SHIFTING THE GULF STREAM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 2 August 1913, Page 9

SHIFTING THE GULF STREAM.

An eminent mechanical engineer of Brooklyn, who has already been responsible sor many large "engineering experiments, which have worked out successfully, has just put forward a scheme for diverting the Gulf Stream which American scientists declare is not only possible of accomplishment, but which will be a less serious undertaking than the Panama Canal. The progress already made in the details is so _-reat that it is stated that Congress will next session appoint a com- : mission to investigate the scheme. The plan for the diverting of the Gulf Stream includes the provision of a jetty extending for 200 miles into tho ocean from the south-eastern point of Newfoundland, varying in width fi.m 40 miles at the shore to three miles at the. apex, the jetty to be constructed of the sediment carried by the ocean currents. This jetty would have the effect of separating the Gulf Stream and the Labrador current, with the result that America would experience no more severe winters. Professor Garrett Serviss supports this view, and avers that America woull become a semi-tropical country, and that Nova Scotia and Newfoundland would know no more winters. The northern routetoo. would be cleared of icebergs. A ? '. the "La»rador Current and (jult Stream Commission is to be introduced in the next session «f Congress to "investigate and report on the feasibility and cost of causing an obstruction to the Labrador current passing oyer the Grand Banks of New_^n nftW !T d Provid. n K the sum of £20,000 for the cost of such, commission Jhe cost of the provision of tho breakwater is estimated at £43,000.000: find the cost of the sand and sediment barrier at £4,000,000. Mr Living: I i __' *he, on Kmcer who has propounded the scheme, built the first refrigerating warehouse in ' America, fitted out the Celtic m 1874—the fir»-t refrigerating ship in the world— and originated the scheme for draining the Potomac Flats at Washington. His n_J v ir oposal nas bee" received favorably by the scientific advisers of the American Government, and the learned societies of the United States do not propose to offer any opposition to the. appointment of a commission to investigate the details of the scheme and theprobabilities of its successful n-eom-plishment if undertaken