Las Vegas optic., 1913-01-20
TO MAKE BALMY
WEATHER ON
BANKS
BROOKLYN MAN HAS PLANS TO
DlsPEL FoGs AND IcEBERes
OFF NEW FouNDLAND

New York, Jan. 20-one of the
most Fascinating and useful of feats,
at first glimpse as easy of accomplish
ment as a trip to the moon, is the
proposal of Carroll Livingston Riker
of No. SIS Fifty-ninth street. Brooklyn,
mechanical engineer, to skim the fogs
off the Banks of Newfoundland and
melt all the icebergs that float down
from the northern sea- Yet bill is
shortly to be introduced in congress
authorizing one competent naval off
Ger to be appointed by the secretary
of the navy, and also two competent
persons to be appointed by the presi-
dent to be known as the Labrador
Current and Gulf Stream commission,
and further authorizing sufficient
appropriation therefor.
The purpose is to investigate the
feasibility and practicability of dam
ming the Labrador current and to dis
cover by practical experience the best
means that can be employed to trap
and hold in mighty jetty the sand
and other sediment that is carried by
the Labrador current from the Arctic,
whose marriage with the gulf stream,
mightiest of ocean rivers, spreads the
deadly black pail over the ocean track.
1t is also desired to learn the effect
Of the diverting Of the icy stream up
on the gulf stream and other ocean
currents; the effect of such obstruc-
tion upon Atlantic steamships; its eff
feet upon climate and air, particular
ly the climate of America and Eu-
rope; the probable effects upon the
fogs Of the United States, Canada, the
British Isles and the waters there
abouts, to learn any other effects OF
such obstruction; to learn the effects
of currents and of special currents
which would be influenced bv the pro-
posed obstruction of the Labrador
current, and of the new currents which
would have relation to it, and espe-
cially the effect of the disintegration
of the warm gulf stream which the
meeting with the cold southwark float
ing Labrador current at present pro-
duces.
Mr.. 'Riker. who is a man that has
done things, ds.not afraid Of laugh.
He tells how James Eads was laughed
at when he proposed the ietties Of
the Mississippi to be composed of
reeds and rushes, and the laugh
raised at Eads was chiefly by those
whose schemes to control the Father
of Waters had failed, said Riker.
9fThe mechanical engineers plan, in
brief, is to control the gulf stream
and the Labrador current with jetty
extending 200 miles from the main
land out into the ocean, 40 feet wide
at the base next the land, tapering
to three feet at its extremity on the
banks, and to be more than 1000
square miles il area.
In book which Mr.. Riker has pub
lished starting with the demonstra-
ton of what rip-rap wall would ac-
complish stretching to the banks,
he has estimate the cost of the stone
breakwater at $19O,OOO,OO0; but the
Scientific American e~.imates the
cost of the jettE Of sand and sediment
proposed by the author at $4,000, 900
and Mn Riker, the cost Of the sand
jetty, to the united governments Of
the United States, England, Denmark.
Norway, Sweden, Russia, Holland and
France and possibly Germany, at on
ly s1O,OO0,OOO.
The Brooklyn engineer purposes to
get his material from nature without
cost. The ietty will be the aggrega-
tion Of the grains Of sand moving to-
ward the equator which can be inn
peded into sand bar. A mere man
will place on the bottom Of the Atlantic
an obstructor to effect the deposit of
matter required This obstructor will
be a great rope, cable, saturated
with asphaltum, giving it specific
gravity enough to send it into the
ocean to the very floor.