Abstract
The first general physical property of the earth that our ancestors began to understand, in the third century bc, was its roughly spherical shape. The second, about 1,800 years later, was its magnetic field. In both cases the scientists were able to construct small models of the phenomenon, and to measure and map local portions of it. By the eighteenth century ad both the surface of the earth and its magnetic properties were being mapped in some detail.
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Notes
- 1.
WMO counts the meeting in Leipzig 1872 as the 1st conference of meteorologists. Maury’s meeting was something special with nothing before and nothing similar after.
- 2.
Maury’s plan was published in Russian in 1861 and in English in 1862, but because he left the Naval Observatory (to serve under the Confederate Government) immediately after circulating it, it attracted almost no attention. The subsequent initiators of the Polar Year, Neumayer and Weyprecht, probably did not know of his plan and did not refer to him. Among other things Maury stated that: “The advantages and facilities for Antarctic exploration are inconceivably greater now than in the days of Cook and others. They are greatly enhanced by the joint system of national co-operation for the purpose of searching out the mysteries of the sea, now recognized and practiced by all maritime nations. In this beautiful and beneficial cooperation, officers of the different nations have learned to pull and work together for a common good and a common glory. This habit would be carried to the South Pole by co-operation among the different nations concerned in sending out vessels for exploration there” (Maury 1862: 71).
- 3.
Wexler H. (1962: 7).
- 4.
Birkeland, Kr. (1898).
- 5.
Arctowski, H. (1905).
- 6.
Lüdecke, C. (2001).
- 7.
Laursen, V. (1959: 223).
- 8.
World Meteorological Organization (1956).
References
Arctowski, H. 1905: Projet d'une exploration systématique des régions polaires, Brussels: Vanderauwera.
Birkeland, Kr. 1891: Sunspots and Auroras: A Message from the Sun (Norwegian), Verdens Gang, 16 September.
Laursen, V. 1959: The Second International Polar Year. Annals of the International Geophysical Year 1: 211–234.
Lüdecke, C. 2001: Leonid Ludwig Breitfuß (1864–1950) in Deutschland – Chronist der Polarforschung und die Umstände des Verkaufs seiner Bibliothek nach England, Polarforschung 71 (3): 109–119 (published 2003).
Maury, M.F. 1862: Letter to Lord Lyons, April 1861. Report of the Thirty-first Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Manchester in 1861. Pt 2, Notes and Abstracts of Miscellaneous Communications, pp 65–72. London: John Murray.
Mill, H.R. 1905: The Siege of the South Pole. London: Alston Rivers.
Wexler, H. 1962: Dedication to Matthew Fontaine Maury. In: H. Wexler, M.J. Rubin, J.E. Caskey (eds) Antarctic Research: The Matthew Fontaine Maury Memorial Symposium, pp 1–3. Honolulu: American Geophysical Union.
World Meteorological Organization, 1956: International Geophysical Year 1957–1958: Meteorological Programme, pp 60–61. Geneva: WMO.
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Bulkeley, R. (2010). The First Three Polar Years – A General Overview. In: Barr, S., Luedecke, C. (eds) The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs). From Pole to Pole. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12402-0_1
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