Evening star., 1952-02-22
Glacier MoyFIowU Uphill,
Studies in Alaska Show
Scientists Hope to Learn if
Ice Age Is Going or Coming
By Thomos R. Henry
A glacier may flow uphill.

" tuoiuoS n. tISuIy
A glacier may flow uphill.
Such, at least, is the case with tho
giant Malaspina glacier, sheet Of. flow
ing ice which covers more than 1000
square miles of the fiat coastal plain
of Southern Alaska along the foot Of
the st. Elias Mountains.
This glacier now Is being studied in
tensively by biologists of California In
stitute of Technology in an effort to
determine what makes ice flow. The
ories generally accepted in the past ap-'
parently do not explain the phenom-
enon.
One step in the investigation has
been to determine with specialized
equipment the contour of the land be-
low the ice. It was found that the
rock floor below the center of the
glacier was 685 feet below sea level
and sloped backwards toward the
mountains. Yet the ice fiow was con-
stantly in one direction-toward the
sea. The ice flowed uphill.
The California Institute scientists now
are seeking an explanation in the in
ternal structure Of ice itself. One
theory is that f1owage Of an ice sheet
is caused primarily by pressure differ
ences within the ice mass, caused in
unequal thicknesses.
Pipe Sunk Through Ice.
A pipe now has been sunk more than
1000 feet through the ice. BY deforma-
tlonS which occur in this pipe over sew
eral years it is hoped to detect variations
IN rate and direction of flow deep with
in the mass.
Movement of such an ice mass nee
essarily is very slow and in some years
it can be measured in inches. Yet it
Is aL-powerful and in the course of a
lew thousandI years can sweep every
thing before it-as demonstrated by the
great Ice ages when most Of the con-
tinent has been glaciated.
The Malaspina glacier studies are
part OF more extensive study which
is being co-ordinated by the Arctic In
stitute of North America. Studies are
being made on several Alaskan glaciers.
1t still Is impossible to determine
whether the worlds glaciation on the
whole now is advancing or retreating.
since different movements are recorded
from year to year and there is a great
deal of local variation. One result of
the studies. it is hoped, will be to learn
wnether an ice age is coming or going.
The ultimate in electric brains" has
been constructed for the Army's ballis-
tlcs research laboratory at Aberdeen, Md.
In q thousandth Of second it can
multiply pair of numbers each con-
tanning IL figures. It can do 10000
additions a second. It can remember
1,O24 numbers and recall any one of
them IN 36-millionths Of second. This
Is twice the memory of any other elec-
tronic computer.
In five hours 1t can do calculations
that would require so years for a man
with an ordinary adding machine. In
two weeks it can solve problem which
would take human more than 1000
years.
Building of this brain" has Just been
completed at the University of Illinois
under contract with the Ordnance
Corps OF the Army. A team Of scientific
experts from Aberdeen now is at the
university with great number Of prob
lens and the machine Is working eight
hours day. It will be transferred to
Maryland In a few weeks after any
bugs" which may show up have been
removed. =.
The nearest approach up to now has
been that Of two machines built at the
Bureau Of Standards. These, however.
have only half the memory Of the uli-
nois model. Another Of the improved
type has been built for the university
itself and another now Is being con-
structed at Princeton where some of.
the fundamental work was carried out
by D. John Won Neumann of the Insti-
tute OF Advanced Studies and his CO.
workers.
SlOwest Part Of Device.
The slowest part of the device is the
teletypwriter on which it types its an
swers. 1t can, for example, extract the
cube roots of all numbers from one
through 1000 in two seconds, but more
than an hour is required to put these
on paper. Prof. Ralph E. Meagher and
his associates at Illinois now are PLAN
ming typewriter which will run five
times as fast, but it still will be far
behind the speed of the electronic brain.
This superbrain contains 2,720 vacuum
tubes. Forty of these constitute its
memory" The memory tubes are
similar to television picture tubes, but
are only three inches in diameter. The
memory" appears as glowing green
dots on the face of the tube, the 1924
digits arranged in square 80 dots wide
and 80 dots high.