Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1886 — The Cause of the Gulf Stream. [ARTICLE]

The Cause of the Gulf Stream.

It has been recently reported that there is a plan on foot by the Prinee of Monaco to launch certain floats to ascertain the cause of the Gulf stream, and it is said that .the co-operation of the British authorities in this scientific project has been asked? Whether the observations made in pursuance of this object shall serve to clear up definitely all questions of the dynamical origin and propagation of the Gulf stream, or w’hether they merely solve some of the-disputed points, the scheme’ in itself deserves encouragement. Bottle experiments, to ascertain the velocity and course of the Gulf stream, fail to give exact information, because the bottle, being exposed to the winds as well as the current, gives a mixed reeord. But floats might be constructed so as to be. almost totally submerged, leaving so little surface exposed to the wind that the float would move with the, current, in the teeth of the wind. If the theory be sound that the winds alone cause the Gulf stream, it would make no difference how much of the float is left exposed. But this theory is discredited, if notonly utterly exploded, by the w r ell-known fact that two contiguous currents, flowing in opposite directions, are found in the same ocean area. It is therefore all important to such an inquiry as the Prince of Monaco, proposes that floats are use which will be well nigh insensible to wind agency, and will respond solely to the impulse received from the moving mass of water. If the researches are carried on with floats of this design there is little doubt that they will prove highly instructive.— New York Herald.