Antarctic Scientist Of 1910 Expedition

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29382, 8 December 1960, Page 19

Antarctic Scientist Of 1910 Expedition

Flying is now the accepted means of transport to the Antarctic but Sir Charles Wright, a member of the 1910-13 British scientific expedition to the Antarctic, who will fly south on Sunday, said yesterday he would have liked to have gone by ship just to see an iceberg again.

Former direcor of scientific research in the Admiralty from 1934 to 1936, he was recently director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at San Diego, and is now under contract to the Canada Board of Research. His visit to the Antarctic is in connexion with research into geomagnetic effluxions around the earth.

In 1910 Sir Charles Wright was attached to the British party as a glaciologist stationed at Cape Evans, “i hope to be able to see some of the places I visited then,” he said. The work of the scientific party of which he is a member will be based on Byrd Station and is a joint effort by members of Stanford University and the Canada Board of Research. While one party is at Byrd Station another party will be at Great Whale in the Hudson Bay. These two places are on one of the magnetic fields and from these conjugated points they will study the effect of magnetic storms on radio waves. “Pure Research” “It is pure research, as at present we do not know quite what we are looking for. All we know is that when there are magnetic storms, radiation, protons and neutrons from the sun affect the speed with which radio waves move. For example, a wave band that normally travels at 1000 cycles a second may drop right down to only three- waves a second when there is a storm.” From the data that is recorded it was hoped to be able to tabulate which wave lengths were most suitable for sending radio messages. At present there was ho relation with defence matters but it was possible that when the work was finished it could be of importance in defence. Canada, because of the proximity of the Arctic, was very interested in the research going on in Antarctica, particularly where methods of communication were being investigated. Other countries, too, had become interested in Arctic research, and the Russians had at least 20 research stations operating, he said. Increasing Importance The increasing importance of oceanography in matters of defence was realised in the United States, he said. Special boats were being put into commission

as fast as they could be built. It was not merely a matter of mapping ocean currents but also of improving methods of detection of ships and submarines. The advent of the nuclear submarine had not seen any marked improvement in the method of detection of submarines. The old type of acoustical detection was still used, but would probably not prove very successful against the new type of submarine. Since he first began as a scientist in the Admiralty research division soon after World War I the attitude of the armed services to scientists had undergone a marked change. Then scientists’ work had cut across that of other departments, and there had been some complaints. Now the scientist was regarded as essential in defence matters, sr.id Sir Charles Wright. “In fact it could be said that scientists are just as important as soldiers, not more important, for both have their parts to play under the new attitude towards defence that has come with nuclear weapons,” he said.