Evening star., 1925-05-26

chance to procure food over the polar
sea, so they must come the distance
to land before their supply of choco-
late, dried meat and coffee gives out.
Amundsen would probably set out
for Grant Land, as there are several
| caches of food left there by explorers.
Let us go back to our first might
that of getting off the course due to
the great amount of compass varia-
tion and it's uncertainty in the
vicinity of the pole. The magnetic
North Pole lies near 1900 nautical
miles south of the North Pole proper.
The magnetic lines of force which in
fiuence the compass needle all flow
from the south magnetic pole to the
north magnetic pole. Therefore there
are only few places on the surface
of the earth where the compass
needle points to the true North Pole.
A correction of few degrees must
be applied to the compass needle to
make it point true north.
Compass Error.
\ curious thing about these mag
netic lines of force is that the local
affect them to some extent
and therefore the variation cannot
mathematically be figured out with
eXactness, but must be found by ac-
This local affection of the needle
might be as much as 10 degrees.
Therefore the variation used by
Amundsen might have been in error
and could have caused him to miss
the North Pole unless he could take
accurate observation of the sun from
the plane while in flight. This is
doubtful.
Mathematical calculation shows that
Amundsen should have used Varla-
ton of between 10 and 20 degrees
that is, his compass needle was pulled
by that number of degrees to the left
of the truth north course. He then had
to steer by compass needle pointing
to l5 degrees instead of Zero-whlch
is north. This pulling around of the
magnetic needle near the pole varies
from zero to $50 degrees. In other
words, there is certain point south
of the North Pole where the compass
needle instead of pointing north VIII
point south. Due to the local anectlon
of the variation, AmundSen could
easily have missed the pole by 100
miles through no fault in his naviga-
ton. If he had missed it to the south
ward, for example. by that distance,
his variation would be approximately
12O degrees when he had finished his
$50 miles from Spitzbergen.
To get to the pole, then, instead OF
steering zero. or north, he would have
TO steer 120 degrees by compass. II 1t
happened to be cloudy he could not
get his position by the sun and he
would be lost.
Might Miss Spitzbergen.
Suppose. then, he would make for
SDitZbergen from this false position.
He might miss the island and get out
over the Greenland Sea with his gaso-
line giving out. 1t Is possible he is
now floating around in the North At
lantic Ocean. If his error has been
to the northward he might have made
some island in the Franz Joseph
Archipelago, several hundred miles
east of Spitzbergen and near Russia,
without enough gasoline to get back
to his base.
If any one in the party has been in
jured his companions. of course. will
stick to him. but their loyalty, of
course, will cut down their speed OF
travel. The explorers will occasion
ally come to open leads of water from
a few feet to hundreds of yards across.
These leads open up constantly from
the movement of the ice, but within
few hours freeze over. When the
lead is wide Amundsen will probably
wait loI IL W lieeZe 'N0L io'iiS' eiiai
trust his party to a flmsy canvas
boat.
Amundsen has no radio on his
planes If he had come down within
easy rescue distance of Spitzbergen
he would have reached there by this
time, so he must be more than hun
dred miles away. The chances are
two to one that Amundsen is alive.
Copyright 1925. Consolidated Press Asso-
citation. All rights reserved