WILL HEAD WAR COMMITTEE

Professor J. B. Woodworth '94 has been appointed chairman of the subcommittee on the use of seismographs in war of the National Research Council. Professor A. G. McAdie, A.M. '85, director of the Blue Hill Observatory, has also been appointed a member of this committee. Professor Woodworth and Professor W. W. Atwood, of the Department of Physiography, have been appointed members of the subcommittee on geology and paleontology.

Professor Woodworth has been in charge of the University seismographic station since 1908. The seismographic is used to detect movements in the earth's crust, and in war to detect the location of hostile batteries, for gun-fire affects the landscape much like an earthquake. The tremors of the crust due to gun-fire can be recorded by this instrument.

When the seismograph is sufficiently sensitive it is possible to tell not only the position of the hostile artillery, but also its calibre--the last requiring a practised eye. It is also possible to distinguish in the tremors recorded by the instrument the difference between shocks produced by the fall of projectiles, and those caused by the recoil of the guns. It is through the shock produced by the fall of the projectile that the calibre of the firing battery may be determined.

European military scientists who have made the most intensive study of the use of the seismograph in this connection have suggested building movable seismograph stations ten or 12 miles in the rear of the trenches, and connected with them by telephone so that trained observers can transmit information relating to the size, position and calibre of the enemy's batteries to the commanding officer.