The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-01

news of this triumph may be brought
back months before we shall get to CIV
ilization. Two hundred of the buoys
are 10 be placed at stations on the east
coast of Greenland to be used by any
or my party who may reach these
points on their return. 1t may be
stated here that we have chosen the
east coast of Greenland as our objec-
tive point after reaching the Pole.
Before the end of the present summer
we hope to establish our main station
somewhere in the neighborhood of the
Slst parallel on the eastern side of the
British Channel among the islands of
Franz Josef Land Thence we shall
move northward through the ice until
the America" my flagship. shall be
frozen in, and from this station we
shall transport sufficient supplies and
equipment to establish an additional
base at the very northernmost point
of Franz Josef Land. Soon after this
shall have been accomplished the long
Arctic night will have begun and here
we shall be obliged to stay until March,
1902. Meantime. however, we shall be
making observations of wind, weather,
clouds and various Arctic phenomena,
and records of these important scien-
tiflc investigations, which we expect
will be of great meteorological value,
will form a part of the news to be
sent back by our buoy messengers to
civilization. Soon after the return OF
the sun we shall throw out advance
stations on the sea ice to the northeast
before the ice shall have acquired
much movement. and our advance will
begin about the first of April. With
only $50 rallies between our winter home
and the Pole and the most complete
equipment possible for covering this
distance 1 have every hope of accom-
plishing my object before the 4th of
July. The news of this advance. we
shall send back by frequent bulletins.
What a great triumph it would be to
set free balloon laden with buoys
containing messages sent from that
point where there is only one direction
southland where it is any hour of
the day one may choose to call It.
The little messengers which we shall
use have been specially constructed for
the kind of work they will
body of each buoy is a cone
of solid cork weighed with copper
sheathed lead in order that it may pre-
serve an upright position when afioat.
The outer surface is painted, half red
and half blue, and is we'll protected
from the shocks of ice, which it must
endure, by mesh of heavy copper
MliCs LIE CtnltT Oh Ine cone is nOl-
lowed sufficiently to admit a brass
tube, into which the message is thrust,
and the tube is held in place by a me-
tallic cap, on which is inscribed, Bald
win Ziegler Polar Expedition" Above
all, on a spiral Flagstaff of nickel wire
is the American flag painted on a sheet
of copper. The spiral nickel wire i'm
parts a vibratory motion to the flag,
which also moves easily on a pivot.
The purpose of these devices is, OF
course to render the buoy more no
ticeable than would be otherwise posi-
BILE. l have given this rather full de-
scription of the buoys hoping that some
who read this article may be Of as
sistance in picking them up. Il is not
at all unlikely that some of the buoys
may get as far south as the track of
the transatlantic liners, in which case
the news will reach the world quicker
than in the case of those that will be
picked up by the whaling and sealing
vessels or on out of the way coasts
farther north.
AS have indicated already. my plan
is to send back the buoys as far as
possible by means of balloons. We are
supplied with forty balloons for this
purpose. Each has a capacity of 1000
cubic feet, and measures, when inllat-
ed, three feet in circumference. We
shall initiate them with hydrogen gas
made by the vitriolic process. 1t is in
tended that some OF these balloons be