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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1916)
The' Omaha Sunday Bee FART THREE EDITORIAL PAGES ONE TO SIX PART THREE MAGAZINE PAGES ONE TO SIX VOL. XLV XO. 41. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORXIXO, MAKCTI 2fi, 1010. SIXOLK COPY FIVE CKXTK Omaha's Precise Place" on the Earth's -Surface is Found Locating nder the Sun How the U , i if TiTew astronomical transit, usee for dp termining latitude and longitude . ? ft'' j?m . i : i vis .. 1 '-? 5 I ' 1 if 4.. S . ''IT Automobile truck, for transporting geodetic surveying parties Y Tjbeis wht'ch ire embedded tn-coh-1 crete lo msrk ra$aaas stations Ily KIXJAK V. KNVUEIl, WashinBton Corroeiiondent of The Bee. O YOU KNOW juet where Omana lies on e surface of this terreatlal globe that call the earth? Certainly, you say, It lies on the banks of the Missouri river, at the east ern border of the state of Nebraska. . But that reply . Is merely relative. It doesn't fix the position of Omaha In accurate scient'fic terms. This scientific fixing of Omaha has been done by means of such wonderful Instruments as th "astronomical transit." the process of "trtangula tion" and by the most careful and minute meas uiements, made by the United States Coast am Geodetic survey. Up on the high school grounds you can see, probably have seen, two stone pillars net side by side like Druidical ruins. These are the atones on which the instrument o; the Coast and Geodetic survey rested when the scientists determined the exact position of Omaha. And from this spot, as,-a starting point, the sur veys for mapping all of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa were extended, the location of every township and section line and farm "quarters," "eighty" or "forty" was determined. The location of those two parallel stones on the high school grounds Is 95.56 degrees longi tude west and 41.16 degrees of latitude north. That is to say, Omaha Is located 96. 66 de grees of longitude west of Greenwich. Greenwich is a big observatory near London, England, which is set as the. mark from which all places in the world are measured as regards their ' longitude, The earth is divided into 360 degrees, measuring ISO degrees from Greenwich west and 180 de grees from Greenwich east. Latitude means the distance of any point in the world north or south of the equator which Is n arked tero. Omaha Is 41.16 degrees of latitude north of the equator. The north pole is ninety de grees north of the equator. Omaha, therefore. Is not quite half way between the equator and the north pole. Interesting Process of Exact Accuracy The process by which Omaha's position was accurately determined was explained to me by the superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic survey. The locating of any point on the earth's sur face depend .s on two elements, naluely time and the position of some certain heavenly body, either the sun or some star. And the most perfect ac curacy Is requisite in making the observations. It is evident that at any instant of time the losition of the sun in the heavens is different at two different points. Thus, when it is 9 a. m. In San Francisco the sun Is at the noonday zenith ic New York. The mariner out at sea determines his position by this same method. On every ship the cb ronometer is a most Important Instrument. By means of It and the sextant the captain can de termine just where be is in the great watery desert. ( The chronometer Is a clock of supreme ac curacy. It Is kept in a case in the chart room of the ship. It marks Greenwich time. When the captain wants to determine bis position, he takes au observation of the sun with the sextant. One of the other officers keeps an eye ou the chrono meter. At the precise instant when the captalr gits the position of the sun the other officer notef the time on the chronometer. These two ob crvations enable them to determine their position The same method was followed in determining tte position of Omaha when, in 1869, the govern ment undertook to link the charts of the Atlantic ATjK!!!!!r'",'l''''' i : ;- i --r, :. , ., Acetylene signal Jamp xiscd in naitfuJahcit ;:'Zmm-' If.'' ') 1 .'"ill :.. V j'M .1 rvt';-;?if:'':'Vi ' '"''1 v :mmmm m. mmmmmm::. a ;mmmii-;:-aiM r w Where the meridian passes through the- Omaha High Schoo2 frouJZs Sly..,' ' and pacific coasts of this country with a series of longitude determinations at points stretching across the continent. Triangulation of the Short Cut The station at Harvard university, Cambridge, Mass., was used as the initial one in comparing time at all points In this survey. (The position of the Cambridge station had been accurately de term'ned by means of astronomical observations and time flashes over the Atlantic cable with the Greenwich station In England., And so Omaha's position was determined by astronomical obser vations on hlgn school hill and telegraphic flashes for time, with Cambridge. A star was used as the basic heavenly body in determining Omaha's posi tion. It Is too tedious and expensive to determine the position of all points on the earth's surface by this method and therefore another method called "triangulatton" is used. This is based on the simple mathematical fact, which you learned In high school, that "given one side and two angles of a triangle, the other two sides and the third angle can easily be determined. In this process a base line Is measuved with supreme accuracy along the ground. Long nickel steel tapes are used for this- work and the lines measured vary, usually, from four to ten miles in length. So carefully are these lines measured that the error is rarely greater than quarter of an inch in a mile. The necessity for this extreme accuracy is apparent when It is remembered that whatever inaccuracy may be In this line is multi plied as the triangulation process Is carried fur ther. From this primary base line the triangulation advances to as great lengths as the nature of the country permits. In a country like Nebraska sides of triangles twenty-five to forty miles in length are attained. In mountainous regions they sometimes have a side as great aa 100 miles. This i possible because the observers can take their olservations from great altitudes, thus overcom ing the cutting off of their range of vUlon by the curvature of the earth. In the California trl-, angulation is a triangle whose sides measure 133, 107 and 190 miles in length. Towers were used ou the Nebraska prairies by the observers to over come the earth's curvsture. The visibility of statious in such long lines is effected by means of small mirrors reflecting the sclar raya toward the observer. Such a signal may be seen in the telescope, showing like a star of the second magnitude when the outline of the mountain from which it is seen Is indlstlnguish-' able.' When the largest class of instruments Is used in this work the error of the result is reduced t one-fourth of a second. Each angle is measured at least twenty-five times and readings are taken vlth micrometer microscopes. An are of triangulation was extended through Nebraska along the ninety-eighth meridian about sixteen years ago and Its results have been used by map makers for controlling their work in a large part of the state. The Coast and Geodofc survey will do more triangulation in the state as soon as funds are made available by congress. Measuring Elevation Above Sea Level . The elevation of Omaha above the sea was de termined also by the survey and this work has been supplemented by lines of precise levels run by other government organizations, notably th Missouri River commission. 8everal "bench marks" are located in Omaha, one on the old postoffice building at Fifteenth and Dodge streets, which" marks 1,041 feet above sea level. From Ibis one has been run to the present location of the weather bureau in the new post offtce building. Omaha's height above sea level, therefore. Is about equal to three times the height of the Wood men of the World building. The government's oldest scientific bureau the Coast and Geodetic Survey will celebrate, April C and 6, the 100th anniversary of the be ginning of Its field work. 1'resldent Wilson, cab inet ministers and the .country's most eminent scientists will make addresses. A practical ex hibition of the Survey's work will be a leading feature. , Story of the Coast Survey The Survey was established by Thomas Jef ferson In 1811 and a notod Swiss scientist, F. It. llassler, was its first superintendent. Hassler was driven from his native country by the Swiss revolution and for a time after his arrival In the rew republic was professor of mathematics at West Point. The story of bis life was one of un tiling quest for knowledge and indefatigablo la bors in its application. When 21 years of age. In cooperation with Tralles, one of the.flrnt mathe maticians of the day, he began a geodetic survey of Switzerland, bearing the expense of the survey by himself at first until his work was recognized bj the Helvetic government. It Is an Interesting coincidence that the Intro duction of the first geodetic survey u the ancient r public of Switzerland should bo due to the scien tist who was to be first to Introduce t lie accuracy rnd refinements of its methods in t lie first re public of the New World. llassler reached American shores in ISOo at the head of a colony of 120 persons organized by h'msclf and three friends for settlement in South Carolina. Failure to receive any return for ad vrnces of funds for transportation and purchase o lands put blru in financial straits and the sci entist was reduced to great hardships. Two years lster he accepted the place as Instructor at West Icint. When In 1811 provision was made for institut ing the Coast and Geodetic Survey Hasnler was designated to proceed to London for the purchase of Instruments. His mission also was to denign the appliances. The war of 1812 caught him in Kngland and throughout the conflict he was held as an alien enemy. It was not until four years after his arrival that he returned to America und started the next year the work of the Survey. 4 Soon to Celebrate Centenary of Bureau The first operations of the survey were In New York bay and its approaches. Here the main forces of the bureau were engaged until in April, 1M8, it was suspended abruptly by a short-sighted spasm of economy that In 1825 drew from Jeffer son this: "I regret much that the Survey was not carried Into execution. It would have pro cured safety for the navigation of our coast, it would have been an honorable monument of the state of science at this early period of our his tory." The rapid growth of American commerce could not be menaced long, however, by dangers which made navigation of the coast and waterways un certain to sailor and shipowner and in reply to an Imperative demand congress on July 10, 1832, decided that the coast survey should be resumed, 4 4 IV A..;V1.. u 77 J mmmY comc " i fmh firAk Hwvilui m . w'h N M: and HnsKler again became superintcnueut of tha bureau. Besides directing the Survey, Hassler was put in charge at this time of the newly created office of weights and measures, necessity for which had become apparent by his examination of standards ut-ed in the country's cuhtoms houses. This rela tion between the two bureaus remained unbroken until the present Bureau of Standurds was estab lished fourteeu years ugo. Expansion of geodetic operations of the sur vey Into the interior, made in compliance with nets of CongrcsM of 1872 and 1S78, has brought I j completion a blfi network of primary triangula tion, which is the foundation for satisfactory de marcations of political boundaries and the prep aratlon of accurate national, state and county maps. For a study of the law controlling the opera lions of the magnetic needle with its importance to the mariner and every landowuer in the states formed since the American revolution the Survey has carried its investigations along the coasts and aiijacent waters, in every state and territory of the union and iu all the Island possessions under the United States flag except Guam and Samoa, Stations, at which components of the magaetlq force have been' observed, now number 6,000. Dr. E. Lester Jones, present heud of the Sur vey, who is arranging the centennial celebration, plans to have the Swiss minister, Dr. Paul Rltter, take a prominent part in the exercises because Of llassler's connection with Its early history,. ft