Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-03-08
YOU AND UNCLE SAM
Series Of Educational Telling Ho,o Federal Govern
ment Is Organized and Hoc 1t Functions-Written
Expressly for School Children.
No. 39-How We Know Just Where We Are.

1t is very essential at many times
in our lives to know just where we
are at. Our health and happiness may
depend upon an exact knowledge
along this line. 1t is equally essential
for our happiness and welfare TO
know where our property lines are;
where are the limits of our county,
State or Nation Many wars have been
fought in the past over the question
of the exact location of boundary
line between countries. There Is an
old saying, out in the country dis
tricts. that good fences make good
nefghbors." While this is certainly
true in any farming community, APP
phi ed TO nations IL Is equally true that
good boundaries make good neigh
bors.
There is one comparatively small
and little observed bureau in the Fed
eral Government organization which
ia constantly at work setting up re-
liable landmarks by which we may at
any time determine just where we
are at, and which is especially val
liable to commerce by furnishing men
who go down to the sea in ships with
exact information which warns them
of dangers which might imperil lives
and cargoes.
This is the Coast and Geodetic Sur
vey, the Oldest scientific bureau in
the entire Government service, which
today employs more and better scien-
fists than any other institution or
organization in the world. Your his
toric interest will be aroused when
you are told that this bureau was
started by Thomas Jefferson himself,
who persuaded his personal friend,
Ferdinand Hassler, Swiss engineer
to start the system, which has never
-; nj
changed
Markers Are Used.
This service tells each Individual
American citizen just where he is at
and follows him around the clock. 1t
covers the whole terra firma, or dry
land, of these United States and in
sular possessions and the waters ad
jacent thereto and determines just where
the land ends and water begins
Ashore, when a railroad is to be
built, or a big sewerage system for
municipality, or State water plant
or great trans-continental highways,
or irrigation projects, two things have
to be observation-disclosures does this
undertaking start; what's the exact
position in the country, State, county
or municipality. You have to get the
| latitude and longitude on any such
ton may be readily available the
Coast and Geodetic Survey, headed by
Col. e. Lester Jones, is completing pre-
else triangulation network which con-
sists of what he technically calls
''tria ngulation marks" which are
bronze discs set in cement, each bear
| ing number and which will event
| ually be placed so to 100 miles apart
all over this land.
There are now 10000 of these mark
ers in place and any individual per-
son has but to send the number on
any one of these bronze markers to
the Washington headquarters and by
the next mail there will go forward
to him the exact latitude and longi-
tude at which it is placed.
Similar markers TO the number of
$1,000, called precise levels. have been
placed to show the attitudes above sea
level The knowledge that can be
had from these markers is absolutely
essential to men charged with carry
ing out any engineering development.
Through these two sets of markers
on primary triangulations and precise