OBSERVATORY LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 124, 21 November 1929, Page 13

OBSERVATORY LIFE

"NO PLACE FOR A WOMAN"

Among the passengers by the Otrauto to Sydney recently was Mrs. H. F. Johnston, wife of the director of the Magnetic Observatory at Watheroo, West Australia. Mrs. Johnston, who is on her way to New Zealand, has spent more than five years at Watheroo, an isolated district 13S miles north of Perth. She was the only woman at the observatory, writes "Isabel-Anne" in the Adelaide "Observer."

Although her home was so far from civilisation, there were no inconveniences. Electricity was. installed in the form of labour-saving devices, such as washing machines and fans, all through the house.

In spite of such ideal domestic conditions, life was anything but ideal. There were all the pests of the desert to combat. "That part of the world is no place for a woman," Mrs. Johnston said. "I shall be very glad to get back among women for a change. If I gave a party at Watheroo, men wero my only guests." Mrs. Johnston, who before her marriage wag woman's editor of the "Lyttelton Times," in New Zealand,, for more than six. years, had some knowlodge of the work of the magnetic observatory, and has been able to help her husband with some of his experiments. Free-lance journalism also helped to break the dreariness of monotony during the years outback. "The children took too much of my tirnri to allow mo to devote much time seriously to anything else," she said, "but terrestrial magnetism is a fascinating subject. I do not know why more women do not become experts in this branch of research work. They take physics courses, but it seems to be one of the least popular professions for women."

According to' Mrs. Johnston, the observatory at Watheroo is one of the only two of its kind in the world. Tho other is at Huancayo, near Lima, South America. The site in West Australia was chosen because it was in practically the same latitude as that in South America, and formed a link with other magnetic stations throughout the world.

It is financed- by the Carnegie Institute in Washington, U.S.A., and; is purely for research work in terrestrial magnetism to establish the co-relation between the electricity in this earth and the air. .•....:.

The isolated position of Watheroo was chosen because of the sensitivity of the instruments. It had to be a site where there was neither iron in the sand nor any disturbance from railways or other magnetic powers.

After her holiday in New Zealand, Mrs. Johnston intends to go to Engluad for two years, and then back to her home in Washington, D.C. Her husband, who is following in a few weeks, is going with a party of scientists in the yacht Carnegie, next year, on a cruise to the South Seas, surveying the ocean and taking soundings.

Tho Carnegie is a. unique, vessel. It is the- only ono" of its kind iii the world, and has not a particle of iron in the whole ship. It will arrivo in S3 rdney at tho beginning of next year.