A UNIQUE LABORATORY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)

A UNIQUE LABORATORY

GIFT TO " EDINBURGH.

Professor Alan Ogilvie has given Edinburgh an "earth sculpture" laboratory. Its purpose is to show, with the aid of models, how rain, rivers and the waves of the sea combine to mould the changing shape of our earth, writes a "Morning r.ist" representative. For example, it will demonstrate how cliffs are formed by the sea. their height de|»on<ling on .the at which the waves hit the I shore; how t lie aggraded plains of a [desert will gradually cover the lower | hill slopes; and how a. river, which is separated front a lake by a scarp summit, may be "captured" by the lake. The professor has had many difficulties with which to contend. 'I he solid I material representing the earth must lie uniform, of a fine texture to suit the reduced scale, and of a tenacity suited to the water movement. He found this in a bed of early lake sediment beneath Edinburgh, recovered during the construction. of a city sewer, his final material being a mixture of this silt with "pot clay." To represent a "rock structure." he'has tried the experiment of blending this mixture in varying proportions. Yet the "rain problem" has not. yet been completely solved. With the height at his disposal in his laboratory Professor Ogilvie has found it difficult to produce a fine enough spray to represent rain on the scale of the model. The model is used for teaching purposes. its layout being changed about | once a week, as the requirement* of I teaching may dictate. It measures eight feet by five feet. He believes i that in some circumstance* it may be possible to list* his model land, waves and rivers for research into past phase* of geological history. In the meantime his laboratorv remains unique.