The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-22
CEODETIC SURVEY WILL CELEBRATE
 TOOTH BIRTHDAY
Governments Oldest Scien- tif1c Bureau Was Estab-
 1ished by Jefferson.

l Washington, March 22.-The gov | ernment's oldest scientific bureau the Coast and Geodetic Survey-will celebrate, April and 6, the tooth anniversary of the beginning of it's | field work. President Wilson, cabi- net ministers and the countrys most eminent scientists will make address i es. A practical exhibition of the Sur vey's work will be a leading feature. i The Survey was established by Thomas Jefferson in 1911 and a not ed Swiss scientist, F. R. Hassler, was it's first superintendent Hass1er was driven from his native country by the Swiss revolution and for time after his arrival in the new republic was professor of mathematics at West Point. The story of his life was one of untiring quest for knowledge and indefatigable labors in it's application. When twenty-one years of age, in CO., operation with TraIIes, one of the first mathematicians of the day, he began a goodetic survey of Switzerland, bear ing the expense of the survey by him self at first until his work was recog- nized by the Helvetic government.
 It is an interesting coincidence that the introduction of the first geodetic survey in the ancient republic of Switzerland should, be due to the sci enlist who was to be first to introduce the accuracy and. refnements of it's methods in the first republic of the New WrOld.
 HassIer reached American shores in 1895 at the head of a colony of 120 persons organized by himself and 3 friends for settlement in South Caro- lima Failure to receive any return for advances of funds for transpor- tation and purchase of lands put hirl in financial straits and the scientist was reduced to great hardships, Two years later he accepted the place as instructor at West Point.
 When in 1911 provision was made for instituting the Coast and Geodetic Survey HassIer was designated to
 proceed to LondoE. for the purchase of
 instruments. His mission also was to design the appliances. The war of 1912 caught him in England and throughout the conflict he was held as an alien enemy. It was not until four years after his arrival that he return ed LC America and started the next year the work of the Survey.
 The first operations of the survey were in New Ycrk Bay and it's ap- breaches. Here the r1ain forces Of the bureau were engaged until in April ISIS it was suspended abruptly by a short1sighted spasm of economy that in 1925 drew from Jefferson this: s'I regret much that the Sur vey was not carried into execution. r. would have procured safety for the navigation Of our coast. It would have been an honorable monuEnent of the state of science at this early period of our history
 The rapid growth of American com merce could not be menaced long, however, by dangers which made nav igation of the coast and Waterways uncertain to sailor and shipowner and in reply to an imperative demand~con- gress on July 10, 1892, decided that the coast survey should be resumed, and Hassler again became super.nten- dent of the bureau.
 Besides directing the Survey, IIass- Ter was put in charge at this time of the newly created office of weights and measures. necessity for which had become apparent by his examinations of standards used in the country s customs houses. This relation be- tween the two bureaus remained un- broken until the present Bureau of Standards was established fourteen years ago.
 Expansion of geodetic operations of the survey into the interior made in compliance with acts of Congress of 1872 and 1878 has brought to conn pIetion a big network of primary tri- anguIation, which is the foundation for satisfactory dehnarcations of po- hticaI boundaries and the preparation of accurate national state and coun- ty maps.
 For a study of the law controlling the operations of the magnetic nee dle with it's importance to the mari ner and every landowner in the states formed since the American revolution the Survey has carried its investiga- tions along the coasts and adjacent waters, in every state and territory Of the union and in all the island pos sessions under the United oStates flag except Guam and Samoa. Stations, at which components of the magnetic force have been observed, now num- Der 5000.
 Dr B. Lester Jones, present head of the Survey, who is arranging the centennial celebration, plans to have the Swiss minister, Dr. Paul Ritter take a prominent part in the exer- cises because of Hass1er's connection with it's carly history