Evening star., 1942-08-13
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.


1t was great land mass, perhaps con-
tinental in proportions, which sank In
the Pacific about 10000, 900 years ago
when the ancestors of present-day man.
mails and man were establishing their
domination of the earth.
The land had been in existence close
to billion years, since the first known
life appeared on the planet. 1t has just
been rescued from complete oblivion by
DR.. S. J. Schofield, professor of geology
at the University of British Columbia,
as result of extensive studies of rock
deposits on the Canadian mainland and
on Vancouver and Queen Charlotte
Islands.
Those deposits show, DR.. Schofield re-
ports to the American journal OF
Science that for large part of geoloei-
cal time there must have been drainage
from the westward on what is now the
Pacific coast of Canada and the Pan
handle of Alaska.
In the carboniferous geological age
when the great coal deposits were being
laid down, DR.. Schofield says, it generally
is admitted that British Columbia and
a large part of Canada were under the
sea. Ocean bottom rocks were formed
by sinking sedimentation from the land
and the only likely direction was from
the west
At the close Of this period, about 450,-
100000 years ago, there took place
titanic folding of the earths crust which
lifted out of the sea not only the present
British Columbia but the Appalachian
system in the East.
In the next geological era, Dr. Scho-
field deduces from the deposits, arose
| four great mountain chains-one whose
| remnants remain on Vancouver and
| Queen Charlotte Islands, the Sierra
| Nevadas, the Selkirks and the Alaskids
on the northern border of the vanished
| Cascadia.
But Cascadia already was an old and
tired land, awaiting the crack of doom
1t probably had known the pageant of
life from the first crablike creatures that
crawled on its beaches from the sea
slime to the gigantic dinosaurs crash
ing through its swamplands 1t may
even have known some of the remote
ancestors of man in its forests.
In the next geological period came a
great crisis in the history OF the earth.
The mountains of Cascadia had been
greatly eroded, perhaps worn fiat by
wind and water. Then there seems to
have been stretching of the surface of
the earth. On the North American con-
tinent great assures were opened through
which poured molten lava. Cascadia
disappeared forever beneath the Pacific
waters. What is essentially the world
map of today was established.
| The general story of Cascadia can be
established step by step through rock
deposits, DR.. Schofield claims. In addi-
ton, he points out. Vancouver and Queen
shelf sloping gradually toward the ocean
depths. This best can be explained by
assuming great cataclysm, such as the
sinking Of Cascadia would have been.
| The American inch has remained
stable, within the limits of measurement,
for half century
This Is revealed by DR.. Lyman J.
Briggs, director of the United States
Bureau OF Standards. in a paper just
published by the Smithsonian Institu-
ton.
The national primary standard Of
length, DR.. Briggs says is meter bar
made OF an alloy Of the relatively rare
metals, platinum and iridium. which is
kept at the bureau Actual checks,
however, are made with another bar
which, in spite of its hard usage, has
increased in length only about .0004 of
an inch, or less than microns, in so
years. The platinum and iridium alloy
was selected because Of its extreme
stability.
The baf in actual use is checked
frequently with it's prototype and, up to
the time Of the war, with the world
standard meter bar which is kept at the
International Bureau of Weights and
Measures in Paris.
There might still be a possibility, DR..
Briggs points out, that both the Amer
ican bars are drifting" and that even
the international bar might be changing
in length. Fortunately, he says, there
is way Of checking this with standard
which Is unchangeable
Every element, when made luminous,
gives out light OF specific wave lengths.
There has been selected single wave
length-a red light line given out by
the element cadmium and which, it has
been ascertained, as length of pre-
cisely 6438.4 1895 Angstrom units An
Angstrom unit is ten-millionth OF
millimeter, or a billionth of meter
When the meter bars are measured
with these light waves there is no evil
dence of a systematic drift
The national standard of mass, or
weight, DR.. Briggs says, is cylinder
kept at the Bureau Of Standards which
is known as prototype kilogram 20 It
is made of the same platinum iridium
alloy as the standard meter bars. Just
before the war it was taken to Paris
for comparison with the international
prototype. Its certified mass was 99999o9e
OF kilogram, change in mass of only
parts in 100000, 900 in so years. The
difference is within the uncertainty OF
measurement.
Tells Of Confidence in Refraining
From "Peacetime TnduIrence"