Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-21
RESULTS OF RECENT PROBE
Reporter Undertakes to Procure In
formation for Star Readers.
VISITS GOVERNMENT BUREAUS
Finally Discovers That Magnetic
Pole Was Located in 1909 by
Explorer Shackleton.

Do You know anything about the south
magnetic pole? The chances are YOU
don't. No need to blush. however; there
are fourteen eminent government scen-
fists in Washington in the same fix
In fact, there may be seventeen who do
not know. A Star reporter tried to in
quire of that many. but three of them
were out of town.
All the trouble started with this dash
of Amundsen to the geographic south
pole. Then there were a lot of readers
OF The Star who were interested in the
magnetic south, and wanted to know
whether it had ever been located. Such
is fame. OF course, the magnetic south
has been located and it was three
-a-half-day wonder when it was DONE
but there have been so many things
happening since then that everybody
had forgotten all about it. 1t was
great achievement-for an hour and a
half. This shows that fame, as Wei
lineton said, consists of being buried
with military honors and getting your
name spelled wrong in the dispatches.
Inquiry Grows Insistent.
When the inquiry about the magnetic
SCoti SUI oO lllSISteHl llidt ,Ine ndO
to answer it the city editor-who on
every paper is supposed to know every
thing. but always sends somebody else
to find out-called the common, ordinary
reporter and with a wave of the hand
told him to find out about it. OF course,
the city editor knew already but then he
never disburses this store of information
because if he did there would not be SO
much left.
know, but then that was to be expected,
so he started on a round of the scientific
bureaus that might be supposed to know.
Those that he took in We're the Navy
Department. the Smithsonian, the Ma
tional Museum. the bureau of ethnolo3y
tthis was shot in the dark. but it
proved water hauD, the geological sur
vey, the Carnegie Institution tthree
and the coast survey. This was really
the place that produced the goods.
BY the time the c. O. r. mad reached
the thirteenth place without learning any
thing he was not feeling so bad as
when he started. But after it all
explained and the reference was shown
in a common encyclopedia il did not
seem like such d deep, dark mystery
after ALL
OF course, Shackleton was the man who
located it. ANY one ought TO know that.
The date was January IT, 1909, his 1903
expedition.
Not Very Exact, After All.
Shackleton did not locate Ii so exactly.
after all. The magnetic north. which is
just above Hudson bay, has been known
in casual way for the past fifty years,
but even that has not been very exactly
placed There is no great moral or
economic Importance attached to locat-
ing into three places of decimals, and
the climate is too uncomforta BILE for any
one to loaf around long making exact
observations.
That was the way with the magnetic
south. Shackleton just located ii in a
general way and brushed by. If any
one wanted to define it more exactly 1t
was likely TO remain i'm the same general
region. and they could make all the re-
vised observations they wanted to.
AS a matter of fact the magnetic south
is rather worse than the magnetic north.
1t is four degrees nearer the geographic
south pole than the north ~ to the north
pole, and the climate is correspondingly
worse. 1t is out in waste of south
polar continent. too. a couple of miles IN
the air, and so cold Shackleton couldn't
describe it,