 5000 miles in snrth. extending from the Atlantic the Pacific ocean, which has been de- srinined with precision by the use of ae most accurate instruments and the mplovment of the most skilled men. his line is along the thirty-ninth par llel, and will be completed with the stem of triangulation through what called the continental divide, the pres- atseason.
 The principle for determining the relnnference of the earth in this case easv of comprehension. The sarvey- s are able to determine the difference Iongitude of the two extremities of lis long line. which begins in New rsev near the southern part of Cape avs and ends in the lower part of endoeino county. California. Know
 that the whole circumference of e earth comprises 360 degrees
 circle. and reckoning the ac1ional part of this circle, hieh is covered by the arc, the hole distance is readily computed. lie aif3eulty comes in reducing the IserVations taken from the series of Iangles extending across the eonti- H snf to q sea level, for many of the hes from which the distance must be easnred are situated on the mountain ps and in many. eases above tho I buds, Especially in the mountainous ] gi0ns of the west, through which the IlraIIe1 passes. The measurement of earths circumference is to be &C.,
 nplished incidentally to the other mk for which the triangulation is signed and therefore the final re- itswill not be obtained for eonsid- shie lime
 Iu moro primitive times men made my attempts to ascertain the dimen- na of the globe 4 Frenchman
 med Fernel, court physician to my Ii., in the early part of the six aAsnth century, had an ingenious but oe Ide scheme for measuring with a rls igan wheel, which would have been dIitated by the use of the modern elenaeter. He travelled due north m Paris to Amiens, what he ealcu-
 Nd to be a degree, and, returning .s- tile country roads, counted the yolutions of his wagon wheel to the mberof 17,024. Those amounted to ts Italian miles and 96 paces, ac- raing to his computations, and in aItiplying this by 360 he believed atshe bad the approximate distance Qnnd the world. He was not far ,. pm the truth, but his rude methods
 Mla come far short of satisfying the acting demands of science in these mes: De supposed that the earth was md and took no account of the wab- !, Ing inand out of the road, or the in- llhs 1table curvature of the path of the mn aeei From straight line.
 .b AHe ancients, however. were fully as sVa reWd as Fernel, and more than 2,500 s afs before his time they arrived at same results by methods equally
 The Chaldeans worked on
 problem and reckoned by camel
 They had it that 4.000 camel m ps were necessary to make mile,
 knat 533a miles were one-half of a sfes From this they declared that
 Was 24 poo miles around the world.
 eonnection with their triangula-
 1ne surveyors are attempting to Mh What IS the exact shape of the con- sent Through which their labors ex- A Fms has Q great deal to do with ti nrreet computation of the distance
 2nn0pr through the earth. In fact,
 Knew that the earth is far from
 m8 What they call Glarl1e's spheroid.
 fhe present scientific name for .,,v earth since the American surveyors N aets1fled that Col Clarke's dimensions - smost nearly correct. A large part
 Spe north American continent bulges
 ]saepnormally, like a rubber ball
 squeezed by strong hand.
 as.Qne of the things that puzzles
 men. The great western
 444ls eleNated a ahnro 4lao la..a1