Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14
Five-Year Drift Around Pole
Continued From Third Page.)

CConClnueo from Thlro Page.)
nc Coast by rail. A few years ago we
reached it by air. Now, leaving aside
the agricultural aspect of our Midwest
for the moment. suppose we reasoned
that it were little use to study the thou
sands of miles between New York and
San Francisco simply because men had
proved they could make the journey!
How perilous would be our air mail
routes without detailed meteorological
knowledge of inland areas! How little
would we know Of the aborigines who
inhabited our land without SLOW Scien-
tiflc scrutiny of it! What vital links in
the story of evolution would We have
missed in the NebraSkan dinosaur finds
If we'd never taken the time to looki
Think of the fund of information our
radio experimenters would lack if inter-
coastal observations had not been made.
Perhaps to commerce there Is little
prospect of economic gain in the g.
100000 square miles of UNEMPLOYED area
of the polar sea. And yet the sciences
of oceanography, terrestrial physics,
ethnology and meteorology must all
show great gaps until men study the
polar areas as thoroughly as we have
studied those in temperate zones"
Another man spoke of the public in
credulity that Prof. Hobbs could gain
anything of value from his tiny out
post on the Greenland ice cap last
Winter. And yet, he declared, if there
were couple of dozen such outposts
around the North Pole for "a month IS
at stretch we might solve the mystic ~
af IN
Outpost to Be on Ship.
Capt. Bartlett proposes to establish
such an outpost aboard drifting ship
If he is able to raise sufficient fuuFs he
will put his vessel in the ice nor, invest
Of Alaska in the Summer of 1880 He
will have seven men in his ere " and
four in his scientific staff. He wnl have
provisions for not less than flYR years
Should the worst happen and the
ship be crushed, he will com sinue his
work from icehouses on the p ack. Life
boats will enable him and Is men to
escape when they drift cl' ar of the
heavy foes.
Aboard the ship will be a fully
equipped laboratory much like that DR.
Beebe used on his famous Arcturus ex-
petition. Mechanisms for measuring
terrestrial magnetism, tidal currents
water depth, salinity Of, the sea and
other VariableS will be Installed before
the ship goes north.
A powerful wireless will convey daily
routine reports to proper authorities in
the United States. Research labora-
tories, such as at the United States
Bureau of Standards, thus will be able
to capitalize on Capt. Bartlett's work
long ere he returns.
During the hyiI e months of April
and May his shiph BARD scientists will be
able to cooperate. with such air expe-
ditionS as Fridt! of hansen will lead.
Summer stations on the shores of the
Polar Sea, mann I'd by Russian, Danish,
Canadian and " orwegian observers, will
exchange data with Bartletts ship.
Laboratory Changes to Be Slow.
The floating laboratory will slowly
change her position as the ice pack in
which she is imprisoned rotates west
ward about, the North Pole. That the
ice pack does rotate in this manner was
proved by TBS drift of the Inflated jean
nette in 106Qe80 and of Nansen's Fran
in 1893-95. From Wrangell Island she
will work west and north until near the
Pole. Thence she should meet the cur
rent flowing southwark, which should
Let US. for the moment put Bart
let's scientific aims in terms of human
welfare.
The fact. is now accepted by meteor
ologiSts that no complete and accurate
weather service is possible without much
better Arctic and Antarctic data than
we have today. For instance, Hobbs
has pointed out that the poles" of both
wind and cold are not at all identical
with the geographical North and South
Poles. One wind pole seems to be on
the Greenland ice cap. Another may
be located over the unknown area that
Bartlett viii traverse.
If these meteorological poles" or foci,
from which our bad weather comes, can
be located accurately and conditions at
them tied up simultaneously with con-
ditions at home, then we can find out
at once If long-distance weather dag
nosis is practicable.
Public Prone to Scorn Weather.
The public is accustomed to scorn
the weather mans advice. That is be-
cause the public at large thinks of
weather in terms of overShoeS and golf
and Sunday picnics.
Weather in an economic sense is the
sum total of average conditions over
an extended period. To the farmers,
railways, theater owners, holiday pro-
motors and many others, the average
rainfall, wind, sunshine and snow are
all vital factors in net profits and
losses. With such people weather rec
ords are often more important than
bank statements.
Take historic example. BENJAMIN
Franklin described in detail THE year
without Summer" Crops failed and
much commercial machinery was
thrown out Of adjustment because the
average Summer temperature was far
colder than normal We now know
that the probable cause was bank of
volcanic dust floating about the earth
which cut of the suns rays.
This shows how slight a cause may
upset the average weather conditions
over a large area for q dangerously
long period.
Farm records show that there are
very serious variations in weather.
and resulting damage to crops-from
time to time. If these variations were
known in advance with any sort of
accuracy the farmer might often alter
his crops to suit the kind of Summer
due, or the severity of cold or amount
Of precipitation he could expect.
When BartleIt's observations are
available by radio with simultaneous
day-to-day observations in the United
States we may find that it will pay to
keep observers in the Far North at sta
tons that heretofore have been con-
sidered uninhaEitable.