240 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MONTHLY MARCH, 1920
KINiGS �AY FROM CO'AL HARBOR, THE MINING SETTLE'ME NT' OF THE NORWEGIAN KINGS BAY COAL COMPANY ON ITS SOUTHEIRN SIHORE On the right is ShO"l'lIl the terminus of the most northerly railroad in the world, (78" 56' N.) The line, lYz miles long anJ of 36-inch gage, carries the coal flrom the mine to the harbor.
The Norwegians In Spitsbergen* Their Rightful Claims to Sovereignty of This Archipelago By Charles Rabot Societe de Geographie de Paris
Special interest attachc8 to this article in view of the fact A great deal of this ice skirts South Cape and arr1ves on the that the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference at Paris western co'ast at the sO'uthern point of Prince Charles Fore on November 21 approved the text of an agreement granting "land. In 1915 ,so much eastern ice gathered on the western political suzerainty over the Spitsbergen archipelago to coast that Bell Sound and Ice Fiord were blocked and na vi Norway.-EDITOR. gation wlas very difficult until tlhe end of August. Probably
EVERAL papers concerning Spitsbergen have recently not since the discovery of Spitsbergen, certainly not in the S been published, but they aTe incomplete and inaccurate, last fifty years, had the western co'ast been so obstructed by their authors being unaware of the great work done by ice. the Norwegians in this archipelago and of the recent h�storical It also happens, but very rarely, that owing peI1haps to the research work of the Dutch. It may therefore be useful to a ttempt to present a comprehensive account of geographical SPITSBERGEN progress in Spitsbergen and of the industrial development of this polar land as well as its political history. ICE CONDITIONS ON SPITSBERGEN COASTS. Owing to the climatic effects of a branch of the Gulf Stream, the western {Joast of Spitsbergen and the westernmost part of its northern coast are usually ice-free from July to Octo ber. SomeUmes the western roast is open until December. In 1892, on July 29, 30, and 31, between Jan Mayen and Ice Fiord, I did not see a single cake of ice. Thanks to these cir cumstances tourist-crowded liners in service before the war used to push up from the northwestern corner of Spitsbergen as far as the eightieth parallel to let their passengeI'S enjoy a view of the polar pack. In no otJher part of the world can one reach so high a latitude in open water. By contrast, a polar current fiowiJlg past eastern Spitsber gen, carrying a large amount of ice, blocks the eastern coast of Northeast Land, Barents Island, and Edge Island. Off the southern coast of t'he last-named island a bI1anch of this current takes a westerly direction, rounds South Cape, and runs northward between the Gulf Stream and the western coast of Spitsbergen, carrying masses of ice whtch generally
disappear by early summer. Such is the normal state of the ------j------�jc--;_S JE A ice, but it may be interfered with by the winds. In spring and summer northern and eastern winds prevail, the polar pack drifts southward and closes the generally open waters off the northern coast, while the eastern ice drifts south SKETCH MAP OF SPITSBERGEN ward also, opening Stor Fiord and the sea off the eastern coasts of Northeast Land, Barents Island, and Edge Island. greater fiow of the Gulf Stream, the sea all about Spitsbergen remains o'pen t;he greater part of the summer, and in such sea "Reprinted from the Geographical Review for October-November. sons the ,circumnavigation of the archipelago becomes po'ssible. 1919, published by the American Geographical Society, Broadway 11t This was the case in 1918 and, before that, i'n 1886, 1887, 156th ,Street. New York. Photographs loaned by the Geographical Re1,iew,. 1898, and 1899. MARCH, 1920 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MONTHLY 241
PANORAMA FROM BIDN NEVIS, A SUMMIT' 913 METERS HIGH SOU'DHEAlST OF RE>D BAY, NORTHERN W!IDSiT SPITSBERGEN The view, which extends J3rom south to northwest, shows practically the whole extenlt of the Grand Glacier, which ends in Red Bay on the right. (Photo by Cruptain Gun11lRr Isachsen.)
HISTORY OF EXPLORATION. About the middle of the ,seventeenth century, while the The story of the geographiical eX'ploration of Spitsbergen English whale fishery. declined, the Dutch Whaling industry can be divided into three periods: (1) the Dutch-English, had a rapid development, which was of great advantage to whiClh lasted until tille 'beginning of the eighteenth ,century; geography. Returning home, the Dutch whalers, gave to the cosmolgraphel'
LOOKING SOUTH >DOWN ERDMANN GLAlCIER (RIGHT.. AND CENTER FOREGROUN>D) AN>D ITS OU'1JLEIT VALLElY TO 'DRE FUR THE'R SHORE OF BElLL ISOUND (IN THE BACKGROUND). The massif on the right ,is Mt. Con,way, that on the left, South Halland Ridge. (Photo by Engineer Koller.) 242 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MONTHLY MARCH, 1920 tions went to Spitsibergen under bhe leadership of scientists a Norwegian schooner under the command of Captain DIve, like Otto T'Orell, A. E. NordenskiOld, A. G. Nathor.st, Baron an expert Norwegian ice navigator. Reaohing the southern Gerard de Geer and 'Others. Besides valuable scientific and later the northern coast of Northeast Land, they stated studies they published in 1865 the first (Jhart of the archipel that this land stretched about 43 nautical miles farther east ago based on surveys. This chart has been the basis for later ward than was formerly believed. ones representing fresh discoveries. The British Admimlty's In the following year knowledge of eastern Spitsber.gen chart, reproduces the results of the Swedish surveys. was advanced by N{)rwegian seal hunters. Taking advantage of an open season, Altman, Johnsen, and Nielsen reached King DISCOVERIES BY NORWEGIAN WALRUS HUNTERS. Karl Land and reported that there were several large and During the second half of the nineteenth century no Norwe small island,s divided into two groups by 'a large sound. gian scientist took part in the exploration of Spitsbergen. Johnsen landed on the northeastern point of the eastern group. In 1876 and 1887, eastward of the northeastern point of Northeast Land, two Norwegian walrus hunters, Kjeldsen and E. H. Johannesen, came in ,gLght of an unknown island, White Island, the true Giles Land. In 1889, another Norwegian walrus hunter, Hemming Andreassen, completed our knowl edge concerning King Karl Land by navigating the northern part of the sound dividing the two main islands, Svenska Forland (Swedish Foreland) and King Karl Island. '[Ihis sound was called Rivalen Sound from the name of Andreas sen's ship. According to Professor Nathorst, the sketch map of this Norwegian walrus hunter was not superseded until the survey of this group of islands was made by the Swedish expedition of 1898; it is, however, much more accurate than the ma'p that Dr. W. Kiikenthal, the well-known 2Jo01ogist of Jena, published after visiting King Karl Land in a Norwegian hunting sloop that same summer. So strong is respect for established authority in old Europe that in a new issue of their maps of S'pitsbergen the British and French hydrogmphic offices reproduced the incorrect ISlketch made by the German scienUst ratlher than bhe aocurate one by the Norwegian DOINGYEAR OI'T'Y IN SUMMIDR sbpper. Finally, in 1898, Norwegian hunters, starting from the Nevertheless important discoveries were made by Norwegians. northeastern corner of Northeast Land, discovered beyond About the year 1850 game became scare in the easily accessi ble pa.rts of SpitSbergen, and! Norwegi'an wakus hunters sought new grounds in the generaHy ice-block!ed waters stretching nor.bhW'ard and eastward and made important dis coveries in the hltherto unknown eastern parbs of SpitSbe:rgeIL' The fust step in this direction was taken in 1847, when Oaptain Lund navigated Thymen Sound, between Edge Island and Barents Island, for the first time. At that time Barents Island was not known to be an island; it was represented as a �arge foreland of West Spitsbergen, and Heley Sound wasl shown as a nord. In 1858 Captain Johan Nilsen crossed this inlet from sea to sea, demonstrating the supposed fiord to be a strait. By this discovery the features of eastern Spitsbergen were a'lso completely changed. In 1859 another Norwegian seal hunter, the well-known Elling Carlsen, cruis ing eastward of Edge and Barents Islands, :f1ound hi:mself near an unknown land. This was the islands now named King K'arl Land but then identified with Giles Land, an island seen in 1707 by Commander Giles, the position of Which re m\awed unceT'ta;in at thmt date. Three years Iurter, in 1861, Carlsen for the 'first time circumnavigated the Whole archi pelago-a splendid achievement. DuriRg this cruise the true THE WiHA,ThF A,ND CABLIDWiAY ON ADVENT ,BAY FOR UN nature of Northeast Land was ascertained. It was discov LOADING OOAL FROM 'TIHE MINE A:T LONGYE,AR CITY' ered that the eastern coast of this Ia.rge island is entirely o(J(Jupied by a great glader discharging into tihe sea and White Island a new island, which they named Vilctoria Island. forming the e,astern outflow of an inland-ice mass which cov These seamen also reported that Spitsbergen and Franz Josef ' ers the Wlhole island. In 1864, off the eastern ooast of Land have a fringe of islands between them. These two polar Northeast Land, another gallant Norwegian hunter, Tol;liesen, lands form a dam which prevents the polar pack from flowing rediscovered Stor 0 (Large Island) , seen by Dutch whalers southward in great masses. To this circumstance northern in the seventeenth century. Europe is indebted, in pa.rt, for its relatively mild climate. In 1867, Ronnbl!Jck circumnavigated West SpitSbergen and To summarize, we may say tJhat in eastern Spitsbergen the discovered a group of small islands on the western coast of Norwegian walrus hunters did admirable pioneer work, open Hinlopen Strait in 79° N. ing the way for further scientific expeditions. Also, g1eogra In 1871, un Englh'lh sportsman, B. Leigh Smith, chartered phy is ind�bted to them for detemnining the directions of ice drift around' Spitsbergen. 2The su rvey of the Norwegian exp'loration of ISpitsbergen here given. In order to complete the description of the oontributions summa'l'izes a statement compiled by order of the Norwegian Gove,n to our knowledge of Spitsbergen made by Norwegi,an hunters, ment by Adlolf IHoel, of the University of Christian�a, the leading Norwegian explorer of these islands inl recent years. it must be added that, of the trappers who have been winter- MARCH, 1920 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MONTHLY 243
ing in the islands since the last years of the nineteenth cen mand of Captain lsachsen, numbering, besides the leader of tury to catch bear and fox, eighteen parties made regular the expedition, nine scientists. Extending in all directions the meteorological observations, both on the western and the ea>st survey made on behalf. of the Prince of Monaco, they brought ern islands, with instruments lent by the Meteorological In back maps of northwestern Spitsbergen between the northern stitute of Ohristiani,a, and thus added substantially to our coast, Wijde Bay, ·and Ice Fiord, of the region adjoining knowledge of the climatology of this Arctic land. Green Harbor in the last-named fiord, and of Prince Gharles F1oreland.4 During the two RECENT NORWEGIAN >SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION IN 'l'lIE summers in which the expedi INTERIOR. tion was in the field more In 1906 the last chapter in t'han 2,000 square miles were the exploration of Spitsber mapped, and a great quantity gen was begun by Norwegian of geologioal data was gath scientists, Ulsing new methods ered. of exploration. Until then From 1911 to 1918, under few expeditions had been un the leadership of Adolf Hoel dertaken in the interior, so and Capt'ains Arve Staxrud that practically the whole in and Sverre Rovig, ·topograph land portion of the islands ical and geological surveys remained a terra incognita. were extended to the penin In 1906, the Prince of Monaco, sula between Ice Fiord and THE MiALAR VALLElY LOOKING DOWN (S.oUTHWEST) TO ITS having rtaken Spitsbergen Bell Sound and southward to JUNOl'ION Wl:'l1H ADiVIEINT VALLEY waters as a ·field for oceano- (Photo by Engineer KoUer, 1917.) the coastal region as far as graphical research, began the Horn Sound. The work of systematic survey of the western island. Establishing his the Norwegi'a,ilS in Spitslbergen from 1906 until 1918 may there- headquartells in Cross Bay, he entrusted the mapping of the fore :be summ�rized as follows: mountainous massifs stretching from that bay to Smeeren All the western coastal region a,St far as a point lying three burg to Captain Gunnar Isach-sen of the Norwegi·an army, st�tute miles south of Horn Sound is now .accurately triangu who had been the topographer of Sverdrup's expedition to lated and mapped in detail." That is ·a piece of land about the American Arctic Archipelago. With·a staff .of Norwegian 200 statute miles long and 18 to 58 miles wide, covering 5,600 surveyors and naturalists and with Dr. Louet of the French s'quare miles. For the northern sheets the scale of 1 :200,000 army, Oaptain Isachsen admirably fulfilled his task in tw9 Ihas heen �dopted, and for the southern sheets 1 :100,000 and S'llmmers. 1 :50,000. All these maps will- soon be pu'blished; a chart of The results are of Igreat value.' About 200 square miles of the western coast of Spitsbergen, more nearly correct and Spitsbergen's ice world were mapped by accurate methods more complete than the British and German charts, has al on the scale of 1 :100,000 with contours :of elevation. Never ready been published by the Norwegian Hydrographic Office." before had .such a great area of the interior of Spitsbergen In the coming years the survey wi'll be continued southward; been surveyed, nor an Arctic land mapped so accurately. 'Dhis it is hoped to reach South Cape by 1922. .successful excpedition aroused in Norway a still greater inter These expediUons .also attained geological results of ex est in this regIon. The Norwegian parliament and priv,ate ceptional value. The chief points of interest about these re- citizens granted ,large ·subsidies for pursuing the work ini WINTIDR HUT .oF NORWiIDGIANTRAPPERS AT SA'FE HARHOR, 'lUM.YElLING OVER 'I1HE ICE FIEILn TOWARD THE THRIElEJ NOR'l1HHRN SIHORE OIF ICE FIORD OROWNB, 'I1HlE 'I1HR,EE BUIMIMIITS SEEN AT THE LEiFT (Photo by Dr. Holtedahl, 1909.) (PhO'to iby Captain; Gunnar I GENEiRAL VIEIW OF THE COAL MINE AT LONGYEAR CITY The mine lies on the western side of a small tributary vaHey entering Advenlt Bay from the sonth. The entrance to the mine can be seen high np on the hillside to the left with a ,calbleway leading from it down to the haI'bor on Advent Bay in the center of the view. Tbe houses at th,e foot of the slope are Longyear City. searches ar'e the study of the Devonian on the northern shores, the discovery of Qua,ternary volcanoes and of hot springs on the western shore of Wood HaY,7 and the true determination of the age of the massifs of 'crystalline schists in the north western corner. These schists, ascribed to Archean, belong to the upper Heckla Hoek series (Silurian). Besides these systematic expeditions, there were several others equalay successful. In 1908, Mrs. Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen made a botanical sur vey of the fiord region in West Spitsbergen. The same year and again in 1912 her husband, Dr. Gunnar Holmsen, carefully studied the numerous strata of fossril iceS whose existence in the soU of Spitsibergen was discovered in 1892 by the author of this paper. GLACIAL FEATURES OF WEST SPITSBERGEN. Thanks to the Norwegian expeditions, the peculiar glacial phenomena of West Spitsbergen can now be outlined. In the n'orthwestern corner there ts no ice sheet. The former inland ice, which had tot,al!ly covered the region, [tras shrunk, and now alpine crests rise above the ice to heights of 4,200 feet and delineate great ice streams. But eastward from a line j0'ining Cross Bay with the head of Wood Bay the alpine crests merge into ice-covered plateaus. As reckoned by Isach ,sen, the glaciated area in the ooa,st'al region extending from Smeerenburg Bay and Liefde Bay t0' Cross Bay is 67 per cent 0'f the total 'area. On the 0'ther hand, the great peninsula between Ice Fiord and Bell Sound >yith large plateau ma'ssifs divided by wide valleys bears no arctic character. In that part of Sipitsbergen the glaciation is only local. The large valleys are bare in summer and have boggy soils and meager pastures. Forty years ago numerous herds of reindeer were to be found there in autumn. Southward from Bell Sound SFridtjof Nanseu,: Northern Waters: Ca'ptain Roald Amundsen's Oceanographic Obs'ervations in the Arctic Seas in 1901, Kristiania and around Horn Sound there is 'a rugged land with large Videnskapsselskapets Skrijter: 1 Mat.-naturv. Klasse, 1906 No. 3 coalescing glaciel1s issuing from an ice sheet occupying the in (=pp. 1-145). terior back of the high coastal crests. Bjorn Hetland-Hansen anld Fridtjof Nans'en: The Norwegian Sea: Its Physicall Oceanography Based upon the Norw'egian Researches 7A. Hoe'! and O. Holtedahl: Les nappes de lave, ,les volcans et les 1900-1904 (Reports on Norwegian Fishery and Marine InvestigatioUls, sonrces therma'!es dans les environs da Ia haie Wood an Spitsberg, Christiania, 1909, vol. 2, No. 2). [A standard work.] Kristiania Vid10nskapsselskapets Skrijter: I. Mat.-naturv. Klassf!, "Bjorn Helland-Hansen, and Jiridtjof Nansen: T'he Sea West ot 1911, No. 8 (=pp. 1-37). Adolf Hoel: Nonvelles observations snr Ie Sp[ts'IJergen: The Oceanographic Observations of the Isachsen Spits district volcaniqne dn ,spitsbeJ'lg du nOl'd, ibid., 1914, No. 9 (=pp. bergen E:q>'edition in 1910, Kristiania Vidf!nskapsselskapets Skrifter: 1.33). I. Mat.-naturv. Klasse, 1912, No. 12 (=pp. 1-89). sGnnnar Holmsen: ,spitsbergens jordbnndis og de bidrag dens un "Fridtjof Nansen: Spitsbergen Waters: Oceanographic Observa dersokelse har kunnet gi til forstaaelsen, a v de i arktiske land tions du"ing the Cruise of the "Veslemoy" to Spitsbergen in 1912, optraedende varige isleier i jorden" Norske Geogr. Selskaps Aarbok. Kristiania Vide1tskapsllel81T,apets Skrifter: I. Mat.-naturv. Ktasse 1912-13, Christiania, pp. 1-132� with summary in German, pp. 133-150. 1915, No. 2 (=.pp. 1-132). MARCH, 1920 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MONTHLY 245 trhe most productive coal seams on the island on the western company, the other flags are represented only by a few units. side of Advent Bay, which it bought in 1915 fom the Arctic In 1917 the general commerce between Norway and Spits Co,al Company of Boston, Mass.12 From 1909 to 1915 the bergen attained its highest figure up to that time, $1,240,000; total exporbation of coal by the Boston company amounted in 1918 it was probably much higher, owing to the increase of to 150,000 tons. In the three following years it amounted to coal exports. 85,000 tons.'" This year (1919) the Norwegian company was At Green Harbor the Norwegian Department of Telegraphs also to start tJhe exploitation of another coal deposit at has erected a powerful wireless station communicating with a Green Harbor. station at Ingo, near the North Ca:pe of Norway, and at the The Norwegian Kings Bay Coal Company is working on Norwegian setNements of Longyear City and of Kings Bay the south shore of Kings Bay. and at the Swedi,sh settlement in Bra'ganza Bay secondary There are in additi·on four other Norwegi'an cool companies wireless stations are installed. A Norwegian postal service now beginning development. One has bought the holdings of is established between Norway and Spitsbergen, with three an English company on the northeastern side of Advent Bay postoffices, at Longyear City, Green Harbor, and Kings Bay. and wiN resume work this y�ar. The capital invested in tlhe In 1918, from June to October, postal steamers made 26 six Norwegian collieries amounts to $4,200,000. voyages." At the wireless station at Green Harbor a complete After ohe Norwegi,ans come the Swedish Spitsbergen Coal meteorological station is working whose observations are pub Company, working on both sides of Braganza Bay (Bell lished in the Jahrbuch des Norwegischen Me:teorologi'Schoo Sound), and a Russian company working between Green Har Instituts. bor and Coles Bay under the management of a Norwegian BEAR ISLAND. engineer. A Norwegian company has also occupied Bear Island (Bee The British are far behind, with two companies: the Scot ren EHand). Lying 108 nautical miles southwards from the tish Spitsbergen Syndicate, headed by Dr. W. S. Bruce, and South Cape of Spit,slbergen, this island is not so cold as Spits the Nortrhern Exploration Company. Several years ago Dr. bergen. Its annual temperature is -4.3° C. instead of -9.7' Bruce did some mining work on coal seams on Prince Oharles C. at Green Harbor, but the East Spitsbergen polar current, Foreland, but nothing further seems to have come of it. The flowing westward, carries extensive drift ice aU around the Northern Exploration Company has quarried a conglomerate island. When the season is go'od, Bear Island is endrely ice which was taken for marble on the north shore of Kings Bay. free for at least four months; in bad years the sea remains This stone is said to be of u.ttle value, and it is asserted that ice-strewn' until July, but navigation is possible before that none Ihas been exported. The same company also claims an time. iron-ore deposit in ReCherche Bay (BeH Sound) which is em At Bear Island coal occurs in the Devonian and Culm stData. phatically proclaimed to be one of the richest of the world. Since 1916 the building of a settlement and installations for Scandinavian geologists who have studied this deposit are the working of coal deposits Il'ave been under way; so far the not of the same opinion. The Northern Exploration Company exports have been small. Eighty men wintered this year has recently undertaken preparatory work for mining coal on on the spot. an island in Bell Sound. PREDOMINANCE OF NORWEGIANS IN SPITSBERGEN NAVIGATION. SETTLEMENTS AND POPULATION; The Norwegians ,have also had the largest share in the in Advent Bay is the chief population center of Spitsbergen. dustria'l development of Spitsbergen. Besides this, their ac On its 'western side lies Longyear City, the most important quaintance with the ice conditions for more than a century settlement of the archipelago, and now belonging to the Great has, in a way, given them the monopoly of navigation in this Norwegian Spitsbergen Coal Company. It offers very good archipela:go, and nearly all the expeditions that have visited accommodations, comfortable ho,uses, electric light-the last this Aretic land Ihave engaged Norwegians as ice masters, very necessary indeed during the fo'ur months of long polar frequently even entirely Norwegian crews. Thus, if the Nor night. There rare also a telephone system, wen-stocked stores, wegian Government s-hould forbid its nationals to pilot foreign and a hospital attended by a physician. In the summer of ships to Spitsibergen, nearly all maritime traffic between these 1918 Longyear City numbered 300 inhabitants, all Norwegians. islands and other lands than Norway would cease or become On the opposite side of the bay there is another Norwegian very dangerous. settlement, Hio rthraven.'4 Its population, entirely Norwegian, does not exceed 100 souls in summer and 60 in winter. POLITICAL HISTORY. Besides these there are, on the southern shores of Ice Spitsbergen is not 'a "terra nullius," as it has been asserted. Fiord, two small Norwegiran Ihamlets, one on land owned by History establishes its rightful porSition. the Russian company between Coles Bay and Green Harbor, At the end of the seventeenth century and for a long time and another in Ice Fiord, near the coaI deposits belonging to aferwards Greenland was supposed to stretch nortlheastward bhe Great Norwegian Spitsbergen Coal Company. On the and rejoin northern Russia by way of the Arctic Ocean. southern shore of Kings Bay a large Norwegian settlement Barents himseLf and all his contemporaries were of the opin [has been built near the Norweg1an collieliY, and on an island ion that the 1and which he had discovered wa,s part of a of the sa:me fiord are some houses belonging to the Northern group of islands off the eastern coast of Greenland, and in Exploration Company. In Bell Sound, besides small Norwe this belief Spitsbel'gen was generally named Greenland until gian hamlets on both sides of the fiord, there are in Braganza the beginning of tlhe nineteenth century. Greenland belong Bay a Swedish viHage near the Swedish mine and a British ing to the then united Norwegian and Danish crown, the settlement on Axel Island. King of Norway and Denmark accordingly claimed the owner During the past summer the Norwegian population of Spits ship of Spitsbergen. This claim was 'also based on his gen bergen amounted to about 800 souls. erally accepted overlordship of the Arctic Ocean north and COMMERCE AND COMMUNICATIONS. west of Europe, consequently of all the Lslands it contains wherever they might be and by whomsoever discovered. Among Spitsbergen s-hipping the Norwegian flag takes first In 1610 a number of whales in the western fiords of Spits rank: bergen having been seen by Jonas Poo,le, the news spread Since Mr. Longyear sold hi,s settlement to a No,rwegian rapidly, and soon after numerous British, Dutch, French, l�Cf. Geogr. Rev., vol. 7, 1919, p. 318. '"AU the statistical data concerning the pre"ent economic status ot "During the fis'cal year 1917-1918 the Green Harbor stationl received Sp-itsrhergen al'e ta'ken from an ollicial statement prepared by the 2,041 tel,egrams and dispatched 3,323. It has inte,rcepted 3,317 tele Norwegian Government which wtN be issued several monlths hence. grams from other European and from American stations. In 1918, "It takes the place of the former English mining settlement of 10',322 letters, n'ewsrpalPers, and parcels were sent from Norway to Advenrt City, �hich no longer exists. Spitsbergenr and 5',649 from SpitsbE!l1gen to Norway. 246 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MON'flILY MARCH, 1920 Danish, and Hansea,tic wJmlers arrived at Spitsbergen. Among ance was questioned by the Dutch. In 1663, 1679, and 1692, all these 'competitors troubles and disputes arose; even sea France, Sweden, and the Hanseatic cities respectively recog fights were not infrequent. The King of Norway and Den nized the sovereignty of the King of Norway and Denmark mark, Christilan IV., protested agai'nst these incursions of over these polar lands. his domain, and long diplomatic negotiations on the whale W'hy has Spitsbergen today been declared terra nt�llius? fishery and on the overlordship of Spitsbergen opened be During the second part o,f the seventeenth century, whales tween the Norwegian-Danish monarch and ,iJhe King of Eng :having deserted the coastal water of Spitsbergen, there was a land, the States General of the Netherlands, the King of cessation of the disputes regarding t'hese islands. When two France, t'he Hanseatic cities, and the King of Sweden. These centuries later, in 1872, Spitsbergen again found a place in poIar islands were the occasion of the first colonial conflict the minds of diplomats, the old transactions were totally for among European nations. gotten, ,and the archipelago was proclaimed terra nullius. The King of England, James I, never expressly acknowl Only recently, in 1912, Dr. Arnold Raestad revived a knowl edged the claim of Norway-Denmark regarding the sovereignty edge of their 'history, basing his information on the state pa of Spitsbergen. Nevertheless in 1614 he offered to pay a pers of Great Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France." rent to the Danish King, provided that English subjects Should Is there no s'uch thing in regard to treaties as title by long be granted a monopoly of the Whale fishery in �hese islands possession? By in1heritance of the Danish king's rights Nor together with the Norwegians and the Danesl. Later on he way possesses the sovereignty of the archipe'lagG, but this suggested to Chri,sil:ian IV that he should sell him his right sovereignty is nGt complete, not having been recognized by all to "Greenland," that is Spitsbergen. 'Dhe diplomatic transac the pGwers. tions with England ended in 1621 by an agreement giving equal rights to English and Norwegian-Danish whalers in 16A'rnold Raestad: Le Spdtslberg dans' l'histoire diplomatique (trans Spitsbergen. On the other hand, in 1632 the overlordship of lated f,rom the Norwegian !by 'Charles Rabot). La Geographic, vol. 25, 1912, pp. 335-354; vol. 26, 1912, pp. 65-98. The Norwegian original, the King of Norway and Denmark was accepted by' the "Norges hoihetsret over ,s,pitsbel'gen d aeldre tid," Chrtstiania, 1912, States General; however, a century later, in 1741, thi,s accept- contain� 47 olliginal documents. Higher Steam Pressures* What Its Adoption Will Mean N theory it has long been established that there is every ment in a twofold sensle, inasmuch a s such increase of pressure I thing to gain by the adoption of relatively high steam was accompanied with 'an almost unprecedented increase in pressures, and practically nothing to lose. As long agO' as temperature of the working fluid. Cel1tainly it stoGd as an 1896 Prof. R. H. Thurston made this abundantly dear in his exempUfication of far higher temperatures than had hitherto paper on the "PrGmise and PGtency Gf High-Pressure Steam." been employed outside experimental phases. But we win And sdnce that time the science of thermo-dynamics having deal with this aspect of the case 'at a later stage. been more widely recognized by engineers as a sure guide to Effect on Standard Boiler Desiun.-Assuming the employ improvement of heat engine economy, the tendency to increase ment of highe'r steam preSSiUres to be justified what effect the temperature range Gf the working fluid has been mGre than win this have upon standard bGiler design? Present-day ordinarily active. bGiler designs and specifications do not permit the generation But of ,these figures we have lat the mGment little concern; of steam at a pressure higher than 200-250 lb. per sq. in. they merely lead the way to' more practical consideratiGns. without sacrificing safety, and without calling for an invest They take us quite nalturally up to that point where we begin ment in the boiler plant high enough to Gffset the gain in to cGnsider the ultimate possibilities involved in the adoption economy caused by higher ,s!team pressures. of much higher steam pressures. And here must we divide Must all existing eJCamples of boiler design be scrapped? into twO' ,separate and distinct phases Gf treatment Gur lines Must all drums and steam vessels of large d'iameter, flat sur Gf thoughlt; for we shall have to' consider (a) wh,at the adop faces and even dished ends be ahandonedf-yes, even if stayed? tion Gf higher steam pressures would mean in the design and Will all riveted, expanded or beaded joints eX'posed to the construction of boiler machinery, and (b) what it will mean action Gf the ,fire have to go by the board? Will nothing but in the design of thGse parts outside the boiler, and which are electrically welded joints permit such an increase as con to' be subjected to the propGsed higher pressures and higher templated? Will the high-pressure genemtGr of the future tempera tures. be cylindrical? Of the water-tube type? Or of the flash An ExampEe of Present-Day Practice.-In the best present ty'pe? Is increased efficiency to be effected primarily along day practice, except for slightly higher pressures in some few lines altogether different from those obtaining in boilers isolated case.s, the maximum steam pressure is 200 lb. per working under pressures used today? Or is it possible to sq. in. absGlute, the super-heat 2000 Fahr. The corresponding retain present-Iiay design 'and to increase the evaporation per temperature of evruporation is therefGre 3820 Fahr., the bulk sq. ft. of heating surface twice as high as that represented by of the heat being absorbed at a temperature 200 Fahr. belGW the present-day practice? the maximum. An outsdde instance of the practical adoption These are questions involving much thought, demanding of a considerably higher steam pressure than this is supplied perhaps new and original channels of investigation, pregnant by the 1,500 kw. turbine installation recently constructed with possibilities. Who knows? Perha'ps, aft'er all, our best by the Britis'h ThGmson-HGustGn Co., in which a steam pressure brai'ns in the realms of engineering sCi'ence, our efforts, our Gf 350 lb. per sq. in. was employed together with a super striving after heating efficiencies have been utterly misdirected, heat of 7000 Fahr., exhausting intO' a condenser Gf 28* in. in that they have been conducted along altogether wrong vacuum. As clearly illustrating rt:he mea'sure of econGmy ob channels. When an apparent limit has been reached in one tained as a result of such increase Gf pressure and superheat, particulal1 direction often it is that a striking off at a tan it was claimed that during a 10-hour full load test only 1.83 gent into the seemingly impossible will result in undreamed Gf lb. of coal per unit generated was consumed. achievement. This, perhaps, might well be considered a notable achieve- In view of the considerably higher temperatures involved in the production of these high steam pressures we have in *Reprinted from The E1ectrioian (Londion).