The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1909-10-08

What has doubtless struck many
as the most noteworthy point about
the double discovery Of The north pole
is that after SO many years OF en-
deayor. during which explorer after
explorer has gone into the frozen
North. some never to return, two men
should claim to have found the Gov
eted goal practically at the same time.
for the year intervening between the
two dates mentioned By Cook and
Peary can hardly be said 70 be a long
period. Yet this simultaneous attain
ment OF an end long sought by men
is by no means new in the history OK
the world II has cropped up again
and again i'm connection with some OF
the greatest achievements in science
and other fields OF research.
II Is. after all nothing SO wonder
ful. Each successive expedition that
pushes farthest north, ever a bit fur
Their away from us adds immeasur-
ably. as is the case with parallel eN-
PLOTS in science. 10 the data upon
which subsequent explorers can base
their dashes 10 the pole This has
been SO true OF many OF the greatest
OF human achievements that IL is eN-
tremely difficult To say 10 whom be-
longs the ultimate credit Tor some Of
them The invention OF the tele-
phone. FOR Instance. claimed by sew
eral men. made necessary a decision
OF the Supreme Court OF the United
States TO clear up the tangie-a deci-
sion so close hat the Judges stood
five TO four. So good was the case OF
the losing side.
Anothe. case IN point. likewise OF
special inte-e Z 20 Americans. Is hat
OF the telegraph Almost any Ameri-
can. asked ofihand. who invented IL.
would confidently name Samuel F B..
Morse Ycf the case is by no means
clear
Morse. 70 begin with. based his dis
covery c. principles laid down bv
Joseph Henry. whose great mistake
was that he made no practical appl-
cation OF them. In addition Mo So
Owed some OF the most important and
ingenious features OF the invention
for which he gets the lions share Of
credit. to Alfred Vail. his partner
Nor is this ALL Morse managed TO
get a telegraph line in operation be-
tween Washington and Baltimore in
1874 Yet in England as early as
1887 there was line in operation. the
first 70 be used for commercial pur-
poses.
And Germany goes Morse one bet
ter still There people consider Som
merins OF Munich the inventor OF the
telegraph AS early as 1909 he is said
10 have had a telegraph apparatus in
operation
Another case OF particular interest
Just al present is that of the inven-
ton Of the sextant most necessary OF
all things 10 polar explorers. since by
its help alone can they determine
whether or not they have reached
their goal II started with the cross
stan. a primitive instrument for TAX
ing observations. much improved by
John Davies. who described his per.
fected instrument in 1890. Further
Improvements were made in 1929 By
Pierre Bougeur. In 1890 ThotB God
frey designed a seXtant. soon after
put 10 use by navigators. and close
on his heels in 1881 came John Had
lev with another II is claimed that
whereas the latter's sextant traces
its descent from the invention OF
Bougeur that OF Godfrey was en-
tirely independent both OF the latter
Of the Hadley sextant. Sir Isaac
Newton too. evolved something like
a sextant. but apparently no develop
ments of the instrument were ever
based on H.
One Of the most curious instances