Evening Star Newspaper, August 21, 1921, Page 51

Part 4—8 Pages oast and Geodetic Survey a 100 Per Cent Efficient Bure BY JAMES A. BUCHANAN, tic “coast to the northern point of the Pacific coast. If we add the JF Thémas A. Edison, recemlvlcnam lines of Alaska, Philippine credited with stating that there | Islands and other territories of ihe +was one department of the gov- | URited States our coast line wii-be ernment that is 100 per centmore than 45.000 miles in lengti;* To 5 survey this enormous stretch, todaap efficient, would .but take the trouble | it on charts so that land.ang water to come to Washington he would ;él""elwbbt;lhnnurhv‘e and --fluur- ace, may be shown, is no small un- learn, to his amazement, dertaking. A chart to be used by navigators {s of value only when it gives absolutely accurate informa. States government is,- and has been \ for some time, 100 per cent efficient. The branch of the government re- ferred to is the United States coast and geodetic survey. It is a_crying shame that this branch of the gov- ernment is not and has not been pro- vided with more money with which to { carry on its very important labors. | valuable contributions to the science While it ia- fashionable, as well a8 of cartography. It is evident that proper, al s time to economize, i - Vet cconomy that Ges mot mulce fof | Lhe ‘Tepresentation on B Fikne, aur efficiency and an uftimate saving is|face, as that of a chart, of the sur- not economy. When oue stops to con- | face of the earth, which is spherical, sider that the work of the coast and | js not a simple matter. and for differ: Eeodetic survey is a constructive as|ent purposes different kinds:of rep well s a protective labor-it will then | resentution must be used. The sur- be realized that Congress has been | vey. has. therefore. developed -meth. negligent in its dul§ to this branch | ods for such representation, and has of the governwient. ‘If Congress and | published a .number of technical the people of the country cam but be | treatises on cartography, which: are brought to realize the great value of ' standard in their field. the work carried on there is no doubt | One of the most - important instru- that sufficient appropriations can be | ments in navigation, as well known, is squeezed out from some less worthy |the magnetic compass. For when no undertaking to enable the burdiu to |landmarks or heavenly bodies are visible have such funds as are necessary for | it is the compass that the mariner de- the successful carrying on of this|pends upon to guide him across the highly important work. trackless oceans. Unfortunately, the . _The first scientific bureau to be |compass needie generally does not point organized by this country, after it,true north, and, what is even worse, ad won its independence, .is the one | does not point in exactly the same di- now known as the United Staies |rection at all times at any given place. coast and geodetic survey. Our fore- |In the United States for example, the fathers recognized the fact that |compass needle points 22 degrees west te prosperity of the country de- |of true north in northeastern Maine and pended upon the safety of navigation |25 degrees east of true north in north- and tha growth of commerce. western Washington. One hundred and It whs during the administration |fifty years ago it pointed 8 degrees * of Thotmas Jefferson that Ferdinand |further to the west in Maine than it does * R. Hassler, then occupying the chair | now. of mathematics in the Military Aca A knowledge of compass variation fs emy at West Point, was commis- |indispensable to the navigator and this sioned to organize a bureau for the |inclination is furnished by the survey urver of the coasts and harbors lon its charts as a result of exhaustive of the United State studies made of the variation of the histofy the survey has been fortu- |compass. With the building of iron and nate jn securing as its directing | steel ships the troubles of the navigator heads” men of gréat abllity, who increased, for the construction of his were consclous of their own Worth. | vessel resulted in marked disturbing ef- It is related |fects on the needle. Here again the invited to or- | survey came to the rescue. ganize and direct the survey of the | WHile the compass Is the matter under coasts he demanded and received a | discudsion it is well to recall the fact salary equal to that of the head of | that nearly all the early land.surveys tio! o No shipwreck or accident has been caused by mistakes or errors im the charts issued by the United States <coast and.geodetic survey. * % % N connection with the publishing of its charts. the survey has made | ‘fof the survey. ©OL. E.' LESTER JONES, DIRECTOR OF THE COAST AND GEODETIC - SURVEY. the department to which the new bureau was ' assigned. When the President objected, saying, “Your sal- ary is as large as that of my Sec- retary of the Treasury, your su- erior officer,” Hassler replied “Any resident can make a Secretary of the Treasury, but only God Almighty can make a Hassler.” 3 * ok x k. EV:N in the early days of the bu- reau’ there was a high morale, and, despite the handicaps occasioned by insufficient apprepriations and the lack. of fulfillment of promises for adequate salaries, the men, for sheer love of their work and devotion to country have never faltered in giving the best that was in” them to the Bervice. Whether their work took them through the dense canebrajes of the Mississippi delta, the un healthy parts of the Philippine Is- Jands, the frozen wastes of Alaska or the rock-ribbed coast of New Eng- Jand, they never faltered. An order comes; they throw together the nec- essary articles of clothing, carefully pack their instruments and answer 'the call of duty. In 1861, the begin- ning of the civil war, the survey was mad s of both by the Army- and Navy, not only in securing informa- tion, but also for making reconnais- sances and soundings and placiag ?uon and plloting in interior waters, { n nearly every active operation there ‘were members of the survey attached in this country were made by compass and the boundaries In the deeds were defined by®.compass.directions. As the years passed and land values increased controversies arose as to the location of boundary lines, and in order fo re- trace the lines of a piece of land, sur- veyed originally by:compass, the sur- veyor must know the change in direc- tion of the.compass.needle in that par- ticular locality between the date of the original survey and the resurvey.. When- ever old surveys are in questiom the coast and geodetic survey ‘isthe final arbiter as to the direction of the com- pass at any particular past time. During the past few decades numerous individuals have caused quite a commo- tion_ along that famous street in New York, they call Broadway, but there is only one man in the world that has ever moved Broadway, his name.is Col. E. Lester Jones, director of the coast and geodetic survey. In a recent case he decided as to just exactly where Broad- way should be. X * X Xx X s ‘HERE is one book.'that. is .reli- glously carried on every American vessel, no matter whether It be a fighting -ship or merchantman. _It is the volume of tide tables publislied by the survey, and it@may astonish the landsman to know -that ‘this .publica- tion is issued, annually; a year or ;. more in advance; for-every day of the year'the time-and height contains tidal information telling of X the, time of tide at thousands: of Again'in‘the:late war laces, and it«is by referring to' these survey. was called:upon_fo furnish.a{{jdetables that the captain of a mod- e v traiusl ofiowss fax ern leviathan knows the best time to u: Wwith the Navy and with the Army, | carry his-vessel over the bar that fre- while the work of the office; a8 | quently-liés-at the entrance of a har- ‘whole, was concentrated on furnish-|Jor. - While - thede. tide tables 2re ing surveys and maps demanded by|pecessery in times of peace, they re- the military and-naval authorities.|quire even added importance in time The services rendered by this impor-| of war, Few people realizé the added tant branch of the government are hi ot far-reuching and extremaly. Nonor. expense entailed when a ship is com pellgd: to wait outside the entrance to tant. We will deal first with the|gy hghdr until the tide is favorable; services pertaining to commerce. in time of war lying oytside the har- Evety ship that safls into a harbor |bor means furnishing an ""5. target 3 With accu- submarines. entry by grace of the charts pub-!rate tide tables the navigator has ad- lished by the coast 2nd geodétic sur- | vanced knowledge which permi im 've$. «In' the construction ‘of_ thése|to time thé arrival of ‘his veasel’.so maps it is not only the detail features | there will be no need of waiting for a that require accurate surveying, but!favorable tide. In the egrlier days, @lso the actual location of these-on/|tide tables were predicted “by hand, the surface of the earth, so that fn|meaning 'that hundreds of computers c at rows, upom -fit_in with the next succeéding|rows of figures and tables_to mccom- hart. Jiach point must have its lati- | plish th !ndc.:.nd longitude accurately deter- g: extensive maritime interests, the in sired result. Because of glish’ had devoted considerable often.speak of the coast line | time to the study of the tides, and in the Uniteq States; we speak of-it | 1872 a brilliant’ English mathemati- & few thousand miles, but if we |cidd invented &' machine .to.predict follow al] the bends and vurves along | the tides. With this tide predictor, a its tidal waters we ‘will have trav- drawn which 5 it{ 4 the hejght to the! nearest tenth of a MAG AZINE SECTION ' L WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST °21, 1921. W i i i of One Destroyer. ORK of the S;;xrvey Has Becfi"Meéns of Saving Many Lives and -Millions of VY. Dollars—News of a Wonderful Discovery Relating to Currents Announced for First Time in This Exclusive Article—Ingenious Machines Invented—War Rec- | ord of Bureau Perfect—Some of World's Greatest Screntists- Among Employes. [ Annual Appropriation for Vast Work Done Over Whole Earth Less Than the Cost curve there were scaled off the time and height of each high and low wa- ter. _While this was a considerable ad- vance, it still consumed too much time, so William Ferrel, one of the mathe- maticians of the coast and geodetic survey, set to work, with the result that in 1883 he had perfected am in vention which did zway with the necessity of scaling off the time and helght of each tide from a curve. In the Ferrel machine both the time and height of each tide are given directly on the face of the machine. This machine filled the bill for about 2 quarter of a century, but the grow- |ing needs of the Navy and merchant marine necessitated the prediction of tide at many stations on the Pacific, where the tide is quite complicated. In 1810, two of the experts em- ployed by the survey, Messrs. Shidy and Harris, the latter now dead, con- celved the idea of a machine that would still further lessen the num- ber of computers agd would also work llgdcr any and all cireumstances. Their_ijdeas were outlined to Ernes Fiscler, chief of the instru- ment. division of the survey, and the machine was built under Mr. Fischer's personal pervision. predicter, which is,now in use. com- bines the genius of the tidal mathe maticlan with that of the expert me- chanical engineer. It was devised. designed ‘and constructed in the home * ok x x (QNCE this machine is set for an given station it is entirely auto | matic in operation. As each succeed {ing ‘high water and low water | |reached, the machine automaticall ilocks and on dials on the face of th machine there is indicated the time of the tide to the nearest minute and foot. - A slight pressure then releases the machine and when the next high or 'low water is reached it again automatically locks. In coastwise navigation currents are an important factor, for in “thick weather” the navigator cannot de- termine the position of his vessel by sighting on land objects; thus it b comes a matter of importance that h should know the strength and direc- tion of,the currents. The survey is 4now making a study of the currents along the coast. These costal cur- rents are of a totally different char- acter. Tidal currents are brought about by the tide and go through periodic changes. For years sallors ve taken it for granted that a wind 1-'raise ‘a current in its own di- rection, and the stronger the wind the stronger the current. The in- vestigation now being conducted by the survey is bringing out the exact relationships between the force of the wind and the strength of the cur- rent it produced. The current has been found to increase with the in- Irrealed strencth of the wind: hut the direction of the current is found to. be not in the direction of the wind, :but about twenty degrees to the right lof the mind direction. The im« portance of this discovery Is obvious, |fer a wind blowing .parallel ‘to the coast will not only affect the speed of a boat, but will alfo tend to it on the coast. 5 To return for. the. moment to 't tide machine, in order that the reads may fully grasp its usefulness, it should be stated that this device not only has taken the place of a hundred computcers, but can do -its work any place, any time, anywhere;. it predict_tides for a hundred years or {more. 1t is used only to predict for a year or so in advance because there might be a change in the con- tolir of a harbor, etc. Every nation in the world has requested informa- tion regarding this Instrument, which has been nicknamed by the employ: of the survey “Old Brass Braini There i no other machine like it In the world. The day the writer saw it in operation it was predicting tides for 1923 at Do-Son Kua-Kam, en- trance to French Indo-China. During the past fifty years numer- ous vessels have been wrecked by striking uncharted rocks, and it h been a physical impossibility.to cover more than so many miles per year with the meager force allotted to the coast and- geodetic survey. * x ¥ ¥ ‘VER since_gold was first discovered in /Alagka interest in that won- derfully rich section of the United States has been maintained. A rail- road costing aixty million dollars or more is on its way to completion, but the only way to'gét to the terminal of that rallroad is. by water. Numer= ous rocks submerged, some three feet below the- surface,” others at greater depth. have been located. Many. these rocks are known as pinnatle rocks, sharp pointed projections that could be discovered ‘only by 'ch.:x. it the old-fashioned method of sou: ing was employed, but. now a device known as.the -wire-drag Is employed to locate these danger points. In September; 1902, the U. 8. 8. Brooklyn hit an uncharted rock .in the main channel to New. Bedf harbor. Upon close. examination the survey of this body of water: ‘was- found . that the. soundings taken much closer together than thg ordinary .cuatom, .and- this h: = it ‘were ‘This latter tide | existence of this danger. There are certain areas along our coasts which have plenty of water for deep draft vessels, but which can- not be pronounced absolutely safe for navigation owing to the fact that pinnacle rocks, coral rocks, or ledges of sfiiall area have been found there as a characteristic feature. Such areas are to be found along our At- lantic coast from Maine to Long Island sound, along the Florida reefs. in Porto Rico, and particularly in the areas of Alaska. These hidden dan- gers have been the source of many wrecks: numerous rocks and ledges on our charts deriving their names from the vessels wrecked upon them. These obstructions being below the surface of the water and beyond the range of vision from a boat, it is only b; chance they are found by an o®dina survey with lead and line. Th's can be readily understood by considering, as an analogy. a bailoon drifting slowly over a town. The unlikelihood 1 and nl?d at regular intervals is ob~ t el rocky ma: The problem of finding and locating stack with a ‘Wweighted line lowered vious. stood. y ha with lead and Iine, PossibiMity of uncharted dangers. these submarine dangers has also been changed by the development of the submatine, the safe navigation | of whieh, when submerged, dependsi { upon the' location of dangers at. far Breater depths than was ever antici- ated. ase of the Brooklyn in New Bed ford harbor s} b o) ome improve oundings. for determining the exist- nce of dangers. : & pipe carried under the vessel. This | years along the New England coast, also in:the waters in the vicinity of Key West and Porto Rico. length of the drag depended, of ne- cessity, upon the breadth of the sur. veyingivessel and seldom exceeded sixty feet. To cover any area was both laborfous and expensive. . * K % % THE .French hydrographic service has used a long rope sweep sup- ported et Intervals by buoys, but a more promising form, in 'whiclr wire replaced the rope, was used by the Army engineers ' in 1902. Starting ‘with the latter as a basis, a drag was designed in 1904, and successfully used in Frenchman's bay, Me., the party being-in charge of Hydrgraphic and Geodetic Engineer D. B. Wain- wright. Stated briefly, the wire consists of a horizontal wire maintained at any desired distance below the surface of the water by an arrangement of weights and adjustable ubright cables extending up to surface buoys. This _apparatus is towed by two launches, one at each end. As the drag passes through the water it will catch and show the location of any obstruction extending above the plane of the horizontal wire. Knowling the location of the obstruc. tion, the least dépth can be found on it'and can be easily found by sound- ing ‘with lead and line from a small boat. This method has been used since that date, and many improvements and changes have been made. Hydro- graphic and Geodetlc Engineer N. H. Heck, with the assistance of officers ttached to his parties sponsible for the grea in the method of doing this class of work.. .New- equipment is.being-used and the water to be dragged e di- vided fnto two.areas, that in whick it is neceseary to drag close to the bottom, the other in deep water. For the former, the improved wire drag is being used, in the latter the .so- called wire sweep, which offers much less water resistance and, therefore, much greater speed and greater lengths can be used. communication between the towing launches was carried on by signaling; radio-telephone devised lled by Capt. Heck is used. |the Naval Reserve, orientation That: the improved wire drag ful- fills its purpose is shown by the fact that in the 4,000 square miles. of water area dragged, 3,500 uncharted obstructions have been- discovered, a number of which were close to, if'not actually on,'the lines of ocean travel. +A fast-moving -liner striking 3 i pinnacle rock ‘in just th ‘would suffer the fate of no “matter - what ~precauti taken. # £ ‘The duties of the mémbers of- the suryey are numerous and. complex. Not ‘only must the men of the surveéy secure the information that is-needed, but they must also record it in such manner. that it can be turned over to. the hbme office, .eithier by mail or in ~person ‘when ' they return to ‘Washington, ready ‘to' be recorded. There are no ifs and ands about the ‘business; it mus exsct, One must not . imagine, .- howeve that ~ the [activities of ;this bureau ar¢ confiied merely to work -of the ocean, - the- river or the bay. The survey. per- l forms functions of a. fundamental| ey, nature, functions that are .of ~ the utmost i gineer or the automol = bated on the framework. erécted by the coapt and geodetic- survey, of hifting a tower, spire or chimney | try a network of points the elevations | i COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY SHIP SURVEYOR, MODERN VESSEL ENGAGED IN CHARTING THE EXPOSED COASTS OF ALASKA. — e entioner eeplion therer o of these showed an indication of the | through its triangulation. This tri-|cope with the menace of the sub- angulation oxtends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Moxico, along the coast of Alaska, over a major portion of the Philippine islands, and eonnects Porto Rico with our new possessions, the Virgin Islands. In this- triangulation the geographic positions of thousands of points on the earth are determined accurately. These points then be- come the basis for the maps made by the various mapping organizations of the government and by engineers in private practice. Along the coast thes: points are made use of in the construction of charts issued by the survey. These points of reference are also made use of whenever questions of boundaries between states arise, numerous instances of which might be mentioned. * %k % % ANOTHER branch of the work con- sists in spreading over the coun- of which are accurately known. These elévations are made usé of by the en- gineer of the construction of railways, canals and other such works. Al- ready there-are available the eleva- tions of more than 20,000 bench marks in this country; all elevations are de- termined with reference to the mean elevation of the sea. In its surveying operations cover- ing mountains topped with snow and the hot sands of the arid regions, the field officers of the survey meet many - | problems that have to be solved. Fre- owed the necepsity of | quently an observation station will be| method, other than |located in the midst of a forest. on the! top of a tree 200 fect above ground. The first step was | These points are generally o the ravéled roads. and the problem of method was used for a number of | fransporting the inscruments and per- sonnel is one of tax:ing ingenuity. But in every case when an officer has been The | ordered to do a certain plece of work | his season’s repo work has been done. = In matters pertaining to boundar- ies, the survey is recogniged as acting in a thoroughly impartial capacity, both in respect to its evidence and its technical advice and asgistance. Its decisions are, therefore, always taken final. Many instances might be cited as to, its activity In such. matters. A no- table instance occurred in 1916 in the settlement of property rights in a suit against the city of New York for large damages due to the construction states that the marine. In connection with the de- vice kpown as the magnetic loop, which involved the laving of a com- siderable length of cable, requiring very accurate placing, in the a proach to one of the important bays, there was needed an claborate and quite precise shore control, and here the experience of the coast survey of- ficer in dolng work of this nature in his evervday duties made it possible Ito do this work expeditiously. Nu- jmerous devices were developed by this officer; {n co-operation with some of the leading physicists and naval engineers, such as tripoa listening stations, the electrode sweep and the {Indicating sweep. * ¥ ¥ * | A NUMBER of the survey officers, in | consideration of the combination {of their technical knowledge as en- glneers, familiar with the construe- ton and use of instruments of pre: cision and_of their practical know edge and skill as pavigators, were as- signed to duty of procuring and sup- plying to all naval-operated vessels the navigational instruments and equipment_without which they could not leave their docks. Such instruments had never been | produced in quantity in this country, and their procurement necessitated, lin many -cases, the utilization of plants designed for entirely different purposes. For examplé, manufactur- ing jewelefs of the east were utilized. The principal equipment in approac skilled in the precision and delicacy { of their normal trade and a keen de- sire 10 be of service in a great emer- sency, and upon this meager founda- tion, he clcsest co-operation, was built & superstructure which fune- I tioned se successfully that there is no record of a-single case of a vessel which was unable ko sail promptly on schedule time because of lack of this equipment, ‘While about 300 men of the survey were in unfform during, the world war, this does not adequafely express the number who served in actual war work. The whole bureau, and every individual ip-the bureau, whether in uniform or not, were engaged on work _ directly connected with the war, the freparation of maps for war purposes, charts for the use of the Navy and answering any call for special maps or specialized service for which there was need. with regard to route to be followed and all information that would be of | help to us. Why is the rise and fall of the tide at the entrance to the Guif of Maine less than a foot at its | upper end, while in the Bay of Fundy it Is about fifty feet? . How far up- the James river can I go in a boat that draws four and one-half feet of water? Two vessels collided in our! harbor March 16. What was the} state of tide and the current at 8:16 a.m. on that date? “Will you please aid me in deter- mining the latitude and longitude of the Garden of Eden from the follow ing data. A canal is to be built con- necting two large bodies of water. What will be the velocity of the cur- rents in this canal> It has been stated that the reason for the severe winters the past few years is that the gulf stream.and the Japan cur- rent have changed their courses. Please give me your opinion as to! this. Your tide table states that at| the Atlantic end of the Panama canal | the rise and fall of the tide is less than a foot, while at the Pacific end it is from’ twelve to sixteen feet. Please explain why this is so. are planning to utilize the energy of { the tide at Smithville. Please advise | us at to the power that may be de. veloped by the following plan. An! oil well here jn Kansas is flowing in- | termittently and I believe it is due to the effects of the tides. Please give | me your opinion on the matter. What is the cause of the cold surface water on the Fiorida coast? What is tie effect of the gulf stream on the cli- mate of Atlantic City? Where is the best place in Washington to build an apartment?” In addition to such questions as indicated, numerous Questions are received daily from en- gineers, mariners, scientists and the public generally, as well as from va- rious government and state agencies, relative to the latitude and longi- tude of certain points to the tides and currents along the coast and in the interior, and to matters connected with the compass. Two questions that have been asked illustrate the attitude of the public to the survey and the nature of the work of the survey. The one was asked of the branch office of the sur- vey in San Francisco as to the shadow cast by the Call building. When this information was furnished wonder was expressed as io why the coast survey was asked this question, and | 1 1 been informed that the survey was able 1o answer any questions that ing the tagk was a force of workers| YEARS IN la We ; Cle: au the old hotel edifice and a runway that connects the latter building with the new portion. There are no ele- {vators in the building. Until recent- ly the three subcellars of the main building housed men of high stand- ing in the scientific world. Here the technical men to whom the govern- ment is paying a pittance had to work under artificial lights twenty- four hours each day. There is but one fireproof vault in all the buildings; priceless documents are stored on shelves and protected from fire by a thin metal door only. These ocuments could never be replaced, and they are worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the citizens of the country Engravers doing the finest kind of work are compelied 1o labor in_ stuffy rooms with the poorest kind of lighting. A por- tion of the building where part of the printing is done was formerly the place where Gen. Butler kept his horses and cows, but even here cleanliness und or- der prevail. due to the fine spirit of the merr_ Next to the director's room is the office of the assistant director, Mr. Robert L. Faris. To the east of the irector s the room occupied by Chief C. H. Dieck, who entered the e as & $720-a-year man and vork 1 his way up to the responsible position he now occupies. He has assisted in bringing up the sale of charts from 100,000 in 1914 to 350,000 the last year. r. Dieck, when asked how many peo- ple were employed by the survey, gave the an 0_total, of whom 223 re in Washington. Together with other members of thé survey he worked out a plan by which a man can secure a report on triangulations for about 3 cents where it formerly cost him $6. - * % % HE plan provides that the man gets exactly what he wants and Tothing more; it saves expense and does not clutter up the mails. Letters from engineers throughout the country been received thanking the bureau for its thoughtfuiness in this matter. He also figured out how many square feet of building a charwoman could keep clean, and has provided closed re- ceptacies for lunch scraps, so that rats and other vermin are practically starved out. Even the windows in the surve are numbered. His general plan is t foresee what is to be done rather thar wait until it has to be done. Like othe: officials of the survey, he is constan! up against the proposition of makin; one dollar do the work of three. M: Dieck is a graduate of Georgetown Lay School and is a two-degree man. Let us step down the hall for 2 MACHINE THAT PREDICTS THE TIDES IN ANY PART OF THE GLOBE ADVANCE. —— e could possibly be asked. The second question had to do with the time necessary for the survey to complefe-' 1y finish its work. -The answer to this is very simple, namely. that the work minute and visit thé ‘office of G. T. Rude, chief of the tides and currents division. ‘where, with his assistant. H. A. Marmer, he holds forth. These two gentlemen are authorities on of a subway under the Harlem river, The case rested upon the location of the line of mean low water in 1851, and the evidence, based upon the line as delineated on a map prepared from surveys made by this burean in 1855 and 1856, was furnished by request and at the expense of the city of New York. It should be emphasized at this point that the work of the coast and geo- detic survey has been the means of saving thousands and thousands of lives. It has also settled many dis- puted questions and prevented law- suits which would have cost millions of_dollars to.property owners. The question naturally arises in the mind of the reader as to whether or not the members of' the survey performed any important part in the late war, and while it is true that none of them led his command “over the top,” yet the work they per- formed aided very materially in the winning of the. war. When the call to arms came the members of the sur- vey were ready, and they needed mno training camp, no ‘training cruise, they- were ‘fully- prepared to handle the part assigned them. The services performed by these officers covered a wide range and ‘included, among others, duties of a special and highly confidential nature with the air serv- ice; service with the ision.of mili- tary aeronautics in France; service as executive officers and navigators on troop transports and other vessels Formerly the'ration’ of -battle m: of the United States Navy; the prepa- s on the battle- flolds of France; perfecting fyroleoplc compasses; as instructors in schools of compass adjustment, for offic l'; and. a: officers in the artillery branch of the Army. . It is not a spectacular feat of hero- ism to be the navigating officer on 2 'vessel, loaded with TNT, which di not even find- it necessary to carry 1ifeboats with it because of the ab- solute certainty that if anything hap- pened lifeboats would be ofi\no use. ¥ was'to such work this that some of the officers of .the survey: were as- sigred. (S X g Z Another officer of the survey was ‘assigned to work in connection with devices for-locating .submarfnes, and in “this work he:;made notable con: tributions. These contributions Were the résult,” mot ‘otly ~of technical training .and native . ability, but r_!nt;:fiahy the result of experience e use of the wire drag, which had beest developed as, a” powerful gurveying . instrument . the .coast and geodetic survey in years previ- ous to the war... Under his immediate dlreccgom the ‘was_developed the indicating sweep, “which suc: cessfully tried.in American’ for- ‘waters and filleq a:serious gap A K TR XS anti-g A z ! 8 notonly highly ; but elped ma- & h’"fi' K 24, n f: one 1 ng b terially” in winni the war thils, I‘,or umerons: devices o kinaSad asother wWere develdpea, to- In time of wag the survey ceases to be an organization for the prom: tion of peace-time pursuits and ad- vance of the merchant marine; and is strictly a war-time bureau, bending every effort and. exerting every means to war work. This was recog- nized in the past war by the law passed by Congress suthorizing the President to transfer to the Army and Navy-.such of the personnel of the coast and geodetic survey as could be spared without impairing unduly the functioning of the bureau. The pérgéniage-of the personnel of the survey'that was engaged in war work was100 per cent. It is there- fore largkr ‘than any other bureau which was less than a.full 100 per cent. ¥ Before ttempting to describe the work - performed by the bureau in Washington it'may interest the reader fo know' that ‘all sorts of queries come_to :Director Jones' office daily. The kind of questions asked of the coast and geodeti€ survey-are almost innumerable, since the vast extent of the seven Aeas and the earth from top to -bottom is. its province. The following ‘dntimeration of some . of the questions asked may give an fnkling their nature. * k% % uwl!A'l'_umq.‘wm high water gc- "V ‘cur on'a certain day at—(any of the_tens of thousands of places on the Atlantic, gulf and Pacific coasts of the United; States)? Did the Titanic e as to where thé water is very dense? What is the present’ value of the magnetic declination at—(any of the numerous places in the United States or its’ dependencies)? ~The city of New York is planning an artificial island for ‘the disposal of garbag: What will be the effect of the cul rents on- this island? What allow- ance should 'he made in,qrder to re- trace’ the-lines of a tract of land surveyed by compass in 184567 I sire 'toswim across Long “Island Sound July 4. ‘What is the best time to start so as to get the ;rugn ad- vantage the current?. con- megtion, with some of:the geophysi- computations It is-necessary for me to know the qubtnt!‘:ly :(.iw:mn the Pfilfle ean e neare e e 'urnish, me this re. rel. Please furfiish a table showing the nfilnlh of the magnetic declination in ¢l is Jooulity since 1750. I am in- vestigating. the effect of the tide on plants -several . hundred. miles. inland. ‘What. 011 be. of _high | water ® th m ocean extended all ni st us in using the coj . e ] cross-country 5 *We desire to take a trip land waters from 5 Lol the way 20 this place? Please furnish | ka Informeiti New York '.'n‘:l -urnish, desails! of the coast and geodetic survey'will be entirely completed when the tides have ceased to rise and fall. when the currents have stopped ebbing and flowing, and when all movement that tends to produce changes in land or water has completely ceased. Until then the survey's work is unfinished * ¥ x ¥ *THE home of the Coast and Geo- detic survey is situated pn New Jersey avenue sOutheast, within the shadow of the dome of the Capitol. The main building was erected for hotel purposes, but was taken over by the government. The rooms in this building are small and not suited for office purposes, but the director and his associates by constant effort have made them semi-habitable. Another ection occupied by the survey con- sists of . the building built by Gen. Ben Butler years ago. The only real office building is the small new part that was added during the war. you enter the main entrance on New Jersey avenue you are asked whom you desire to see. The ques- tioner is Mr. McDowell, a courteous. kindly gentleman of the old school, & veteran -of the civil war and one of the men who with Miss Clara Barton orixipated the K American Red Cross. ‘While Mr. McDowell participated in twenty-three battles during the con- flict between the north and the south, he is still a pretty spry gentleman. The moment you enter the home of the’ survey. you are amazed at the immaculate floors and walls. This '3 | sink or is.she floating at some depth | is'all the more remarkable when You stop’ to consider that in a building {of this character it takes unceasing effort-to" keep it looking spruce and fit, but: ‘members of the survey from the director down to the latest appointed .charwoman take a per- sonal pride in kéeping everything in perfect: order. The spirit of co-oper- ation cannot be excelled. . In the lit- tle - cubbyhole of a waiting room are. inteFesting pictures showing the gctivities of‘the survey. From hers you proceed to the.office of the dires tor; Col.'E. Lester Jones, and in this room ' are pictures of the kind of work. performed hy t‘lil&memhqmn! the ‘survey, also a .bust of Hassler. the desk - is .a dictagrapbone, ich 'communjcates with every o fice .In the building, a luable aid in the saving of time, ‘as’ it works directly to. the.room. desired. “nOe particularly interesting exhibit of the work' done by .the men is the aerial map of Atlantic City, .consisting of a number of photographs so placed that they give a perfect air picture of that famous resort. It is technically jown as a mosaic. Before aftempt- ing to describe’ it s best to e’ that of the different heights of the build there are sixteen levels that you traverse, There are runways must. tides and currents, and while on the subject of curyents: the writer is en- abled .to give to the world the first information regarding an important discovery made by these gentlemen. For several months they have been having observations made as to the effect produced by strong winds on currents, and the know e secured and the data worked out will prove of great value to the mariner. Ob- servations taken on the Pacific coast as well as on the Atlantic have shown that the currents produced by strong winds always drive a vessel to the right: for instance, a steamer sails down' from Sandy Hook along the coast bound for Jacksonville, a heavy wind rises, and unless the navigator has taken the ship well out to sea ! he will, if the weather is cloudy, be lplled up on the shore off Barnegat Light or some point farther down the coast. The angle made in open sea is about 45 degrees; near the mouth of bays, where fresir water flows into the ocean, it may be less marked. This condition_ obtains in the northern hemisphere; in the Southern hemisphere the influenc: will be to the left. Landsmen have been heard to state that the moon can have no influence on tides oh a cloudy night. This, how- ever, Is incorrect. These two gentie- men. by reason of thefr ability and earnest endeavors, have contributed much to the service. Up & flight of steps, around a corner and you enter a couple of rooms where are housed two members of the Burvey, Messrs. Adams and Reynolds, who are rea mathematicians. They just do - all sorts of things with higher mathe- matics, and if there is anything that can't be done in mathematics by these gentlemen, 1t is use there isn’t anything that can be done. Without undue praise, it can be said that the mathematicians in the survey have reached the zenith of mathematics. The salary for these mathematician is $1.400 per annum when they enter the bureau, and the most they can possibly secure is $3,000 per year. We twist and turn until we enter the little dismal office where Mr. vis, an engraver, has his workshop. Despite the fact that he has been with the bureau for sixty years, he is as spry as.a-kitten and day by day turns out an excellent quality of work. The same is trie of Mr. Was- serl ‘who for the past forsy years he¢ made engraving his prefession. His work is of the highest character and, despite~his’long term of ser¢- . . "he is full of pep and js devoted to the survey. The mext step takes us to the new builling, and in this structure you will find stored for immediate use such' instruments s the man in the fleld requires. 4 cail comes for a sextant f(rom a mar working on the Aliesissippi delts within an hour it is at the office of the. express -company. .. A few steps along the hall and we ure in th gffice of the chief of the insi