Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-22
VALUE OF AN ICEBERG.
Daily Waste Of Frozen Drink Would
Pay the National Debt.

| From the New York VIC
| The commercial value OF an iceberg rSe-
sents fascinating problem to the theoriAt
| who is fond of figuring To multiply the
worth of one captive glacial derelict by the
| figures standing for the annual product OF
| the Greenland fiords a result would be OIL
tanned that would paralyze the thinking
| faculties of the average amateur staris-
| tician. The good. salable. fresh-water
/ germlesS GOODNESS that goes to waste in the
Gulf stream in day would more than pay
the public debt of the United States. which
in 1904. amounted to S967 .321, 1915.
Ponder on the resources and possibilities
wrapped in an Arctic crystal raft 500 feet
long, 500 feet from base to summit and oOO
feet thick-a size by no means exaggerated.
These dimensions mean 200OO0.OO0 cubic
feet. Forty-five cubic feet in the wholesale
trade in New York is allowed for ton OF
concealed water. but generously, call 1t 80
cubic feet to the ton. The floating SLAB
would furnish 4.0O0O00 tons of ice.
An average-sized family in the temperate
zone can struggle along with a ton of ice a
year. At the present retail price of 50
cents a hundred pounds ton represents
So. The iceberg. or 100000 tons. would
therefore be worth the moderate fortune OF
$24 600 COO
Estimating the average family as con-
tanning six persons and each of 4.OO0.0OO
households as consuming ton year. the
polar island would supply domestic refrig-
Grating for "a. 900, 900 persons for 800 days
One hundred pounds of ice will freeze ten
gallons of ice cream. A ton will freeze 2OO
gallons. The supposititious ice chunk would
freeze 100000 times 200 gallons, which
equals S0O,0O0,000 gallons.
A gallon of cream at one sitting provides
sufficient helping for "A persons If the
guests are not ali women. Hence this soil
tary lump, which is only one of thousand
born every month during the brief summer
within the polar circle, would provide
enough ice to furnish a little company or
10 200 100000 guests.
I'll CO.
ounces of ice is sufficient for the cooling
of a cocktail. A pound would cool eight
cocktails and ton 10000 cocktails -Four
million tons. or the same old glacial can
from Greenland, would therefore prove
adequate to the preparation of 64,OoO, 00oOoU
of these appetizing swallows. This would
By many more than the entire population
of the earth could drink before one dinner.
for the worlds people by continents figures
up to Only LAST 100000 inhabitants. -
The dimensions of the unit Of one clear,
flinty mass, taken as an illustration, are
not unusual. The much-used frozen drink
Is only one infinitesimal mite In natures
waste, which again is not waste. because
it returns, after being melted, in the forms
of vapor and fog and moisture to Green.
land to be converted again into snow ana
help make a new glacier.
Scarcely a steamer crossing the Banks
misses sighting three or more OF these
crystal spurs studding the westward bound
lane, forcing ships not only 200 miles SOUTH
ward of their usual course. but an addi-
tional sixty miles, In March there was
report of ice for every day of the month.
During the present month the reports are
more numerous. The limits of the shift
ing archipelago are latitude 1913 and lati-
tude 4155, and longitude SO. 16 and long1-
tude AZ. 18.
BY the thousands they are formed from
the Greenland glaciers, which, as they
sweep into. the sea, "calve' or throw of
mighty blocks. The part above water Is
one-eighth or one-ninth of the whole mass.
Every glacier in Greenland gives birth each
year to from 10 to 100 icebergs. Melting
above and below causes a change in the
center of gravity, the slippery nugget be-
comes topheavy, topples over and presents
a new shape.