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National Geographic : 1910 Mar
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE GRANITE COLUMNS, TEMPLE OE THE SPHINX, GHIZEH, EGYPT more scientific term is "Lines of Equ Magnetic Declination." The first one to construct such a chat was the noted Astronomer Royal c England, Edmund Halley, who, at th expense of the English government sailed over the Atlantic Ocean on th ship Paramour Pink between 1698 an 1700, and in 1701 published the firs "Lines of Equal Magnetic Variation, chiefly, of course, for the Atlantic Ocear Since then various expeditions have bee: sent out and new charts have bee issued. Of such expeditions, the mos recent and extensive was that of th Challenger, 1872-1876, again supporte by the English government. In fact, t that government and to its various scier tific bodies must be given the credit o having contributed most hitherto, of an nation, to the advancement of our know edge of the earth's magnetism. One o its most noted scientific men, Prof. J. A Fleming, thus concludes his excellent ad dress* on "The Earth, a Great Magnet, * Published in the Journal "Terrestrial Mag netism and Atmospheric Electricity," vol. i 1897. delivered to the workingmen of Liver pool, September Io,1896, at the time of the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science: "That great empire which has its cen ter in these islands, but its dominions scattered over distant seas, has been built up primarily on the art of naviga tion, in which the magnetism of the earth is a central fact. Neither its world-wide commerce, nor the naval power which defends its coasts, could exist for a day without the aid of the magnetic com pass." THE MAGNETIC SURVEY OF THE EARTH But, if so much splendid work has already been done, why is it necessary for the Carnegie Institution of Washing ton to do so much? From 1905 to 1908 it had the brigantine, the Galilee, on the Pacific Ocean, the aggregate length of whose cruises amounted to 60,ooo miles. Now it has a specially constructed vessel engaged in magnetic work on the Atlan tic. Its magnetic observers have already penetrated to nearly every part of the earth-Greenland, Baffin Land, Labra dor, Newfoundland, British North Amer ica, Mexico, Central America, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guianas and I OUNTAIN IN THE ALABASTER MOSQUE OF MOHAMMED ALI, CAIRO, EGYPT 230
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