The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-01-30
DATA COLLECTED
Is WORTHLESS
Report on Researches Along Various
Scientific Lines.
SYSTEM FULL OF DEFECTS
BETTER RESULTS HOPED FOR
THIS YEAR.
IEI ASHINGTON. Jan. 29.-OmciaI
wv announcement of researches

tAi ASHINGTON, Jan 29.-Ohicial
wv announcement of researches
along various scientific lines
Is made in the year book for
1904, just issued by the Car
negie institution of Washington In
this report Professor Simon Newcomb
suggests that while the nineteenth CEN
tury has been industriously piling up
vast mass of astronomical, meteoro-
logical and sociological data at great
expense the world over, the working
out of results from these observations
Is detective and lacks system. To cor
rect this he urges the organization of
an institute or bureau of exact sci
ence IN general the head of which
should be aided by a council of ex-
peflS picked from various countries to
advise as to the various departments
at work with view to reaching results
at small expense which, without such
organization. never would be reached.
IN this connection the approval of such
men as Karl Pearson, of the University
college of London; Lord Raleigh, of the
Royal institution of Great Britain; G..
h Darwin of Cambridge and others
IN greater or smaller degree of the
scheme has been secured. Mr.. Pearson
adds that at least so per cent of the
scientific observations made and the
data collected are worthless, and no
man, however able, could deduce any
result from them at all. Il doubt"
says he, whether even a small proper
ton of the biometric data being accu-
lated in Europe and America could be
made to provide valuable results"
Expect Results This Year.
Discussing the southern observatory
project, the report says that under the
grants from the Carnegie institution
the direction and velocity of the solar
T1Tnff iona
available material, and before the close
OF 1905 results are expected from 5000
OF the more frequently observed stars.
a new determination of the positions
of standard stars distributed from the
north to south pole of the heavens will
be undertaken shortly. The need of
special observations of stars that have
been neglected for the past twenty or
thirty years is advocated.
The institutions department of in
tefnal research in terrestrial magnetism
reports that its Investigations show lit
tie progress made along that line. that
systematic magnetic surveys of the
oceanic areas are entirely lacking and
that despite the apparently vast accu-
mutation Of data such an important
question as to whether the earth's mag
netic energy is increasing or decreas-
ing and the annual rate of change can
not yet be definitely answered. There
has been comparatively little increase
in the past half-century in the knowl-
edge of general distribution of the
earth's magnetic forces.
Magnetic Survey Planned.
The institution has approved the gen
eraI scheme of a project for a mag
netic survey of the north Pacific al
though it has not passed on the details.
The project cOntemplates the character
OF a woodruff non-magnetic sailing
vessel of
placement to pursue lengthy course
IN the North Pacific ocean. The con-
ndent expectation is expressed in the
neighborhOOd of islands and coast dis
toruons and irregularities in the diStri-
button of the earth's magnetism will be
revealed by this work, and opportunity
given for Investigating the effect Of the
conhguration Of land and water on the
distribution of magnetic forces.
Reports have frequently been received
IRON marines regarding unusual be-
havior of the cOmpasSes, particularly in
the region of the Aleutian islands
Data obtained on the result of a circu-
lar letter sent by the coast and geo
graphic survey over the entire globe
and turned over to the Carnegie iusti-
tuition regarding the Mont PeIee Mar
Unique eruption i'm 1902, show that the
time Of the beginning OF that magnetic
disturbance was practically the same
around the whole earth, and. second.
that any electric current system cap
able of producing the observed phe-
nOmena would have its seat chiefly out
side the earth.
irrigation in Iron Age.
The ns-Caspian archaeological ex-
petition, for which the institution ap-
pTOpriated SIS OOO made excavations at
Anua, near Askhabad, in Turkestan.
and several shafts sunk on that ancient
city's site traVersed over 40 feet of
the Accommodations of successive gene
ratiOns of peoples and extended from
recent times down through the iron
ard bronze civilizations forty-five feet
deep into the stone age.
The report says that these inVestiga-
tons leave little doubt that irrigation /
was introduced i'm that region during
the iron age" of culture
The report makes extended Cbserva-
lions on The subject of the solar re-
searches, on which preliminary work !
already has begun at Mount Wilson /
Cal The project for a solar observa-
tory there has been approved. the con-
cIusion being expressed that Mount (
wilson meets in very remarka be /
degree the requirements of a site for /
a solar observatory. The work at
higher attitudes than that. if needed at I
all il is explained, could be completed I
IN two or three summers by expeditions
equipped with a portable outfit erected I
= e''i e-eAeHNt VI AAbiil A--OoU 10 IJtouU 4
feet. The report says that DR. S L. /
Langley, who has been making solar 1
observations. has offered reasons 10 I
believe that an actual change in the
amount of heat emitted by the sun oc- {
CURED in March, 1903. and that If such /
a change is actually established by /
carrying on these observations at a /
higher altitude the result would have
an important bearing on many cues /
lions relating u the earth and would |
De OF vital interest in its relationship to /
he solar constitution
InnII nEIIrurR tn mr.