The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1901-07-20

thirty expert mathematicians 1 > being
constructed by the government in It's.
scientific instrument shop on Capitol
Hill, Washington. It is to be an i'm
provement on an instrument in use
in the bureau Of the Coast Survey
which has charge Of calculating the
tides. This machine will be in q class
all by itself. a. q mathematician. Eng
land has one which does q similar class
of work, but does not carry its calcula-
lions SO far. The British instrument
was invented by Lord Kelvin. The
American instrument was contrived by
+. Terrell. an employe Of the United
States Coast Survey. The American
machine now In use cost $500. It
stands about two feet high and 10
eighteen inches across. Its half q
foot of depth Ia q maze Of wheels. pull.
ley and levers. It does wonderful
things. There Is q little crank on the
lower left hand side. and at q simple
turn Of that crank the machine will
give the answer to a problem involving
ninety-one separate calculations. The
problems 1t works out are the enor-
mously complicated calculations Of
tidal variations. In the year 1908 some
ship will be in the harbor Of Karachi,
India, at the head Of the Arabian sea.
Suppose the ship arrives at $50 in the
morning on the LIST day Of October.
The captain will have a printed table
in his pilot house, and in that table he
will read that at that particular
hour Of that particular day Of that
particular year there is seven feet of
tide in the bay. By referring to q
chart showing the depth Of the bay
normally he will know just how much
water there Is for his vessel.
The calculation BY which It is pos
sible to predict seven feet Of tide at
that. place and time was made by tho
Cnited States g~oysrnnient.s machine
on May II last In Washington The
machine owned by the British gov
eminent is the only other. n by
which the calculating could have been
done; but on account Of the enormous.
volume Of such work to be done the
two governments try to divide the ter
ritory. Foreign governments have fire.
quently applied to the United States to
do some tide f~orecasting for harbors
important to. their commerce with the
machine invented by Mr.. Terrell. which
the new one is expected to s%upersede.
They have been quite willing to pay
for such work, but as a rule the
coast survey has been unable Doom
ply with such requests, owing to the
pressure of Its own work. DR.. r. A.
Harris Of the Coast Survey devised the
plans for the new machine now being
constructed. He has taken sugges-
tons from the two instruments now
in existence and hopes to produce n
which will combine the good features
Of both. The employment Of meehani-
cal apparatus for doing work usually
performed by the. human mind Is more
extensively seen In the government
scientific department than in any other
place in the country. The multiplying
and dividing machine. for example, is
q great saver Of time and mental. labor
not to mention Its absolute accuracy.
The machine declines to make mis-
takes. and II the operator tries to make
seven go into six, will ring q bell in
protest. Practically all the adding in
the governments coast survey work is
done by machines. Where the column
contains three-quarters of million
figures. as frequently happens, in
the computations. the saving in mem
tai effort Is very considerable.-New
York Sun.