THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome, Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O.
$1.50 PER MONTH *16.00 A YEAR
W, A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the postoffice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Friday, July 26, 1946
WHEN KRAKATOA EXPLODED!
TERRIBLE AS THE EFFECTS of the atomic bomb
were on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that was not
the worst blast the earth has ever seen. People a
few miles away were hardly aware of this explosion.
Almost immediately after it was over, survivors began
rebuilding these cities.
It was on August 27, 1883, that the greatest blast
in the world’s history took place. On that date Kra
katoa, an island about 18 miles square in the Sundra
Strait in the Dutch Indies, blew up. Sound waves
were noted 3000 miles away. The great waves in the
sea, caused by this terrific explosion, reached thej
shores of four continents and were recorded 8,000 miles
away. An air wave caused by this blast traveled
around the world several times.
Early in the spring of 1883 there were warning
signs. Smoke and steam poured from recent fissures
in the rocks. The heat finally became so intense that
the natives had to leave the island. By now the
Dutch realized that this was not the usual thing.
Krakatoa’s rumblings had grown to a continuous roar
heard along the entire coast of Java. The terrible
noise increased until a deafening explosion was heard.
Under th- combined weight of Krakatoa and the
volcanoes Dananan and Perbowaten, the subterranean
pocket of white hot lava had been building up an en
ormous pressure. Finally, with all the fury of a hell
unleashed, a stream of lava burst forth with a deaf
ening roar. The ocean rushed into the opening. On
contact with the lava, the water became superheated
steam which broke down barrier after barrier of rock,
making the opening wider and wider.
Then on the morning of August 27th, the ocean
reached the volcanic center of the island and attacked
the molten cores of the two volcanoes. The heart was
ripped out of Krakatoa and 14 cubic miles of rock
streaked upward into the sky, in the most terrible
blast in all history. It was not until some years after
1924 that Krakatoa again became a tropical jungle
complete with orchids, butterflies, snakes and birds.
(Gilbert Paper Company)
TREMULOUS EARTH
LAST SUMMER WE WERE STUNNED by the ef
fects of two atomic bombs which were dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each was as destructive
as 20,000 tons of TNT, we are told. It seemed as if
the ultimate in disaster had been reached. Yet what
is an atomic bomb compared with the earth’s crust
when it twitches like a cow or a horse that wrinkles
its skin to rid itself of flies?
Fifteen thousand feet below the ocean bottom of
Dutch Harbor in what the geologists call the Aleutian
Deep there is a landslide. The ocean’s floor drops
and a trough appears which the surrounding water
immediately fills. And all along the Pacific coast
of North and South America waves break on the
shore—some of them high and massive enough to
shatter boats. What is the explosion of an atomic
bomb compared to this? Such catastrophes remind us
that for all our boasting we have not yet conquered na
ture. We have to multiply the 20,000 tons of TNT of
which a single atomic bomb is the equivalent by many
times to match what happened in Dutch Harbor.
“Seismic sea wave” is the technical term for the
disturbance that devastated Hilo. Geophysicists pre
fer it, or the Japanese “tunami,” to “tidal wave” be
cause the tides have nothing to do with the huge waves
ARE WE READY FOR THE NEXT TEST T ,
-
"HI NHND
onm
' that traveled across the Pacific. This most recent
of seismic sea waves is one of the worst on record,
though it has been eclipsed by others. There was one
in 1923, for example, which originated in the Sagami
Bay in which Tokyo stands and which killed at least
143,000. And then there was the one that followed
the disastrous Lisbon earthquake of 1775 and that
caused the level of the sea to change so that even
in distant Ireland the water level was raised by about
five feet in one bay. If we hear less of these seismic
sea waves than we do of land quakes it is because they
arise in the middle of the ocean and mercifully expend
themselves.
What are we to make of these disturbances? A
little more seismological knowledge will be added to
what we have accumulated. We need a method of
predicting accurately the time and place at which a
landslide will occur and an earthquake will follow.
But there is none. We can do no more than to extract
some comfort from the thought that the earth is not
“finished” in the sense that a statue in finished. Land
masses are still shifting, mountains are still being
formed. So long as the process continues this earth
will be the abode of life. On the moon there can be
no earthquakes. It is dead—finished. A quakeless
earth would be just as dead, just as finished in the
sculptural sense. The mounting toll of death in Hilo
proves that the earth is still alive and very likely to
remain so for some millions of years.
|New York Times)
By GEORGES BENSON
Tbaaldent of Hording Collage
_ <
ON RECORD
“Freedom is more hon
est than government and
so much more productive,**
This proverb might be ad
ded appropriately and soon
to the ever-growing lexi
con of “immortal words.**
It came from the lips of
Ralph W. Gwinn of Bronx
ville, N. Y., toward the end
of a speech he made in
Congress, last April 16.
The address was a review
of 40 centuries of price fix
ing by governments.
Down through the ages,
9
Rep. Gwinn traced the dis
mal trail of political price
pegging from King Hamm
urabi of Babylon, who died
2,242 years before Christ,
to our own Chester Bowles.
Ea-c-h -successive -effort
went to pot. The oldest
pile of wreckage, marking
the turn where some self
confident ruler locked his
economic steering wheel
was in ancient Babylon.
And Many Others
Babylon was not the
last nor the worst. An
other notable catastrophe
took place about 900 years
later as a result of the wage
and price freezing provi
sions of the Hittite Code.
Popular pressure in Asia
Minor influenced this case
but served to prove how
even the ancient rulers ran
afoul of sore resentment
against their impractical 4
tinkering with freedom of
private enterprise.
France’s egoistic Philip
IV took prices in hand and
created a painful scarcity
of bread and clothing, six
centuries before Hitler.
Three or more English
kings took turns at issuing
edicts against natural laws,
no less silly than Canute’s
ordering the tide not to
come in. Without fail, -
price control systems have
finally created scarcity in
stead of improved produc
i tion.
The Emperor’s OPA
The congressman’s most
j colorful example was
Rome. About 300 years*
before the birth of Christ,
Emperor Diocletain set up
a sort of OPA for the whole
Roman Empire. Propa
ganda went out first, in an
effort to sell the public on
the idea that rulers were
much smarter than mere
people. After the edict,
came a record-breaking^
swarm of ministers and
magistrates to enforce pri
ces.
Did the emperor make
his prices hold? He did
not‘ He fixed a death pen
alty on people who bought
or sold above the ceiling
but Diocletian had his lit
tle undercover problems
like all the others who
went in for governmental
price manipulation. Not
many “offenders” were ex
ecu ted. Magistrates took
bribes, prices rose anyhow
and overflowed into black
markets without number.
Taxes Climbed High
An interesting sidelight
on the Roman affair was
that all kinds of building
stopped, arts and sciences
fell into decay to such an
extent that people almost *
forgot about excellence.
The fashioned and used
makeshifts exclusively.
Good craftsmen went job
less, big businessmen fled
into exile and small busi
ness men went bankrupt
and hungry. And Rome
fell.
But before the final col
lapse, before the tramp of
armed aliens is heard in the
street, rulers, who have
ruined the wealth of their
country and prosperity of