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EDITORIAL PAGE
I tiny Man WILL Move This Earth
Ccpyrttfht, 1012. by the Star Company Great Britain Right* FUoerred.
HIS is an interesting planet that
we inhabit -
gy rhi zt is heated b y a hot watcr
system that never gets out of
order. And the hottest 7 —ls of
th ' net are cooled by a cold
water system that flows ceaselessly.
The greatest river on earth IS IN THE
OCEAN.
Without that rive r called the Gulf Stream,
and the heat that it carries England would be
frozen up, as worthless agriculturally as
Labrador.
Carrol Livingston Riker has written a
book to show that man can control the great
Gulf Stream, and by building a mole or jetty
in the right place can increase the value of the
Culf Stream as a heating stream, and the value
of the cold Labrador current for cooling off
the tronics.
The possibility of controlling the Gulf
Stream had been mentioned more than once be
jre the appearance of Mr. Riker’s interesting
and valuable book.
On September 11, 1901, under the heading
“England, Snow Storm and the Gulf Stream,’’
the Hearst papers, published an editorial sug
gesting that the United States, with a mole, or
dike and sluice gates, running from Florida
over to Cuba, might in the distant future con
trol England’s hot water supply, and sell hot
water to England at so much per bil
lion cubic yards.
Mr. Riker’s book, very serious and
dealing with possibilities that are al
most immediate, deals with the great
problem of earth control and the con
trol of ocean currents, most interesting
ly and fascinatingly.
It will do all of us good to think to
day about the wonders of this earth,
md the powers man is to exercise
in the ages ahead of us.
The greatest river in the world, and
one almost inconceivable to our little
minds, is rushing on forever out in the deep
This river is the Gulf Stream. It starts in
he Gulf of Mexico, where the waters are heated
by the sun, and possibly by sources of heat
rmdereround of which we know nothing.
Starting from the Gulf, the great river of
hot water flows north and east, warms the coast
of France, heats Ireland and the British Islands,
and saves the whole of Great Britain from be
ing a frozen and worthless territory.
Os this wonderful stream, one writer,
Maury says:
“There is a river in the ocean, the Gulf of
Mexico is its fountain, its mouth is in the Arctic
Ocean, its current more rapid than the Missis
sippi, the most majestic flow of water in the
world, which transfers more heat than would a
stream of molten iron the size and velocity of
the Mississippi. It is the ‘Gulf Stream.’ ”
* « «
There is a heating plant, dearly beloved,
that would make any plumber or suburban
dweller green with envy.
Think of a stream of water that carries with
it more heat than would be carried by a stream
of melted iron as big and as swift as the Missis
sippi River.
Concerning that same wonderful stream,
Lieutenant Pillsbury, of the United States Navy,
writes (we quote Mr. Riker’s book):
“It is difficult for the mind to grasp the
immensity of this great ocean river. Its waters
are characterized by a deep blue color, great
clearness and high temperature. The moisture
and varying temperature of the land depend
largely upon the position of these currents. The
Gulf Stream is the greatest and most mighty of
all terrestrial phenomena. The observations,
taken at its narrowest point, were between three
anH four thousand in number, surface and sub
surface, and a calculation of the average volume
? 'snna Cape Florida in one hour gives the
enorm on? sum of ninety billion cubic yards. One
begins to think that all the wonders of the world
combined cannot equal tlds one river in the
ocean.’’
♦ ♦ ♦
That wonderful river out in the ocean is
F'eater than all of the wonders of the world com
brned. It makes such a stream as the Missis
sippi. or such a mass wa ter as the waters of
u v seem childish and uninteresting. It
protects whole nations from freezing, keeps the
ice of the North from overwhelm-
The Atlanta Georgian
Ice Will Be Shifted, the Centre
of Gravity Changed, Weather and
Temperature Controlled Absolutely
by the Men to Whom This Earth
Is Given,
Archimedes Said That With a
Lever and Fulcrum He Could Move
the Earth, Man With the Aid of
Science and His Own Brain, With
No Lever and No Fulcrum Outside
of This Planet, Will Control It, Move
It and Direct It. We Have No Con
ception of the Achievements That
Await the Human Race When Real
Civilization and Thought Shall Rule
on This Planet,
ilu IHy I Wk
Ing the UnAed States, in which we live—and we
know and think little or nothing about it.
Do you realize what this wonderful stream
does for the North, and for the heating of our
globe, and th* fighting of Arctic snows and ice
bergs, when you read in the report of John C.
Soley, of the United States Navy, that the Gulf
Stream does more than the sun itself to heat the
Arctic Circle?
♦ ♦ «
Our wonderful planet has this great river of
heat going from the south to the north to pro
tect us from extreme cold.
And at the same time our Mother Earth has
another great current of cold water, flowing
from the north to the south, to moderate the in
tense heat of the tropics.
As the Gulf Stream flows north and east to
warm the earth the so-called “Labrador Cur
rent” comes down from the Arctic Circle,
sweeps over the great banks southeast of New
foundland and carries with it the cold for which
the tropical inhabitant longs.
That stream of freezing water represents a
refrigerating effect, according to Mr. Riker, cap
able of freezing TWO MILLION TONS OF ICE
EVERY SECOND.
Think of that as a refrigerating plant for
this old earth.
And at the same time remember that the
heating power of the wonderful Gulf Stream is
greater than that which could be produced “by
the burning of one million tons of coal every
minute.”
We worry about our coal supply, wonder
when it will give out, and what we shall do then.
Lucky for us that we use our coal only to
heat our tiny little houses, factories and mills.
If we had to burn coal to supply the heat that
the Gulf Stream gives us without charge and
without trouble we should use up our coal at the
rate of a million tons a minute—and how long
would it last?
It is difficult for the mind to imagine any
thing more extraordinary, more marvelous than
these two great currents of water, one sweeping
north to give its heat to the lands that need heat
and the other flowing down from the north to
carry the cold water and the refrigerating power
toward the tropics.
Wonderful is Nature—but Nature of her
self is never perfect. MAN THROUGH HIS
INTELLIGENCE TRANSCENDS THE
POWER OF NATURE AND IS ALONE CAP
ABLE OF ESTABLISHING FINALLY HAR
MONIOUS CONDITIONS ON THIS PLANET.
Nature gives us only the rough material, the
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26. 1912.
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coal in the ground, the ore in the mountains, the
fields ready for cultivation, the power of the
waterfalls, of the suns and the tides, and the
marvelous currents of heat and cold.
Man must dig the coal, melt the ore ar.d har
ness the waterfalls, utilize the power of the suns
and tides, and eventually, marvelous and strange
as it seems to us weak mortals now, man must
control and direct those vast rivers of heat and
cold that rush through the ocean so near to our
continent.
e « e
It is this fascinating problem that Mr. Riker
discusses in his book (“Power and Control of
the Gulf Stream,” published by Baker & Tay
lor). Mr. Riker is to be congratulated that fear
of ridicule, or talk of “dreaming and Utopian
cm. ’ ’ has not frightened him from discussion of
the highest problems, those that will be the
every-day working problems of mankind in the
future.
« * «
It happens, as Mr. Riker points out, that the
icy current of Labrador on its way south comes
in contact with the warm Gulf Stream, bound on
its journey to the northeast.
This conflict (the crossing of the two
streams) is unfortunate and wasteful. The Lab
rador Current, with its freezing waters, takes
from the Gulf Stream part of its beneficial power
nAMoH hv tho nni r.hr.. coast nf Rurooe.
And Gulf Stream, with its hot water,
takes from that Labrador Current a great part
of its valuable refrigerating power needed in the
tropics.
_ Jhe two currents meet at the great banks southeast
of Newfoundland.
It is Mr. Riker s interesting and daring suggestion
that a mole or dike be built by man across the shallow
waters that cover the great banks, thus preventing the
mingling of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current.
Mr. Riker maintains that such a dike could be built
even now by man with his puny forces and resources,
and that such a great work would double the value of the
Gulf Stream and greatly increase also the value of that
refrigerating current from the North.
«■ e «
It is not the purpose here to discuss, to indorse or re
fute Mr. Riker's suggestion.
It may be that the thing could be done even now.
Quite certainly it will not be done for many centuries.
Unquestionably the greatest care and foresight
would be necessary before performing a great surgical
operation on our planet, such as that which Mr. Riker
suggests.
Possibly that Labrador Current in its sweep would
be too much for poor New England, if it should take it
into its head to rush down in that direction with its icy
coldness not tempered by the heat of the Gulf Stream.
It ir quite certain that the nations of Europe would
THE HOME PAPER
ask many questions and demand very clear explanation t
they found us engaged in tampering with their hot wate:
supply, the loss of which would make all of Scandinavi
uninhabitable, and make of Great Britain and Ireland
dreary, frozen waste.
The question is not, Will man do this thing NOW
The interesting fact is that he WILL do such things a. 1
this, and greater things, in the days to come.
There was a day when man could not control hu
own humble dwelling. When it rained he was wet, when
the wind blew it blew on him as he shivered before hit
smoking fire. When the snow fell, it fell on him. In the
cold weather he suffered from the cold, and in the hot
weather he suffered from the heat.
Now men live in great light and warm palaces. They
keep out rain, wind and snow. They can control the
temperature indoors absolutely, getting any degree of
heat they want in Winter, and any degree of cold they
want in Summer.
WHAT MAN DOES TO-DAY WITH HIS INDI
VIDUAL HOME HE WILL DO IN THE AGES TO COME
WITH THE UNIVERSAL HOME, THE EARTH UPON
WHICH WE LIVE.
Man will control weather, cold, wind and rain all
over the surface of this planet. Arid, what is more, by
doing away with the great accumulations of ice at the
North he wall regulate, if he chooses, and actually
change the movements of the earth on its axis in the
journey around the sun. •
Some will say that life would be dull if man con
trolled everything. The Indians used to say that they
did not care to eat if they had to get meat from the
butcher shop. They wanted the excitement and fun of
killing it first.
Primitive and savage minds want the excitement of
fun, of snow storms, of hail storms and wind storms.
But man in the future, having absolute control of
this earth, directing it, managing it, using it as a dwelling
a footstool, and a vantage point for the study of the real
world which is the outside universe, will look back with
pity on this day, when men and their crops, their wealth
and their happiness, were at the mercy of wind and rain
and cold and fog.
* ♦ £ «
Some will laugh at the suggestion that men will on«
day control the earth and its vast ocean currents.
Others long ago laughed at the first man who tried
to run a boat with sails, and at the first man who tried
steam, and at the first man who tried to fly.
“It hath not been shewn what we shall be."
Only the thousands of centuries that stretch ahead of
man on this planet will tell the story of his achievements
Only the man able io think, free from the tramrnels
of limited imagination, can dimly see what that future
will be, when this earth will be subject to man absolutely,
when all the forces of the earth and the sun will be at
man’s disposal.
Man, having conquered this planet, fixed his honw
here and opened communication’with higher and olde T
races on other planets, will begin hi" real intellectual-’/
as one in the great family of thinking races that circ- e
round the sun. each master and ruler in its own house
“In my Father’s house there are many mansions.
This planet is cue of those mansions, and the mill’ 0 ’ 1 ®
of shine out at night, all ruled and regulated by
the thinking beings that inhabit them.