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International organisations for polar exploration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Extract

An Austrian polar explorer, Karl Weyprecht, was the first to advance a definite scheme for investigating the polar regions on an international level. Weyprecht's idea was that each interested government should establish one or more stations in the polar regions, and that scientific work should be done simultaneously at all stations according to a previously co-ordinated plan. Weyprecht's plan was discussed by an international conference which met at Hamburg in 1879. The delegates at this conference formed themselves into a permanent International Polar Commission whose task was to make further and more detailed plans. In 1880 a Second International Polar Conference met at Berne, and a Third met at St Petersburg in 1881. As a result of the work done by these conferences the First International Polar Year was organised in 1882–83. Eleven countries—Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and U.S.A.—set up and manned for a year twelve stations in the Arctic and two in the Antarctic. The field work completed, the Fourth* and Fifth5 International Polar Conferences met in Vienna in 1884 and Munich in 1891, and arranged publication of the scientific results, which filled 27 volumes. At the Fifth Conference the International Polar Commission was dissolved, its work being completed.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1949

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References

page 332 note 1 Bericht über die Verhandlungen und die Ergebnisse der Internationalen Polar-Konferenz, abgehalten in Hamburg in den Tagen vom 1 bis 5 Oktober 1879. Hamburg, 1880Google Scholar.

page 332 note 2 Bericht über die Verhandlungen und die Ergebnisse der 11 Internationalen Polar-Konferenz, abgehalten in Bern in den Tagen vom 7 bis 9 August1880. Hamburg, 1881Google Scholar.

page 332 note 3 Mittheilungen der Internationalen Polar-Commission. 1–7 Heft, St Petersburg, 18821991 [1–3, 1882; 4–6, 1884; 7, 1891]Google Scholar.

page 332 note 4 Ibid. 6 Heft, p. 215–834.

page 332 note 5 Ibid. 7 Heft, p. 349–54.

page 332 note 6 Congrès International pour Vétude des régions polaires tenu à Bruxelles du 7 au 11 septembre 1906. Rapport d'ensemble. Documents priliminaires el compte rendu des stances. Bruxelles, 1906Google Scholar.

page 333 note 1 Lecointe, G.Commission polaire Internationale, session de 1908. Proc&s-verbaux desséances. Bruxelles, 1908Google Scholar.

page 333 note 2 This Institute ceased to function during the 1914–18 war. Its bibliographical activities were subsequently continued by the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge.

page 333 note 3 Lecointe, G.Comp. Commission Polaire Internationale. Procès-verbal de la session tenue à Rome en 1913. Bruxelles, 1913Google Scholar.

page 333 note 4 Internationale Studiengesellschaft zur Erforschung der Arktis mit dem Luftschiff “Aeroarktik”. Verhandlungen der I Ordentlichen Versammlung in Berlin 9–13 November 1926. Ergänzungsheft Nr. 191 zu Petermanns Mitteilungen 1927.

page 333 note 5 Verhandlungen der II Ordentlichen Versammlung in Leningrad 18–23 Juni 1928. Ergänzungsheft Nr. 201 zu Petermanns Mitteilungen 1929.