New Britain herald., 1922-12-05
GULF STREAM IS A MIGHTY FORCE Scientist Describes Just What It
 Really Is
Just what is the gulf stream ?

| Discussions about it's effects upon
 climate and mariners reports of its
 excessive heat recall that the first | detailed story of what he called the 1 grandest and most mighty terrestrial
 phenomenon was made by Rear
 Admiral John Elliott Pillsbury, U. s.
 N,, a former president of the National Geographic society, and summarized by him in a communication 10 the National Geographic magazine. Tn all oceans there are move-
 ments of the water tother than that caused by the tidesD which may be said to be due primarily to the prev alent wind" Admiral Pillsbury wrote.
 Tn the two great oceans, the At lantic and the Pacific. there is to be found both north and south of the equator, and also in the Indian ocean, similar circulation, that is general westerly movement in the tropics, flow toward the poles along the eastern shores of the continents, an easterly set in the temperate zones. and current toward the equator along the western shores. It thus becomes a grand circular move ment. some parts being quite slow, and other parts very swift; sometimes there may be temporary interrup- tion in the slower portions. or per- haps even reversal, but taken as a whole the movement is continuous.
 Tn the North Atlantic ocean the currents are probably more pro- nounced than in either the Pacific or the Indian oceans.
 "The equatorial current is usually described as being . broad band of tropics. The portion of this current situated south of the equator is divid- ed into two parts upon meeting the eastern salient of South America, Cape St. Roque. One branch turns south toward the. Antarctic, while the other is forced to the westward along the shores of northern Brazil and the Guyanas, and is called the Guyana coast current. The equatorial cur rent north of the equator has an almost uninterrupted progress until it reaches the Windward Islands, but a portion of it also impinges against the Guyana coast and thus augments the volume of that current.
 How Gulf Stream Is Formed.
 At the Windward Islands both are united, and portion of the flow enters the Caribbean through the various passages, crosses it to the Yucatan and Honduras coasts and thence into the gulf of Mexico, from which 1t issues through the straits of Florida as the gulf stream. Passing onward toward Europe 1t is augment ed in volume by a part of the north equatorial current that sweeps along | outside the West Indian Islands and the Bahamas and while this current is slow in movement in comparison to the Gulf stream itself, it doubtless carries a much greater number of heat units to help warm up northern Europe.
 ''The gulf stream, or rather the combined flow mentioned above, divides as it meets the resistance of the eastern continent, one branch flowing south along the African coast while the other proceeds northward ' into the Arctic toward Spitzbergen and Franz Joseph land.
 Tt is difficult for the mind to grasp the immensity of this great ocean river. The straits of Florida at it's narrowest point is about 40 miles wide and observations here numbered between three and four thousand, su face and subsurface. A calculation of the average volume of water passing in one hour gives the enormous sum of 90 billion tons. If this one single hours flow of water could be evaporated, the remaining salts would require many times more than all the ships in the world to car ry it.
 Magnitude of Ocean River.
 "When one is on board a vessel, floating upon it's waters, one is not as much impressed Ut the power and grandeur of this wonder of na- ture as he is when he stands before a towering mountain, and immense ice berg, or a fall of water such as Ni- agara, but when one remembers on hour by hour and day by day in a volume equal to all the largest rivers in the world combined, carrying it's beneticient heat to temper the climate of continents, one begins to realize that of all the forces of the physical world none can equal this one river of the ocean.
 Tt is interesting to note in the history of the Gulf Stream how great | it's influence has been on the fortunes of the new world. Before the discov- cry of America, strange woods and |