Evening Star Newspaper, December 30, 1928, Page 66

3 -sir. 4 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 30, 1928—PART T. THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEA By Albert Richard Wetjen Thirty Years Capt. Graham Had Served the Sea, and the Wealth of Experience He Had Gained Was Needed in This Perilous Voyage of the Carradine. ] something he accepts so casually, so much as a matter of course, that its importance escapes him. Capt. Graham had been going to sea some 30 vears before the abrupt knowl- edge came to him that he served a master greater than his owners, greater than his ship, greater even than deep water itself. Indeed, all these others— owners, ship and deep water—in their turn served this master. Men signed away for some reason they considered good, for fame, money, love, bread, ad- venture, that held them, to which they gave their youth, their manhood,” often enough their lives. But, after that one memorable voyage of the ‘Carradine, Capt. Graham knew that ships and men and the sea were bent to one pur- pose, to one end, to the yoke and serv- ice of one silent and inexorable mas- ter, before which duty, honor, love, toil, fame, adventure, life itself, were as in- | cense offered before some ancient and indifferent shrine. The Carradine loaded lumber at Gray's Harbor for San Francisco and points south this particular voyage. For two weeks the winches rattled along her decks. The Carradine's mates watched that the stowage was properly done, this size lumber placed so, that size placed otherwise. First into the ship must go the stuff con- signed for San Diego. Above that the stuff consigned for San Pedro. And above that again the main cargo for San Francisco, This last overflowed from the holds, which already held two million feet, and another million was carefully stacked on deck and made fast with great chains. In time the Carradine was ready for the sea. The pilot came aboard. The telegraphs clanged, and the vessel moved away. The next dawn found her lifting and falling across sullen leaden swells, ‘her rigging wet and dripping from the rain that drove out of a sickly sky and her whole lumber-gorged being shaking and creaking from the pounding of her engine. Capt. Graham, who had been up all night, took a last look around, crossed the bridge to peer into the compass, and then, with a word to his mate, went below. It was about that time things began to happen. * K % X CAP’I\ GRAHAM was just finishing a belated breakfast when the steward appeared. “The second engineer, sir,” said the steward, a triffie breathless, “He's broken his leg.” “Leg?” said Capt. Graham. “He fell over the steam-pipe casing, We took him to room.” “Well, well!” jegked Capt. Graham. “I'll be right along.” , vdy, b man, with graying hair, keen blue eyes, and a pleasant, red face. He bustled into the second engineer’s cabin and set the broken leg with quick, steady fingers, while he chatted amiably. When he left, the second engineer was lying contentedly on his back, his in- jured limb swathed in bandages, and, though his face was white and drawn, enjoying one of Capt. Graham's cigars. ‘The captain, returning to_his cabin, prepared t some sleep. He climbed into his bu& and was just pulling the blankets up to his chin when the Car- radine was shaken by a heavy crash. Some one shouted from aft. Shoes pounded along the deck. The second mate rapped on the captain’s door. “Yes?” said Capt. Graham. “What is it now?” “Fall wire of the derrick the men were working with aft, sir,” said the second mate. He ‘removed his cap, came over the stp, and stood on the mat just inside the door. “Dropped the boom on tl drums of case oil we had lashed to the rail.” “Any olll?e hurt?” “No, sir.” ‘The captain went aft to inspect the damage, gave a few orders to the mate, and then came midship again, in time to stop a fight that was raging all over the galley between the chief stew- ard and the third mate, while the cook, purple with rage at the desecra- tion of his private shrine, hovered around, poising a heavy aluminum pot, ready to take a crack at the first head that issued from the melee. The cap- tain burst on the scene with an out- raged, “Well, well!” and matters were T often happens that the most|smoothed over. Such things were the stars | went to his. The cook calmed down. Capt. Graham thought he might try to sleep now. He was not particularly perturbed by what had happened. Men | will occasionally fall and break their their nerves are frayed. then, too, everything seemed to go wrong at once. to his bunk ag2n, was just such a | voyage. He sighed and closed his eyes, and, even as he fell asleep, he dimly heard four bells, 10 o'clock, strike from the wheelhouse above him. * K Kk T was about 11 o'clock when Capt. Graham was called back to con- sclousness by the mate. He sat up in his bunk, blinked, and rubbed his face, He heard the mate saying in a strained voice, “There's a fire some- | where down in No. 3, sir,” and, as th= meaning of the words seeped into him, he stiffened abruptly and then swung out of the bunk. The mate explained that he had seen smoke issuing from the port king-post, just abaft the bridge, and, dopping down into the hole left in the deck lumber where No. 3 hatch was, he found smoke oozing from under the tarpaulin there, . “What's in No. 3?” demanded Capt. ham. “Anything besides lumber?” 1 had the galley coal put in the shelter deck, sir. It came aboard filcked. and we had about every place od “Sacks wet. Combustion, I suppose,” jerked the captain. He preceded the mate out on the bridge, took a long look at the king-post the mate indi- cateq, and said, "“Well, well!” quite briskly, when he saw the wisp of vapor linger for a moment in the rain and then vanish. First they lashed canvas round the top of the king-post, which was hollow, and, besides acting as a mast for a derrick, allowed ventilation into No. 3 hold. They put extra tarpaulins over wire will give; and men will fight | And | there were voyages when This, the captain decided, as he climbed | ‘The chief steward | nected with that particular hold. vital thing in a man% world is |/ went to his room. The third mate | was always best to attempt to smother | the hesoh. They securely covered every ventilator that in any way was con- {2 a fire before pouring water {nto a ship. * ok K X (QE hour, two passed, while the cap- taln paced the bridge talking fo specting the hatch some feet below Vapor still rose from minute cracks and_openings. “Well,” sald Capt. Graham, the hose in there.” For a quarter of an hour two hose “shoot | played through the small opening. Then the captain called a halt. There was no further sign of vapor. “I'll get the men to work tomorrow hauling the coal out,” remarked the mate. “We'll have the ship pretty straight by then, hawsers put away and everything secure in case of bad weather.” ‘The night passed without further mishap. The sea remained sullen and leaden, the sickly sky dipped water, the Carradine soared and pitched and over her bows flung a scattering of icy spray. Capt. Graham, remaining on the bridge until midnight, turned in once more and slept until six, when he returned to the bridge to find the mate standing in the wing and staring fixedly toward No. 3 hatch. “Well, well!" remarked Capt. Graham riskly. “What seems to the trouble?” “Thought I saw smoke again, sir,” an- swered the mate. “She's still afire.” Both men stared for long minutes and both saw quite distinctly a single pale feather of vapor rise from the opening in the lumber. “Fine place to put galley coal,” said Capt. Graham. The mate scowled and made no reply. “Better get it out on deck,” the captain added. “It might be the sacks smoldering. We can dump them.” “Where'll I put it on deck?” demand- ed the mate, gazing at the lumber that filled the Carradine. A hint of laughter appeared in Capt. Graham’s eyes. “That's something for you to worry about.” he stated, and then commenced pacing the bridge. The mate bellowed for the bos'n. All the morning both watches labored to clear lumber from No. 3 hold until there was space enough for men to crawl through and get at the coal. | They passed it up, sack by sack, heavy, watersodden, and it was carried on to the fiddley, the sacks cut, and the sticky black stuff emptied out. The first sacks were cold and soaked, but, as the men below worked deeper into the pile, they came to sacks that were hot and smoldering. The mate heaved a sigh of relief. It was something to know the fire had act- ually been located and put out. No one wanted to be on a lumber-carrier, if a real blaze worked up. The coal, dump- ed in one huge pile on the fiddley, was covered with tarpaulin, round which the mate had lines run and made fast. He hoped no bad weather would come up. That_afternoon his hopes began to fall. The persistent rain ceased, and a slow, thick fog crept up from the south, wrapping the Carradine in a | white blanket that limited visibility to a scant half-cable's length overside. The steady roar and bellow of the siren shook the vessel as she nosed blindly ahead on her course. * kK ok SOON after four bells, 2 o'clock, a faint bleating became apparent somewhere to starboard. Capt. Graham and the second mate stood in the bridge wing and listened. They caught the bleat again, and the second mate went to sound the Carradine's siren and to stand by the telegraphs. And then, quite abruptly, disaster came. Out of the fog loomed a dark shape. The muffled bleat suddenly grew to a loud, hoarse bellow. Men shouted. Telegraphs jangled. The steam-schoon- er Ebmira, canted to port as her helm went hard over and, sweeping under the Carradine's stern, very neatly swept with her the rudder and screw.. The Carradine was swung violently from southwest almost to north, and then she squatted heavily in the trough, like a tired animal, while the schooner faded into the fog. She vanished, and and the Carradine was left alone. Capt. Graham’s hair seemed to bristle under his peaked cap as he stood stupefied on his bridge. “We’ll have to rig & jury rudder” said the mate some time later. “Lucky the weather's not too bad.” “Glass’s falling,” announced the sec- ond mate, Capt. Graham clucked im- patiently. 11 be fast work, but we may make he said. “Get the rudder rigged first, and then we'll see about the screw. If the weather makes, we can ride to a sea-anchor. Get busy now! All hands!” ‘The noise of hammers and the creak- ing of blocks began to rise. From be- low came the firemen, the oilers, the engineers, the wipers. All hands! While the seamen under Capt. Graham's or- ders worked on a rudder, the rest of the ship's company commenced to transfer the lumber to the foredeck, which was already 10 deep in wood, A substantial sea-anchor was rigged out of the huge new spars and lowered. It so happened that the ship's spare screw was carried in the shelter deck of No. 5 hatch, and to get at it neces- sitated more lumber being shifted. The amount of work was appalling. More than once Capt. Graham, remembering he worked against time and a threat- ening storm, and that he was caught without power or guiding force upon one of the worst coasts in the world, was tempted to cut things short and order the men simply to pitch the lym- ber cverside. But that was against the ethics of the Only in a dire emergency might cargo be destroyed. And slowly and almost imperceptibly, with the transference of weight from aft, the stern of the Carradine lifted higher and higher from the sulllen fog-hung sea. * ok k% DARKNESS came, and in the light of electric clusters the men labored. The fog wreathed about them. In spite of the clammy cold, they streamed with sweat. The cook kept coffee steaming SLIPPING, STUMBLING, FALLING, SWEARING, SCREAMING, INTO THE FACE OF THE GALE, THE MEN OF THE CARRADINE LABORED. SEAS CLIMBED UP THE HULL, CLIMBED UP THE SIDES QF THE LUMBER, SENT FOAM SWIRLING ACROSS IT. | in the galley. The steward replenished huge stacks of corned beef, cheese, bis- | cuits and bread. There might have | been complaints, might have been me: | dropping out from sheer exhaustion, but Capt. Graham moved briskly abou his keen blue eyes twinkling, his lips laughing. and a stream of conversation and jests pouring from him. He was a human dynamo. “Stand up to it, boys. Another hour and well be through.” It was always just another hour. Dawn glowed through the whitenes paling the clusters, showing the swea! ing faces, wan and drawn. Nearly all the lumber was now piled up for'ard. The Carradine seemed almost to stand on her nose, her bows buried in the fog-covered swells and the remnants of her mangled rudder and screw dripping | and clear of the surface. It was finished at least. The engi- neers climbed up from the frail, swing- ing, wet stages. The crude, but effec- tive rudder answered the helm. The screw turned, as a tentative letting of steam into the cylinders showed. The drive-shaft was weakenel, but the chief said it would hold. There was a brief pause then. Men looked at each other strangely and wondered stupidly why they had been slaving so. One or two began to sit down on the deck. One or two commenced to shamble for'ard for the foc’sle. “Stand to it, boys,” said Capt. Gra- ham cheerily. “We'll just throw the lumber back and make it fast, and then we'll be off.” They looked at him with sullen eyes. His blue eyes ran over them, coolly, twinkling a little, as if amused. One by one, the men shambled for'ard, d a plank, and brought it back. apt. Graham watched for a while, and then, summoning the mate to join the men and keep them on the move, he walked to the bridge. ‘The weather would break any minute now. Indeed, the Carradine was al- ready lifting the spray over her bows, and there was an uneasy pitch and roll to her hull that talked of a rising sea. “We'll keep her to the sea anchor until we get that lumber made fast,” said Capt. Graham to the third mate, who had the watch. Then he went aft again. The men were grumbling now. They lagged. Capt. Graham shouted, roused them again. His solitary, dogged will held them at their toil. And half a mil- iion feet of lumber was transferred from the foredeck back again aft. By the time it was done, hours and hours later, the wind was a roaring, screaming fiend from the north, and the icy spume was rattling like gravel against the deck- houses and in the men's faces. The fog was wiped away, to disclose a murky black sky and a sea of livid green, shot with slaty white, booming from horizon to misty horizon. The engineers, firemen, wipers and oflers had long sinte gone below to tend the engines. The seamen were left to run lashings over the lumber, and once this was fairly secure Capt. Graham sent them below while he and the mate and the second mate drove wedges under the heavy chains from rail to rail to tighten them. They went for'ard, set the engine ahead, cut adrift the sea anchor and made good the course. The Carradine plunged ahead into the gale. “Now,” sald Capt. Graham, “if the rudder’ 0ld, we're all righ He did not feel so tired now. His ex- hausted body had passed the stage where muscles ached and every joint scemed sore. As long as he kept on his feet, moving, thinking, he was all right. He knew he ought to go below and sleep. He had competent officers. But he was worried about the rudder and about his deck cargo. So he paced with the third made, his every sense alert for a wild yaw of the vessel that would tell the rudder had gone. So that day passed. * %k %k % TOWARD midnight, when the gale was at its worst, the lumber on the foredeck began to groan and creak omniously. “Call all hands,” said Capt. Gra- ham quietly. “Ease her into the seas, mister. We'll have to get some extra lashings for'ard.” It was a stormy task. The men swore and complained. Some refused to get up. from force of habit and discipline, and wearily dressed. The erect figure of Capt. Graham stood in the foc'sle door- way, flanked by his mates, and the cheery voices rose above the noises of the ship, and the oaths of tired men dragged from rest to labor again: “Stand to it, boys! An hour or so'll see us through. Just a few lashings for'ard before we lose the stuff. You can turn in again then and sleep all day tomorrow.” “Lumber!” said one man thickly. “Let it go! What do we care!™ The mate caught that man's arm in iron fingers and dragged him up on deck. The rest followed grumbling still, but resigned to the task. And ahead of them went Capt. Graham, his voice coming brokenly through the wind scream, the spume staggering him now and then. Underfoot the lumber shifted and groaned beneath its chains. Here and there planks were already beginning to edge out of line. A giant baulk stuck half over the rail, fretting back and forth. A good roll, with a smashing sea, and the lot would go. Half a million feet lost in the maw of the water. And it would take with it, like as not, backstays, winches, tackle, per- haps the mast. That it would burst open the hatches as it went was cer- tain, and, if that happened, no man could tell what might follow. Slipping, stumbling, falling, swearing, screaming into the face of the gale, the men of the Carradine labored. Seas climbed up the hull, climbed the sides of the lumber, sent foam swirling across it. At intervals a sea would breach clear across, and there would be a wild scramble to hang to backstays, to cling to the mast, to lie down flat and grip with bleeding fingers the great chains beneath which the lumber surged. And, through it all—alert, shouting, jesting, a thing of wire and whipcord—moved the master, his oilskins in shreds, his sou'western over one ear. “One more lashing,” Capt. Graham would shout. “ Just one more!” It was always one more. From rail to rail across the lumber the lines ran. ‘They were frapped one to the other to draw them tight. More wedges were hammered under the chains. The lum- ber ceased to surge and groan. “All fast, sir!” “All right!” shouted Capt. Graham. ‘They could not hear him, so he waved his hand and essayed a last laugh. The men scrambled away, back to the wet foc’sle and their bunks. They turned A few of the older seamen rose | HE HEARD THE MATE SAY- ING IN A STRAINED VOICE, “THERE'S A FIRE SOMEWHERE DOWN IN NO. 3, SIR.” in and slept. Capt. Graham took his | mates aft to put extra lashings on the lumber there. It was not surging and shifting yet, but it might. The dawn | was upon them again before they re- | turned to the bridge. The mate took | over. There was no sign of a wheel re- lief coming from for'ard, so the third mate took the helm and the second tried | to sleep on the chartroom settee. Capt. | Graham paced the bridge. The Car- radine roared and plunged through the wild, wind-swept sea. BiaEln | 'THE owners came aboard in San | Francisco. The Carradine had | limped in with an ugly starboard list {and her smokestack caked with salt. | Her peop boats were matchwood. Her | port bridge boat had gone, the wood- | work along that side of the bridge was in splinters, and the port companion | was askew. The doorway to the saloon | hung on one hinge, and the saloon itself was a wreck. Quite obviously the Carradine had a story to tell beyond the one concerning her jury rudder. Capt. Graham was on the lower bridge when the visitors found him. Three men had been taken ashore with broken legs or arms or ribs. What had happened? They understood there had been & collision and that the difficult feat of seamanship had been performed of shipping a spare screw and rigging a jury ruddey at sea. What was the ruth? t Capt. Graham wondered dully why it mattered now. It was over with and done. He had brought his ship home with surprisingly little damage, consid- ering. He talked mechanically while he wondered. His listeners were fascinated. “What,” said a young man, the son of one of the owners, “would you con- sider the greatest thing at sea, the thing that counts most?” Capt. Graham smiled and shut his tired lids over his sore eyes for & mo- ment. He thought, “Yes, that's it! What is it we go to sea for, work for, spend our lives for? Queer. Never oc- curred to me before.” As in a panorama, there marched across his vision his years on deep water, his troubles, his fights, his ships, his storms, his defeats. He saw the begin- ning of this voyage of the Carradine, the loading at Grays Harbor, the second engineer with his broken leg, the fallen boom lying across the smashed case ofl; the third mate and the steward fighting in the galley, the hose spurting to put the fire out in the sacked coal, the men moving lumber after the steam schooner had ripped the screw and rudder clear, the men moving lumber back again, the struggle to check it when it was surg- ing to save it from going overside, men injured in the fight. The answer was so very simple. He understood that now. All his life and movement and work were directed to one end, for one great master. There was something greater than men and ships, greater than d"fl water itself, a veritable sovereign of the sea. “There you are,” said Capt. Graham, his face lighted with a strange inward fire. He motioned with one hand to the rattling winches, to the sweating men, to the lumber going slingload by sling- load on the wharf. “I beg your pardon,” said the young man. “I asked what would you consider the greatest thing at sea?” “I'm telling you,” said t. Graham, He waved his hand again. “Cargol” (Copyris] New Earthquake Recorder Developed by Government Scientist BY GENE DAY. EN minutes after a California earthquake begins its vibrations, these to and fro movements of the earth on which we live are registered at the Bureau of Standards laboratories by a new seis- mometer developed by Mr. Frank Wen- ner, a Government research specialist. To most of us it seems incredible that the earth’s fremors can be trans- mitted through several thousand miles of rock and soil from the Pacific to the Atlantic at a spee® which defies dupli- cation by man. Here is a consumma- tion of research which will aid in our potential protection from destruction by an earthquake, for the Wenner seis- mometer as wdl as other efficient quake detectors can Sow be used efficiently in the predictioh of earthquakes many months before their occurence. Hor- rible disasters are prevented because these electrified messengers—harbingers of portendini; catastrophies—issue time- ly warnings and facilitate the evacua- tion of threatened territory. The seismometer now undergoing thorough tests at the local proving grounds of the Department of Com- merce is superior to all others now in active use because of its simplicity of construction, ease of operation and minimum adjustments. It is equipped for both electro-magnetic and optical magnification and is linked in circuit with a recording camera which regis- ters the result in permanent form. This earthquake detector is so del- icately adjusted that the mere removal of its protective iwd may throw it out | =f sciestific killer, Because it is af- ea very measurably by such traffic vibrations as heavy motor trucks and | street cars, this scientific sleuth is | housed in a subterranean chamber of concrete located in the sub-sub-base- | ment of one of the national laboratories some 35 feet below the surface of the carth, €« v ox 'HE apparatus is an innnocent Jook- ing contraption which would not | attract more than passing notice from the average sightseer until he ascer- tained its technical value and practical importance. It is mounted on & wedge-~ shaped slab of concrete which, in turn, | is supported by three small concrete | posts anchored in the wundisturbed ground. This arrangement is essential | in order that the detector may “pick up” and magnify all earthly vibrations which are flowing in wave formation through our terrestrial sphere. A speclal galvanometer and the re- cording camera connected in electrical circuit with the underground seis- mometer are located in a dark room three floors above the quake detector.. ‘The minute earth movements developed ' by remote earthquakes as well as other causes .generate -an elecromotive forec in the seismometer which appears as a current in the electric circuit. current causes deflections of the vanometer, which has a mirrow attached from which a light beam is reflected into the camera, where the record is made on a continuously moving photo- graphic paper. This al- The seismometer proper consists of 2 moving beam mounted on cardan sus- pensions. This beam supports a steady mass and 15 equipped with & coil which tends to stand still as the earth moves to and fro. A powerful magnet at- tached to the base of the seismometer moves backward and forward with the earth. The coil and magnet are so re- lated that their relative motion develops an electromotive force in the coil pro- portional to the rate of motion, while the resulting current causes deflections of the galvanometer and the transmis- sion of the electromotive force to its coll or winding. The colls and magnets of the seis- Seismometer Registers Waves From Remote Quakes Which Flow Through Rock and Soil at a Speed of About 400 Miles a Minute. mometer and galvanometer and the re- sistance of the electric circuit are so proportioned that the action is almost the same as though the steady mass of the seismometer and the mirror of the galvanometer were connected mechan- fcally by a lever system, resulting in a large magnification. Furthermore, the light beam reflected from the galva- nometer mirror acts like a long pointer and tends to increase the magnification of the earth’s movements. ‘The original vibrations from a distant earthquake as registered by the Wenner seismometer have periods of from one to five seconds. For these short in- tervals the displacements registered on the photographic paper are about 1,000 times larger than the actual movements of the earth. The magnification of these movements is smaller as the earthquake continues. * oK K K MODERN man marvels at the high speed attained by racing automo- biles at Daytona Beach, Fla., where one American driver established a world's record of 205 miles an hour in a spe- cially built car last Winter. The speed attained in that time trial was a mer water and enormous amounts of sedi- ment which it empties into the Guif of Mexico. The ocean bottom in that latitude formed the habit of absorbing all this foreign material. The silt, soil and sediment settled into the earth. But when the Mississippi became lazy and tried to deposit the sediment up- stream near the northern boundary of snail's pace as compared with the velocity at which earthquake waves flow through mountains of rock, vast| stretches of soil and are not turned | back even by wide intervening rivers | and lakes. The earthquake waves travel at a pace of 400 miles a minute or faster. Their normal gait is not nearly as fast as the customary speed of light, but it is much more rapid than the ordinary velocity of sound waves. If you will hit the dissembled axle of “n automobile with a sledge hammer ~ou will produce compression waves that low through the metal which are like | he quake waves that race through i erra firma and spread the news of the distant terrestial disturbance. An carth- quake is nothing more than a slippage of the earth’s crust at a fault or point of strain—usually at the base of a mountain. The first wave produced is 1 compression wave that travels in a traight line. It will travel one-sixth ot the way around the world in 10 minutes. The second wave is a trans- verse wave whose velocity is only one- half as fast, and which speeds in the same direction. Other quake waves re- semble ocean waves and flow along ihe surface of the earth. Some others are reflected two or three times or more from the core of the earth in their journeys from the point of the earth- quake to the opposite side of our con-| tinent. | The detecting device at the Bureau of Standards will record such diminu- tive vibrations as movements of the earth as small as one ten-thousandth of an inch. The normal movements of the earth are increased greatly when a quake occurs. The worst California earthquake on record had & maximum | movement of 18 feet. The terrible | quake which caused millions of dollars ,of damage and collected a tremendous , tribute in human lives in Japan several | years ago had a maximum movement of 1,000 feet. An earthquake is liable to occur at any time anywhere on the surface of our spherical world. Some sections are [nppnrsnuy more immune to these dis- | turbances than others. New England |feels light earthquake tremors most ievery year. On the other hand, a I quake has never occurred in Washing- i ton, although the waves from remote | earthquakes are recorded here regu- the Georgetown University ical station. That stretch of is the most fertile incubator of destruc- juskes in the United States. Sarkh's srust never until an earthquake has occurred ot that particular point. Subsequent | quakes may occur at the same place regularly for hundreds or thousands of years. * kK X Tl-l! history of American earthquakes 1s productive in freaks and sensa- tions. One such was staged in the Lower Mississippi Valley. This mighty river is & cawier of & vash yolume ‘I Louisiana, it selected a point where the SPECIAL CAMERA USED IN PHOTOGRAPHING MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH. crust of the earth was unyielding. The most destructive earthquake on this continent resulted at New Madrid, La., more than a century ago. : Do not form the incorrect impression that the experts of the Bureau of Standards are invading the flelds of ‘meteorologigal research ‘as a result of their invention of a new seismometer. ‘The Department of Commerce has no of | intention of fostering such experimenta~ lr tion nor of establishing another seismo- logical station in our National Capital. Mr. Wenner and his aides merely seek to develop more accurate and better standardized instruments for the use of trained seismologists. United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is also co- operating in this important work. Science knows much about earthquakes, bu]l there still remain vital riddles to solve. The best earthquake records ever ob- tained in the history of seismological research have been made with the new apparatus originated at the Bureau of Standards. A somewhat similar seis- mometer was perfected some years ago by a Russian prince and scientist, but it was much more complicated, costly and not as accurate as Mr. Wenner's apparatus. The new American sels- mometer is relatively inexpensive, is wonderfully accurate and boasts of re- markably low upkeep costs. The apparatus now in use in Cleve- land Park records only the north and south components of the earth's move- ments. Another quite different outfit is now being designed and built by Uncle Sam to keep tab on the up and down vibrations of this world of ours. It be a simple matter to construct | a third apparatus like the first to reg- | ister the east and west movements. Such a trio of seismometers will ab- stract from the quake waves which flow through the earth complete information about distant disturbances that occur thousands of miles away from the point of sclentific record and study. Largest Diamond. 'HE recent opening of Parliament in London when Queen Mary wore her real jewels, recalls to mind the gift to the American Museum of Natural His- tory of a model of the famous Cullinan diamond by a diamond company of Jo- hannesburg in 1905. The Transvaal government paid $1,000,000 for this gem and presented it to King Edward |Ul. It was subsequently cut in two parts to ornament the crown and scep- the dimong beiors eutting wes S3537 oD ore cul was 3,253, cl{:u, or 22.5 ounces. g was found in the Premier mine, Transvaal, South Africa, about 18 feet below the surface of the earth, and the discoverer was attracted by the brilliance of a small corner of the stone which was visible. It measured 4 by 2!3 by 2 inches. . The Cullinan diamond received its name after the founder of the mine in which it was found. It is about three times as large as the Excelsior stone, which was found in 1905 and which until the Cullinan diamond was discov= ered was the largest on earth. The Ex« celsior weight 970 carats, and when cut into smaller stones it brought $2,000,- was pamed 0, the largest of which galmwm F