Cleveland Moffett

“ For five hours on that memorable morning the American worked his way down the face of the precipice, moving cautiously from ledge to ledge, from one foot-hold to another, and, where there was none, breaking away the soft rock with his sharp-pointed hammer and a two-foot iron bar until he had a place to stand on. ”

“ The chief danger was from volcano gases, especially sulphur fumes, that might be blown toward him and strangle him. A slight shifting of the wind of no more than ten degrees was enough to start a rotary motion of crater gases around the steep sides of the bowl, and if this motion continued, it would fare ill with a man down below, who would not be able to reach the surface. It should be understood that the sides of Kilauea's crater below the rim go down for a hundred feet in sheer perpendicular, so that it is a matter of slow and perilous mountain-climbing to go down or up. ”

“ It is so hot that the gases are completely burned. However, you see smoke rising from the solid lava surrounding the lake, where the heat is not great enough to burn the gases. These come hissing up through fissures in the rocks, especially along the raised rim of lava that surrounds the lake. The hot flood undercuts this rim into caves of lava, just as the ocean digs out sand caves, and here the volcano gases accumulate under pressure, and rush out violently in white clouds."
"Do birds ever fly over an active crater?" ”

“ There was the pipe-line to be laid, the joints to be tested, the pump to be made ready, and finally the elbow of iron pipe to be thrust into the glowing lava dome. There were also observations to be made, specimens of lava to be gathered, and photographs of the fire-pit to be taken. It was an exciting time, but again all went well, and at eleven o'clock they were back on the rim with their hopes fulfilled. Carefully sealed in glass tubes were specimens of uncontaminated gases such as no scientist had ever drawn from a volcano. ”

“ In the case of gases deep down in the earth, it is certain that as soon as they are set free by any cause they rush together in violent reactions with a great production of heat. This extra heat causes a rising current in the lava column, which, as it ascends, is subjected to less and less pressure from above, and consequently liberates more and more of the gases that it has held in solution. ”

“ He knew that he must end his labors before midday, because at that hour the sun would be directly overhead, and would send its tropical heat straight down into the crater. As long as he was in the shade, the air was cool enough, for a ten-mile trade-wind was blowing from the northeast. If his point of descent had been on the northeastern side, he would have had the purifying wind exactly at his back, which would have driven away deadly gases ”

“ Then it may again rise to the surface of the crater, and thus continue rising and descending in one or the other of two lava currents that move up and down the long tube like buckets in a well, charging themselves with gases from the boundless store below and belching these gases forth in various combinations, with immense production of heat at the mouth of the volcano. Dr. Day found that in some cases these lava currents surge through Kilauea's molten lake at the rate of five or six miles an hour. ”

“ Consequently, when the brightness of the little light exactly matches that of the distant burning object, it can be said that the latter has the temperature indicated on a prepared scale. In this way the temperature of stars billions of miles away may be known with great precision.
The scientists worked busily during the important hours that they spent in the crater. ”

“ Here was the very thing they had been seeking, a natural collector and container of gases from the depths of the earth—gases that had never suffered air contamination. It remained only to draw off these precious gases by tapping the lava mound.
This they proceeded to do on May 28, 191 2, when four men made the descent: Dr. Day; Dr. Shepherd; Mr. Dodge, an assistant in the Kilauea research laboratory; and a native, an active little fellow who could climb like a monkey. ”