The biological stations of Europe / by Charles Atwood Kofoid.

  • Charles Atwood Kofoid
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The biological stations of Europe / by Charles Atwood Kofoid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    119/492 (page 93)
    In 1893 a new epoch in the life of the station was opened with the gift by Prince Roland Bonaparte of 50,000 francs for a steamship for the station. This ship, the Roland, was an iron vessel of 22 tons and at once vastly increased the facilities for marine exploration and for supplying the laboratories with material for research. The ship added, however, greatly to the expense of equipping and maintaining the station. It necessitated the construction of a dock, excavated in the rock within the vivier, for cleaning and painting the hull, which the warm and saline waters of the Mediterranean corroded with great rapidity. The remoteness of Banyuls-sur-Mer from any great commercial center greatly complicated the question of repairs, a difficulty only solved by the extension of the building and equipment of a machine shop where all necessary repairs could be made. The station was exceptionally fortunate in securing for its mech- anician M. Th. David, a machinist of the first rank in the French naval service. He brought to the station not only great mechanical skill and experience, but a live interest in the problems to be solved, a zeal indefatigable, and an inventive ability little short of genius. The growing laboratory at Banyuls abounds in many details of equipment which attest his high success. It is exceptional among the laboratories of Europe in the extent to which the equipment is constructed in its own shops. In this same year a photographic atelier perched on the rocks to the rear of the station above a new reservoir of Sea water was added to the equipment. The total expense of these improvements, includ- ing the Roland, was 85,000 francs, and was met in this instance also by the gifts of private donors. In 1895 the laboratory was enlarged by excavation of the hill to the rear and the erection of a large room of one story with overhead light for the experimental work, and by the extension of the quarters for the machine shop. The equipment was increased by the construction of a sounding machine with 2-horsepower engine, and in 1896 the entire hydraulic system was overhauled and renewed. The Roland, built in 1893, was so corroded by the destructive action of the sea water, in spite of constant care, that it became necessary to replace the ship with another. Accordingly, in 1900, a wooden vessel, also christened the Roland, was built on the beach near the laboratory by M. David and equipped with the machinery of its predecessor. Associated with Professor Lacaze-Duthiers, in the years of growth of the station, as his assistants were Professors Joubin, Prouho, Guitel, and Robert. In 1897 Prof. G. Pruvot, then of the University of Grenoble, was appointed assistant director (sous-directeur) and, upon the death of the director in 1900, was appointed as his successor, and Dr. E.-G. Racovitza succeeded to the post of assistant director (sous-directeur et chef des travaux pratiques).