The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-09-21
By HOWARD BLAKESLEE
Press Science Editor)

WOODS HOLE, Mass. Sept. 21.- The existence of internal waves in the sea is expected to be revealed through studies with a new instru- ment in use at the Woods Tole Oceanographic Institution.
 The internal waves, if they exist are not small like surface waves, but more like tidal waves. Their surface is not more than 100 feet down. It lies under the homo geneous" layer of top sea water, layer created by the churning of wind and waves, and of differ ences in temperature, density and salinity between the surface water ad the water below
 The homogeneous" layer is. sort of restless, Neptune's blanket covering the calm, cold depths. Man sees beneath it only rarely With a "glassy" sea it may almost disap- pear. Swimmers ordinarily swim in this blanket, but occasionally it gets so thin their bodies break through into the colder water below.
 Interest Weathermen
 The internal waves have some interest to weathermen, because of theories that they may resemble meteorological conditions believed to exist in upper layers of the ocean of air at the bottom of which man lives.
 The new instrument was devised by Prof c. G. RosSby of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. It was named "the rat trap" by the sailors on the Atlantic The ocean ographic Institutions vessel, from the decks of which it is operated.
 The rat trap" resembles a metal suitcase, higher than it is long. Lowered over the side of the ship, it reads water temperature and pressure simultaneously and auto matically. The pressure shows the depth.
 So it makes a continuous record of the Neptune blanket of water. No other instruments have done this easily and automatically. The old method of measuring the depth of wire submerged is not accurate enough when the current slants the wire too much.
 Records Written on Foil
 The underwater records of tenn perature and pressure are written by one pen, horizontal displace- ment indicating temperature chang es and vertical displacement the changes in depth. No writing fluid flows from the pen. It scratches it's record in a film of lamp black coated with oil, and spread over the surface of a metal foil as thin and flexible as paper.
 After it comes out of the water, the lamp black-oil film is fixed as firmly as a photograph by a bath of alcohol and shellae.
 The scratched line shows tenn. perature changes as slight as a tenth of degree, and changes in depth by foot. The pressure is measured by flexible tube, it's ends sealed, so that it shortens like an accordion as the pressure in- creases with depth.
 Heat Curls Cuff
 The temperature is read, not with a thermometer, but with metal sheet shaped like mans cuff and about the same size. It is two kinds of metal, one overlapping the oth- CT, each responding differently to expansion and contraction due to temperature. So the cuff curls up more as it gets warmer, and it straightens out more with a tenn perature drop.
 The experiments indicate that the homogeneous" top layer of water varies from zero to 100 feet in thickness. It is thinnest in sum- mer because there is less wind and the higher temperature at the sur face reduces density, making it dif- ficult for the warmer water to mix with that below.
 R. B. Gist, farmer in Randall county. Texas. reported a small meteor set fire to wheat stumble