Professor Bigelow Heads Oceanographic Institute Begun by $2,500,000 Rockefeller Foundation Gift

Dr. Henry B. Bigelow '01, recently elected to a professorship in the Department of Zoology, announces his intention of retaining his University status in addition to his appointment as Director of the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute. Dr. Bigelow is taking to Wood's Hole with him in June, the entire Harvard staff, consisting of Columbus O'D. Iselin '26, recently elected Curator of Oceanography, who is to be master of the vessel, and Miss Virginia B. Walker, who is to be Secretary of the Institute.

Associated with Dr. Bigelow in connection with the U. S. Ice Patrol is Olaf Mosby, formerly of the Geophysical Institute at Bergen, Norway.

The new school of oceanography at Wood's Hole has been founded with the gift of $2,500,000 granted by the Rockefeller Foundation at the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences. One million is to be used to build and equip the school, $1,000,000 for a permanent endowment fund, and $500,000 as a special operating fund for the first decade, to be paid in annual installments of $50,000.

Already Incorporated

Given this impetus the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has been incorporated and chartered, a paper organization projected, and a ship ordered. Already the shell of the four story building which will house the laboratories and administrative offices of the institute has been completed. It is expected to be ready for occupancy by the summer of 1931.

The choice of Woods Hole as the site for the headquarters of the new institution was reached only after a careful consideration of all other possible situations along the Atlantic Coast of North America. The final decision was based on the combined advantages of close proximity to two world-famed laboratories of marine biology, and on the exceptional opportunity for illustrative investigations that is offered by the neighboring waters.

Woods Hole Ideal Place

The first of these inducements needs no explanation. The second depends in part upon the ease with which the transition from inshore to offshore waters can be reached from Woods Hole, on the abruptness of that transition, and on proximity to the continental slope and abyss. At the same time, the Gulf of Maine, close at hand with its tributaries, offers a more promising field for intensive investigations into the interaction between the physical-chemical and the biologic aspects of Oceanography than any other sector of comparable extent along the coast of America. The thermal diversity, regional, bathymetric and seasonal, is also wide, with temperatures ranging below the freezing-point of fresh water to values almost tropical within a few miles of "The Hole."

The initial board as it stands at present follows: Dr. Thomas Barbour '06. Dr. Henry B. Bigelow '01, director, Dr. William Bowie, Dr. E. G. Conklin '26, Mr. Newcomb Carlton, Dr. Benjamin M. Duggar '95, Dr. Frank R. Lillie, president. Dr. John C. Merriam, Mr. Seward D. Prosser, Mr. Lawrason Riggs, Jr. '15, treasurer, Mr. Elihu Root, Jr. '06, Dr. Harlow Shapley, Dr. T. O. Wayland Vaughan '93. The by-laws provide for an increase in the number of trustees up to twenty-four.

At present few opportunities are open for the student of Oceanography to gain experience in the technique of his subject, and the first hand intimacy with the sea that he requires as a background for his detailed studies. The institution therefore, expects to offer to university students instruction in oceanographic methods by participation both in the cruises and in the general work of the laboratory. There will be no formal classes.

To carry out this part of the program, as well as to make the facilities available to qualified investigators, friendly and continuing relations with universities are obviously essential. Equally essential will be a constant endeavor to encourage the coordination of effort between various scientific institutions of this and other countries, that is especially needed in Oceanography, where the area to be covered is so vast and where so many fields of science intertwine.

Determining Sediment

In one line of sea investigation an 800 pound sounding tube is plunged into the ocean floor, in order to bring to the surface a core of mud three or more feet in length.

Quite often the tube must be dropped 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms in order to reach the bottom. Because of the slow accumulation of sediment in midocean this tiny core of mud may represent thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. Scientific interest lies in measuring the thickness of these stratifications of mud cores in order to determine former changes in depth and climate. Telegraph companies are particularly interested in this work, because they wish to learn how fast matter accumulates on the sea bottom in order to avoid laying cables in regions where the rate of deposition is greatest.

Dr. Bigelow, professor of Oceanography, will undertake the project as an experienced marine biologist, having had training under Alexander Agassiz in 1901, aboard the Albatross on the Indian Ocean, and having since dotted his Harvard research work with expeditions for the United States Bureau of Fisheries.

It would, indeed, have been quite within the technical abilities of the Romans of Pliny's day to develop the depths of the Mediterranean and to explore its biota, though of course examination of the temperature and salinities of the sea must in any case have awaited the development of the sciences of physics and chemistry as we now know them.

Oceanography 58 Years Old

Students of the history of science may well date the birth of modern Oceanography from December 21, 1872, the day when the Challenger set sail from Ports-mouth, England, on her memorable voyage. Thenceforth, with every fresh venture below the surface of the sea, such a flood of new facts came pouring in that it seemed for a time as though this fact catching could never lose its novelty. One great deep-sea expedition led to another and more was learned about the sea during the last thirty years of the nineteenth century than had been during the preceding three thousand.

The purpose of the new school is to make the ocean give up more of the mysteries of life, depth, and geography, mysteries that it has held for centuries. The accomplishments they hope to gain are fourfold:

They intend first to study the courses of ocean currents, their effects on climate and their use as agents of transportation for marine life.

They intend second to study the limiting factors in the distribution of marine life, temperature of the sea, chemical factors and the fertility of the water.

They will study the bottom deposits for former changes in depth and climate and process of sedimentation.

Finally they will attempt general deep sea biological investigations.