The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-10
Scientific Men Anticipate No
 Conflict In Records
ERRORS MAY PROVE CASE
Prof. Willis L. Moore Declares That a Fake Record Can be Detected Quickly and Will Expose Or
 iqnator Without Fail.
BY WATTERsoN sTEALEY.

BY JEFFERSON STEALEY.
 Washington, September 9.-(Special.)- Three factors will enter into the method of proof that will adjudge the discovery of the pole.
 The observations of the explorer taken with the sextant must tally with condi- tions known to exist at the time he made his observations.
 In case an attempt was made to flake" a record the very accuracy of such rec ord would be his undoing, for certain er- TOTS that would have crept into his calcu- lations would be missing.
 third pitfall. not of an astronomical nature, would be the difficulty of dup Heating the thumb-worn and dirty logbool< with the semblance of being compiled under conditions In which the explorer Is supposed to have worked Prof. Willis Moore, chief of the weather bureau, finds in the last. two points the greatest pro- lection against a fraud.
 If Dr. Cook was an expert astronomer and also an expert mathematician it would be just possible for him to compile a day-to-day record that might hold water This looks to me to be difficult task. But granting he could do this It would be still harder to duplicate thumb logbook, and the lack of errors in his account would convict him. For he had no means of knowing, even if ha compiled his record under the most l lsfavora ble conditions, to reproduce the er-
 TOTS that arose. ,frorn conditions existing i at the time he claimed to have stood at
 the pole."
 i No Conflict Expected. l For these reasons. MT. Moore declared, scientific men were not anticipating any great conflict of the Cook and the Peary claims after the records had been sub mitted to proper authorities.
 The observation made by an explorer would be similar to those of a navigator. Since he has not the facilities of the ocean liners and war vessels his observations probably would vary slightly. but if they
 were taken carefully, should not deviate more than few minutes beyond the &C., curate computation. To make these ob- servations would not require so experi- enced an astronomer as it would to dupli-
 cate them had they not been made. All the instruments needed would be sex tant and a mercurial horizon, the latter
 being plate and tube of mercury used to get an exact level.
 The observations would be based upon the apparent elevation of the sun above the plane of the horizon. The proof of finding the pole would be when this eleva- tion remained practically the same all through the 24 hours, and to ascertain this the discoverer must have remained at the pole for at least "A hours.
 Methods of Observation. I'll. oIrt, ohsa tt1,, described as follows by Prof. Milton
 Updegraff, professor of mathematics U. s. N, and director of the Nautical AL manac:
 "An explorer approaching the pole at any time on April 21. when the sun is above the horizon to observer at the pole, would make observations of the height of the sun. At the same time he would take the time on his chronometer or his watch. On arriving at the pole he would continue to make such observa- tions for perhaps day or longer, making an observation once every hour or two. Such observations, actually made under the conditions prevailing there would. when examined by an expert astronomer, probably contain tolerably conclusive evil dence of their genuiness.
 "An explorer approaching the pole In the months of October to February, when the sun Is below the horizon at the pole. might observe the stars instead of the sun.
 For instance, on April 21. 1908. when Dr. Cook claims he discovered the pole, the declination of the sun, that is its distance from the equator would be a lit tie less than 12 degrees. To an observer at the pole the atmosphere would slight ly increase its apparent height above the horizon The motion of the sun in declin- ation at that time Is about 51 second of arc ho,, hon y1nfn a equivalent to one-third of degree day or about two-thirds of the diameter of the sun itself.
 Taking Observations. '"ro an observer standing exactly at the pole the sun would, during the day,
 move around the horizon at an alti- tude of about 12 degrees, the height slow ly increasing as the declination of the sun increases by one-third of a degree a day If the observer were provided with a sextant and mercurial horizon he
 would probably measure the altitude of the sun hour by hour and aside from tho aforementioned gradual increase in the declinaton of the sun the altitude of the sun should remain the same. then the observer would know he was stationed at the pole.
 'In approaching the pole and at dis tance of say 60 minutes from 1t, the path of the sun would be somewhat inclined to the horizon. but on approaching more nearly, to within 2000 feet, an approxima- tion of the described condition would be found.
 Upon the ability to make these ob servatfons with benumbed hands, no fla ciities for conveying his instruments and the most discouraging conditions for re- cording them, rests the claim to the dis covery of the north pole" 
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