The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 9, 1900, Page 10

10 THE SUNDAY CALL. n Observatory That Qatches the Wisgles of the North Pole w7 A S?Eglv‘?‘ls 1 the their theory sight t give ug absolutely per- £tars were right there was a tion which mpanying proper nies the rough nd 1o our st motion and ) it is, when rinw it completes its ¢ t & perma for tndivia- e made by ob- bodies. To estab- and variation of a par- £ necessary that all ations should be on that parallel, rthermore as the tions must all anication with each other, it iat all be near some plac and other facilities ovided. nesomeness of the world and the mits of civilization are curiously by the difficulty which the asso- found in geiting four points on 7 ST O koars /“ IR vep-opan h quad- requirements it ary that station should located in regard to moun- and water, which regulate eric conditions and the surround- produce them, so that the m caused by atmospheric refrac- uld be the same in each case. ed to these details was the prime ty that all of the stations should ilities where there were nights well interspersed through s long continued foggy inger- iny one station would render the tions of all useless. . ing the sites the whole surface looked over, and in the t was found that there he whoie continent of meet the requirements tations were finally located within cconds of the same paraliel of lat- it of north 39° 08 10”. One of them one on a small island near in Maryland and the fourth ihe Russian Govern- wn separate expense es- n almost directly oppo- rid from Uklah, on the r and located on the identical re once was the Garden of Eden. £ ir of the national observa- te fitted with tk ame appliances, the principal part of which is what is the ith telescope.” ruments are small, be- -inch aperture, they are unrivalec in their perfection as instru- its of pr measurement. ) the inconcelvable fineness discrimination of the zen- p t is, of course, known mmets wkherever freely sus- toward the center It follows that as they are rt lines there must be a differ- the direction of two plummets only ten feet apart. The zenith enough in its work to itely small angle, which, still there, capable not surement but of mathematical . which Is one-tenth cf a sec- hysical apparatus, though, has its . for nothing is perfect but the mas- nd which seeks 10 work out its the. orles with lifeless metal and glass. To correct the error in this telescope 1t is s0 arranged that each observation can be made in duplicate with the instrument turned right for left in every adjustment, s0 that any mistake in one direction will be balanced by its counterpart the other way. o On G, N —//’4,«-'?576 AN S If a certain lens or mirror within ths instrument throw the image of a star too far to the right, then on reversing the nstrument the same rays are thrown an equal distance to the left, the error is at once apparent and the mean figures glve the correct reading. The telescope is set upon a shaft of solid masonry, which is In turn bedded in a heavy concrete foundation. Measurements as fine as this would be affected by the temporary flexure of parts of the instrument due to unequal heating from variations of the temperature, if made suddenly. It is for the purposs of protecting the walls of the house from the direct rays of the sun that It is surrounded with slatted walls; otherwise the heat might radiate even througa paint and timber. The brass tube of the transit telescope is also surrounded with another heavy tube containing perforations to admit air. Besides all of these precautions the shut- -~ LT\ g/ ter doors of the house are opened two hours before work Is commenced each evening to give the instrument the same temperature as the surrounding atmos- phere. There are as adjuncts to the zenith tel- escope an astronomical clock, ticking off sidereal seconds, and a “meridian mark, which is a stone monument with a metal tablet set in it and notched to show a point on which the instrument can be sighted for testing its accuracy. . marked on the wrong places on the AL Ryt Dyorsenss. HE herE T Vorpy oy So great is the care taken In all of the work that even this stone is sheltered by a tin casing and that again with a slat- ted house, shown in the distance in the picture, lest the elements should warp it and change its position. The necessity for fixing the exact posi- tion of the pole is greater at the present time than ever before, for the speed of ocean steamers, their number and the im- portance of their freight make it neces- gary that the peths of the sea be no less well defined than those above the shores. The stars are the milestones of the sex, end when the mariners wamt to know where they are they can read the an- swers In the stars, but the answers are given in degrees of latitude and longitude. Now, if the meridians and parallels are maps the answer will be wrongly interpreted and the ship will be just that much astray. Nearly every question of as- tronomy and navigation hinges sooner or later on the position of the observer. There, for instance, is the problem of the ellipticity of the earth’s surface, which enters Into every computation of the earth areas or directions. Is the earth flattened at the poles or not? Until the question is settled of the exact figure of the earth no boundary line can be run with exact precision and shoals and dan- gerous rocks cannot be platted with abso- uracy. For now in all measure- T upon land or sea, in sur- veying as well as piatting. there is al- ways an errot to be reckoned with, A mistake in making the proper correction upon the sea s etimes runs the ship upon reefs or shoals. We are not sure of our measuring rod, it were. Imagine a yard stick with thirty-five inches mark- ed out, but it is uncertain whether the space from the thirty-fifth inch to the end of the yard stick is really an inch. If it be either a little longer or shorter than an inch then all measurements made with the stick will contaln a slight error and the stick can only measure correctly when this error is rectified. Counting the equator as one end of this yard stick, the other and unknown end is at the pole. We know there is an error, but - this error cannot be rectified until that unknown inch or any fraction there- of has been accurately measured. It can readily be seen that the contour of the earth at the pole must be reck- oned with, But the mnost decisive data concerning the ellipticity of the earth can only be obtalned through penduium and astronomical observations. When the Question is settled the tables in nautical OB (ERvATs 2y N TERN 3 Tiorm N HER DrorS Mar caliFornia Kas Cne OF These Instruments LoCated at Ukizh. caleulations can be corrected and In due time completed, and beu lines can be run with greater n. Besides this, all sorts of ogteal, tidal, magnetic etoly must be For & knowledge S necessary to a fu!ll ¢ natare’s laws and p: this is t Itimate alm ken about the pole of such phenomena comprehension cesses. An cience. is the handmaiden « progress y victory won for s ence in the materia! comforts pleasures of mankind. When it Is recalled that only within the as systematic ed on In the lities of the ossib future can Geographic interests d but to- s sold! frozen areas they have ready won great es in her name. However, it takes time for sefentific re- sults to be duly eorracted. for sclencs like art is long. while life is short. Much future benefit is vet to be reaped from the v Nansen. Jackson, nodern explorers, north pole, about which so ard? It is simply the mathe- matical point whi¢h marks the northern f the axis of the earth. It ace where thers are 9 degrees of or none. and 360 degrees of longi- tude, or none at all t as one prefers to look at it. A man standing at the pola . could not take Horace Greeley's advice and go west, for there , nor is there north or east have to south o wh way he stepped Should he sta e pole for a would Have but ome night and one What a place of it—a six mont to recuperate March 21 and = rise until to make a night ’ night, with a six months’ day un would rise on not. to The on September 21 following March After the sun wo through- the vens as if rol the horizon, ascending every da every twenty-four hours—a till on Jume 21 it would and a halt Then it wou on Septembe: sine 2. Dur the night at the pole all the heavenly bod ald move in horizontal circles fnstea blique efr- cles, as here. or vert! as they do to an observer at equator. As to physical characteristics at the pole, there would no » Symmes hole, nor a perenntal or & spe- clally rounded m he earth to has de- remembered that ) miles from nutes narth great as from the character- rcle are every- is no veason e marked and ex- * Is Indicated at e will be efther land h as character- r water all about ing more. plorer know the : good fortune to a of the sun { the heavenly t would be whirl upon, such scribed. It mu Nansen reached a the pole, at latitude—a dist New York to F istics within th where much the to suppose that traordinary chara the north pole. The or water at the A x explorer takes fre- of the sun all along ch to determine his a By computation ¥ ched the latitude he should ok g vations should titude or none, and 360 deg tude or none at all. Until the f the pole is fixed theoretical of the ocean’s dan- gers will ev b ct. Rocks will not appear at the places where they are fndi- cated, and international boundaries win be uncertain an its app forth over ¢ as the pole and swing back and the earth. and the other stas years to complete, and s completed Californians will satisfaction of Knowing that every astronomer, navigator and supe veyor the world over will for all time indebted to the Iittle observato n Ukiah for the data on which his calculas tions are primarily based. en the north pole will have been the- ally found. race of T ore vy