The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 30, 1903, Page 12

Showing the Difference Between San Francisco and Mt. 1 accurate height of Mt. Whitney was determined by Professor McAdie of the San Francisco Weather Bureau by the must delicate ba- e ever made. Thus the fall of the barometer from the normal pressure of 30 inches at sea level was hes and a fraction on the extreme summit of Mt, Whitney; or, as Professor McAdie has indicated by the arrow line on the photograph ificent California peak ascends nearly hali-way through the whole depth of the atmospheré surrounding the earth. At fifteen miles high lie says there is no appreciable atmosphere at ail, and the arrow at the bottom indicates where the mercury would fall to at that dizzy height. surements Professor McAdie places the height of Mt. Whitney at 14,515 feet, which is considerably lower than it was ever given before, but g Alaska.—(Photos by Stanford Studio.) ent of the at t peak w how a mountain is or are you one of those believe it is done with a tape d a plece of chalk? Bounds 10 at first blush @oesn't of how you task were it matter, indeed d accomplish the 2 you. No easy , can you imagine aking such a feat merely e of the thing? Ah, that without which plodding, pri- is the passior gt o the amazement of a great many people—scientists among them—the tip- top-knot of the whole United States— that is, all of Uncle Sam’s domain situ- wted this side of the C dian frontier— has just received a very close shaye at of Professor A. G. McAdis, isco's own weather bureau ree or four kindred spirits in advanced science, and in as lost & few hundred feet d altitude hitherto credited t Whitney, one of the and the most ain in the world. BSince State was wrested from the padres it has been measured over r agein and each time it shrinks more, sometimes at such an g rate that one would not be Beriously speaking, however, it is doubt- ful If the latest figures secured by Pro- fessor McAdie end his famous party will ever be changed. They are the most com- plete and exhaustive that have ever been made, and as the instruments with which the urements were taken are the most " perfect of their kind ,k obtaingble t Whitney is 14515 feet high accepted as absolutely accurate end consequently final. N CN ‘l\.—.-\\\\\ ospheric pre in the United States, exclu Professor McAdie's statement N That makes this peak nearly 400 feet lower than everybody thought it was a couple of months ago, and now that you you may not think much of the information. However, when you learn something of the herolc qualities involved in out that single fact—and facts like this are worth knowing—your opin- fon may be exalted in just the reverse ratio of Mount Whitney's decrease. To begin with, it was a record breaking party of more than 200 members of the Sierra Club that left this city to explore Mount Whitney and vicinity on June 25 last, and in it were many ladies, all ready and eager to brave the dangers and hard- ships of mountain climbing: And dan- gers and hardships there were a plenty before nearly 100 of them—the greatest number that ever made such an ascent at one time—reached the top of America’s highest mountain. From this city the party proceeded to Visalla by rall and thence to Mineral King by stage. From there on there was nothing for it but to walk and walk and walk—a good 125 miles in all, before the round trip back to the stage was com- pleted. First across the high ridge through Farewell Pass to Buillon Flat and thence to Coyote Creek, where the permanent camp was established at its junction with Kern River, and Mount Whitney still more than eighteen miled away to the northeast. And then the real serious climbing had only begun. The feat is something stupendous, as you may realize from the fact that though the summit was only 18 miles away In an air line, each and every one of that big party had to walk over twice that distance to reach the top. On the side from which the ascent was made the fall to Kern River is over 8000 feet in 18 miles. On the eastern side it is even ore sheer and frightful, for within a distance of 7 miles this snow capped mountain has a fall of 11,000 feet. From the top It is uke looking down an ele- vator shaft at Independence over twenty miles away And it was on such a hazardous jaunt as this that Professor McAdle carried the huge barometer shown on this page, step by step every foot of the way, from the Weather Bureau on top of the Mills build- ing in this city to the topmost point of the United States and back again to the Mills building without a single accident. It is a feat to be proud of, for carrying a barometer is a more delicate and nerve racking task than carrying a three months’ old baby the same distance. The slightest jar, a sudden slip of only a cou- ple of feet, is sufficient to break the glass and scatter mercury, like limpld moon- beams In a hundred crevices. Moreover it has to be carried Inverted, the bulb end on top, straight up and down, without change or varlation, of the angle, hour after hour, day af@¥r day of the whole twenty-two days that were consumed in making the journey. For a single viola- tion of this ironclad rule the only other barometer in the party was broken soon after the descent was begun. Thus it was that Professor McAdie was kept on the anxlous seat throughout the entire trip. Bundled up in its wooden and canvas case the barometer looks like heavy-welght fishing tackle, and everybody in the party seemed possesed of an Insane desire to relleve the pro- fessor of his precious burden. Ladfes especially would approach him and say: “So sorry, professor, to see you 80 over- loaded. Can I relleve you on that leather case?” But the famous weather man, with all his hopes of settling a much mooted ques- tion, staked upon keeping that long, 30- inch column of shining liquid intact would shy off like & school girl and grip the barometer closer than ever until his vigilance, upon which all the success of the expedition ac‘ually depended, was strained to the point of distraction. Thus crawling across the snow of the OALL. THE SUNDAY § Whitney. Whitney chimney, in the cold early dawn of morning, when the foothold was haz- ardous and nerve racking, in the painful upward climb, or coming down the slide again, or fording Kern River on horseback with the barometer raised high in the air to keep it straight up and down and pre- vent it being jolted by the pack animals, or hanging it high in the trees at night 80 that no prowlers might reach it and then sleeping with one eye upon it until the journey was resumed, or standing off the porter on the train, who obsequiously wanted to stow it away in the hangers overhead, the awful anxiety was ever present and made eternal watchfulness not only a virtue but a necessity, Now that all his figures are complete, beyond the peradventure of a doubt Pro- fessor McAdie laughs with those who laughed then, but for twenty-two days it ‘Wwas no laughing matter to any of the sci- entifle gentlemen who made up the first party of mountain climbers. In like manner Mr. Joseph Le Conte, one of the highest authorities {n the West on engineering problems, nursed and guarded a transit, a brand new instru- ment, and one of the most perfect of its kimd ever made, about which a really capital an. at the same time typical story is told. It appears that Mr. Le Conte had come down town, money laden, to purchase a fine present as a surprise to his wife and dropped Into the Weather Bureau to see Professor McAdie. The two young scientists are on the very best of intimate terms and In the course of the afternoon quite casually visited a prominent instrument manufacturer. Here it was that “Joe,” as Professor McAdie familiarly calls him, first saw the transit that bids fair to become famous and, ut- terly carried away with delight at the excellent merits of the instrument, purchased it on the spot and never again thought of the present he was to have made until he awakened to a crestfallen realization of what he had done, just AN \\'i' NN N N N8 v 4 Y ;‘&‘h\\x How the Mountain Was Measured. By Prof. A. G. McAdie of the U. S.-Weather Bureau. §——3 T is a strange thing that in the Western part of the United States there are se many peaks 14,000 feet and slightly over. For instance, in Dr. Garnett's Dictionary of Altitudes, published in 159 by the United States Geological Survey, the height of Mount Rainfer is given as 14,526 feet, Mount Shasta In Califofnia as 14,350 feet and Mount Whitney 14,898 feet. In Colorado there are a number of peaks that exceed M,- 000 feet. The highest, measured by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, appears to be Un- | conpahgre, 14,289 feet. Pike's Peak is given by the same authority as 14,108 feet. = The dear people of Washington, Oregon, Nevada and a few of the other Wese ern States thought they had peaks much higher than Mount Whitney, so it should be very gratifying to California that this magnificent mountain is the top of the United States; that is, of course, exclud- ing Alaska. It 1s a remarkable fact that ne mountain of this class has been measured as often or as accurately as Mount Whitney, but it must be remembered, as with all other mountains, subsequent measurements senerally reduce the figures given at first. This seems strange, indeed, though the present accuracy W due, of course, almost solely to more refined methods of measurements. The formula now used for the barometrical reduction takes into account differences in the tempera. ture of the whole alr column and get a truer mean value than formerly. For the benefit of the unscien. tific it might be explained that the mean temperature is the average from the bottom to the top of the air—not the temperature at any one point. Thus it may be very warm at the bottom—say %0 degrees— and very cold at the top—say 60 degrees. The mean temperature would therefore be the average be tween the two extremes, The atmosphere is the earth's jacket. It is its whole wardrobe, its only garment. At night, whes the earth pulls the blankets around us, it draws the clouds down. By day the covers are thrown oft The depth of this atmosphere used to be given at forty miles, but it is known now to be less than half If the air were uniformly dense we would only have to go five miles high to get the upper lmit but of course it {s not. It keeps on getting rarer and rarer as five miles high to get to the upper Lmit be given it is very likely that above fifteen miles there is no appreciable atmosphere. These are fmportant points for you to remember. As you doubtless know the barometer is an in- strument for defermining the pressure of the air, and of course the pressure is greatest at the bottom of the atmosphere, Our atmosphere is made up of oxygen and nitrogen gases, a little argon and a §0od deal of water vapor down at the bottom. Above 8000 feet there is not very much water vapor, though, at times, a certain amount will be carried up above that limit. & Now at the bottom of the atmosphere the pressure has been found to be sufficient to balance a coi umn of mercury in vacuum 30 inches high. As you go up in the atmosphere the pressure, the eiastis pressure, of these gases becomes less and less, but not at a uniform rate. Thus in San Francisco the barometer will fall one Inch for about 1000 feet and the barometer oa Mount Tamalplas, which is 2500 feet high, will read 27% inches, while at the same time the barometes at the Weather Bureau in the Mills building will read 30 inches. But when you get up to & height of 10,000 feet you then have to go about 1200 feet before the barometer will fall one inch, and this s one reason why Anerold barometers can only give general results because they have a fixed scale Lke a watch dial Thus in going to the extreme height of Mount Whitney the barometer fell to 17 inches and & frao- ton, indicating that 13-30 of the whole atmosphere was below us. Half of the atmosphers would have been below us at 18,000 feet. Now just think what that means. The pressure of the whole atmosphere at sea level is 15 pounds to the square inch, or 2180 pounds to the square foot and when the man who writes editorials for the :emvnpeu says we are llving under high pressure he is quite right. We are living under terrifically igh pressure, Allowing ten square feet of surface on the human body there is a constant total pressure of ten tons upon us. Of course we would be crushed by the weight of that pressure upon us were it not equally distributed. At the top of Mount Whitney we had reduced that pressure’ to about six toms, but we did not know it, because as at sea level it was equally distributed. Our lungs, however, had to do more work to get the usual supply of oxygen. The work of measuring the mountain itself was a serious task, for which the most minute and complete preparations had to be made to guard against the possibility of a fluke of any sort. The gen- tlemen who made up the surveying party proper that accompanied the Sierra Club on its outing to Mount Whitney were Dr. G. K. Gilbert of the United States Geographical BSurvey, who came from ‘Washington to take part in the work; Professor Lawson of the Department of Geology at the Unives mity of California; Marsden Manson of the Board of Public Works, Joseph N. Le Conte, who 1s the boss mountaineer of the whole lot, and myself. Professor Pinchot of the Department of Agricul- ture and Dr. Merriam were expected, but could not go. The barometers carried in the party were a small mountain barometer, the property of the Univers sity of California, which was the same instrument used by Carl Rabe in 1873, when the first measure= ment of Mount Whitney was made. The other barometer, the one shown in the photographs herewith, is a full size standard instrument, about 35 inches long, with verniers reading to the .02 of an inch. This instrument also belongs to the University of California and was kindly loaned for this expedition by Professor Leuschner of the Students’ Observatory. This is also a historical instrument, as it 1 belleved to have been used by Professor Brewer over twenty years ago. It was tested of course at the Weather Bureau previous to the start and again when we returned to be sure that it recorded the stmospheric conditions accurately. And in a journey of over one hundred and twenty-five miles, whiah distance we had to walk, I carried it every step of the way without doing it as much Injury as I ad in the short trip to the photograph gallery to get these pictures taken. Our barometer on top of Mount Whitney on July 8 read 17.0652 inches at 54 degrees, and so on for eight observations, not varying from first to last more than .00022 of an inch. These readings were made every half hour between 9 and 1 o'clock. First I would read it and check it off, then Mr. Le Con would do Itkewise. In this way neither knew what the other’s reading was until we compared notes. In addition to this he took the triangulation with a new transit, the most perfect ever mads, which be bad just bought for this occasion. Now at the same time that we were making our measurements on the top of Whitney one of the gbservers in the Weather Bureau at Independence, 11,000 feet below us, was reading his barometer at the same minute. Just think of it, he was twenty miles away, but we looked right down upon him, qQuite as one might look from the top of the Miils bullding down into Montgomery street. At the same minute, too, comparative readings of the barometer were being made in San Francisco and Ia Fresno, so that we should have a record of what was taking place at sea level, because if the pressure of the atmosphere was rising at sea level it would not be fair to Mount Whitney, as it wou'd maln Mount Whitney read high. On the other hand if the barometer was low at sea level it would maky Mount Whitney read too low. As a matter of fact the barometer at sea level during the hours of our observation on top of the mountain ranged from 30.08 to 30.02 inches, or very nearly normal. Thus we ‘were enabled to make our computations without any difficulty whatever. Taking the difference between the pressure at sea level and the registered pressure at the top of Mount Whitney and allowing for the graduated scale of the fall as the ascent was made and we have Mount Whitney’s actual height, Sanands as the party began work on the summit. AS:4he prosent has How: besit Nabde MeF. tia reticence cannot be induced to say way how a mountain is measured, which Le Conte can afford to laugh with the XUCh about his part in this important ex- will be a revelation to a vast number of others at his scientific ardor and preoccu- pedition, but In another column he has People who are constantly singing the glo- ries of California without knowing what Pekion, dictated a brief account of what was ac- Professor McAdle with his characteris- COmplished, showing in a simple, direct they really are, which I have set down as 14,515, instead of being several hundred feet higher, as set forth in earlier Professor A. G. McAdie Adjusting His Barometer. =%