Evening star., 1924-12-14

placed to show the attitudes above
sea level. The knowledge that can
be had from these markers is a5so-
lutely essential to men charged with
carrying out any engineering devel-
opment.
ers on primary triangulations and of
precise levels Col. Jones' survey gives
to all bureaus of the Government
the Army, Navy. Interior Depart
ment and Department of Agriculture
and other interests outside of the
Government-the absolutely essential
fundamentals on which all accurate
development of the country depends.
The recent successful around the
world cruise Of the Army Air Serv-
ice planes focuses attention on the
value of magnetic surveys made by
the Coast and Geodetic Survey. These
airplanes were equipped with mag
nettc compasses of the earth inductor
type. Col. Jones' bureau during the
last year furnished magnetic infor-
nation for the new aviation map of
the United States. Charts. issued by
the survey now have on them some
2,000scompass roses, each of which
shows the present direction of mag
netic north with regard to true north
for the point indicated. and the an
nual rate of change in the direction.
There are in the United States 3,067
counties where the local surveyors
whose only reliable information for
correcting their instruments comes
from Col. Jones Office. SO 1t will
readily be seen that the bureaus mag
netic work is of incalcuIable value
on earth, in the air and at sea.
Take ju~t one more illustration of
Col. Jones' work. Alaska was pur-
chased by the United States from
Russia 81 years ago, and the death
of President Harding, while return
ing from that vast new empire,
focused attention on the tremendous
possibilities of that region. You
can't get into Alaska except by water,
and IL has $4,000 miles of coast line.
Col. Jones is directing a particular
drive to make this water course safe.
The history of Alaska to 1915 was a
calamity of sunken vessels-literally
by the score big ships were lost, with
great sacrifice of life. For the first
45 years of United States possession
only 4,216 square miles of this dan
gerous water was surveyed. From
1915 to 1924 Col. Jones has had 10,100
square miles surveyed. These waters
have been found to be infested by
spire or pinnacle rocks on which
scores Of ships have been impaled.
One of these was located in 1915,
with height of $50 feet, and named
washington Monument" because 1t
lis nearly 100 feet higher than our
great obelisk in the Capital City, and
Its point came within II feet of the
surface Of the ocean. The old Gus
tom was to wait until some good
boat hit one of these spires and then
name it after the lost boat as a
gruesome warning. Col. Jones has
changed this wasteful system by hav-
drag SO as to locate and chart any
such danger to navigation.
In this way the main channel of
Southeastern Alaska for some -450
miles, from the international bound
ary to Cape Spencer, has been sur
veyed to depth OF S5 feet at low
water and swept by this wire drag,
SO that 1t is now as safe as New York
harbor.
Similar activities to overcome the
dangers Of the deep and to make
commerce safe are being conducted
by Col. Jones in all waters bordering
United States territory wherever
located.
of a pioneering Navy, that he is di-
gineers, surveyors and inventors i'm
bued with uneQualed esprit de corps.
and that he is charting the way for
developments on all United States
territory and neighboring waters.
And yet he is head of government
agency almost unknown to 999 per-
sons out of every thousand he serves