GEOMAGNETISM AND NAVIGATION

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29262, 21 July 1960, Page 16

GEOMAGNETISM AND NAVIGATION

Talk By Observatory Director “Until as late as 1838 when an Admiralty-sponsored expedition led by Jaimes Clark Ross set out southward to successfully fix the position of the South Magnetic Pole, the study of geo-magnetism was in a very primitive state,” said Mr A. L. CulUngton, director of the Magnetic Observatory, in an address to the Canterbury Astronomical Society. “As a result of the discoveries made by Ross, the Admiralty was able to compile the first reliable navigation chart,” he said. "Before this, a sea captain had to be a first-class astronomer, because navigation was done mainly by the stars.” Mr Cullington said that France, New Zealand, America, Norway. Russia, Japan and Australia had all established geo-magnetic observatories in Antarctica as part of the International Geophysical Year programme. These observatories were intended to be temporary but because the Russians stayed on, the other countries had not been inclined to leave and now the observatories might become permanent. Mr Cullington showed a series of colour slides depicting a stores-replenishing voyage by the Arneb to the joint American-New Zealand base at Cape Hallett last year.