THE OCEAN BED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 33, 8 August 1923, Page 2

THE OCEAN BED

MINUTE -EXAMINATION

A PROFESSOR'S TASK.

(FilOM OUK OH'N COERESPOHDEHT.I

SYDNEY, Ist August. •■ Professor W. G. Duffield, of Read* ing University College, England, who is now in Australia, is about to make a scientific examination of the ocean bed by means of highly intricate instruments, which is expected to yield important data regarding gravitation and tho topograhy of the vast tract! I which he under the ocean. The instruments, which comprise thousands of parts, are being placed in the steamer Nestor., and the examination will be made during the vessel's voyage to the United Kingdom. A laboratory will be established in the Nestor s refrigerating chamber, where the instruments are to be kept at a constant temperature throughout the long voyage. Professor Duffield and his assistant will visit the laboratory several times a day. Wires will lead from the room to cabins on the main deck, where there will be recording apparatus and upon which it is hoped to obtain an automatic record of the operation of the force of gravity during the whole voyage. A scientific cine, matograph will be utilised for the pur--pose of continuously recording the height of a barometer, used in connection with the tests.

"The idea o£ nuking the test on board ship, Proiessor Duffield says "is that we desire to find how the attraction of the earth operates over the deep and shallow parts of the ocean. We hope to obtain some information which will lead us to a more accurate knowledge of the shape of the earth and the composition of the earth's crust, also of the nature of the tablelands and mountain ridges along the sea bed. Should any expedition succeed, it will be followed by the dispatch of others across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and'we shall not be satisfied until all the oceans have been thoroughly tested. The .measurements have to. be extraordinarily carefully made. Professor Duffield, who has as h? assistant Mr. T. H. littlewood, M.A, of Oxford University, will travel foi^ oceans in the course of his* investigij tions—two more than Professor 0, Hecker, of Strassburg University, Ger many, dealt with in the last researc* made in 1900. Coming to Australia ij 1914 with the British Association, Professor Duffield, who is a South Australian native, brought with him some of the apparatus he is now installing on the Nestor. "On that occasion," he says, "we obtained certain interesting results which it is now our intention either to confirm or refute, with the results of the Nestor tests."