Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-08

an important discovery in this matter
of increasing the strength OF magnets
without adding materially to their
size.
1t seems tnat NJ Delandres director OF
lhe Meudoa Observatory. and his assist
a.I. ". Perot, have discovered q means
to quadiuple the field of an electro mag
net According 10 the report a ribbon OF
copper instead of wire IL Used for the
conductor and the coils are cooed by
current of petro! which is purposely chill
ed to a low degree.
nquestionabl% the temperature of the
sea water where the Titanic now lies is
Very close 10 the freezing point. and il
may be that the Denver engineer counts
upon this condition to promote the edi-
cheney of his magnets when first grip
ping the wreck and starting il surface
ward As the matter stands, however.
the present state of the art calls for a
magnet weighing about siNty-eight hun
dredweight to lift a burden of twelve
tons. If the Titanic broke just forward
of the bridge, and if the after section
represents two-thirds of her total weight.
then the load to be lifted would he
equivalent to something over 43,Up tons
We're the vessel afioat. The buoyancy or
the sea would cut down the load TO be
lifted to approximately $4,000 tons, which
would call for 3. go electro magnets, rep
resenting a dead weight in themselves or
fully 10000 tons. That is to say that The
special pontoons Or cametS, must Dc
good deal more than 5000 tons. because
the magnets must be suspended by
chains or wire rope. and here again is al
additional load.
If you are fond of figures you can while
away your time calculating the number
and the size of the caissons which MI
Smith would have to use under The most
favorable circumstances and when that
conclusion has been reached you VIII
find some difficulty in getting anchor
~ Ia. he New
York harbor If lou are at all familiar
with the practical difficulties of towing
you will realize what il would mean To
convoy these suuadrons to the site of
the wreck. and when YOU nave got them
there and have crowded them over the
Titanic's hulk. imagine what would hap
pen If storm arose, II Will be seen.
therefore. thai Mr.. Smith has many df-
ficultieS TO overcome.
: !
Even if il We're possible 10 recover the
whole or any part of the hiNll il; is hard
TO conceive how the saiyers would have
anything bit an irreparably DANA ed
mass Remember that if any air pockets
or chambers filled with air survived for
q while during the vessels sinking. these
ultimately We're burst in by the increas-
ing hydrostatic pressure the craft
plunged deeper and deeper to her grave.
Probably this happened in a large num-
Der OF directions. and thus successfully
the ships steel honeycomb was ruptured
il not flattened into a veritable pancake.
OF course, Mr.. Smith may have an an
swer for every point raised here, but even
so the salvage of the Titanic would in
no wise pay for the labor and the enor-
nous expense involved. True. an achieve
ment of this sort would be of the utmost
engineering significance, inasmuch as IL
would herald the feasibility of dealing
with treasure ships and other profitable
wrecks that lie in shallower water. "
Mr.. Smith can do this latter work he WILL
do something well worth while.