Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-03-13

The RosultAOR Somo Years ef Observe.
tiens...The Increase and Diminstion
Of Solar Energy.
Now York Sun,

been observed, formulated anu VeTIHeu
by accurate prediction one Of those uni
forlnities Of change, called laws, that
NAV deserve to rank in human interest
next after those two most obvious and
momentous changes that men know,
viz: the rotation of the earth apparent
in the recurrence 81 light and dark, and
the revolution Of the earth apparent in
the unceasing succession Of the stars.
An obscure German astronomer
Hofrath Schwabe of Dessa,,--began in
1926, at first with his naked eyes, to
count, measure. and record the spots
upon the sun, if any, every day its face
could be seen, SO as, perchance, to dis
Germ any ebb or flow at the fountain of
all terrestrial energy. II went out like
Saul" he afterward said "to seek my
fathers asses, and 10! | found king
dom" For twelve years, daily, Herr
Schwabe was on hand to confront the
rising orb, and then for three times
twelve years more Herr Schwabc daily
rose to put his finger, slowly stiffening
with age, upon the very pulse OF solar
energy. In twelve years he had dscov-
cred high tide aud low tide in the
solar spots, and suspected their period
lefty. In twenty-one years more he
had completed the observation of three
elcven-year cycles of spot frequency.
But now the astronomers of the world,
some ply. icists Of England, Germany,
and the United States, and one eminent
statistician Of India, gathering to his
support with an induction from widely
separated but converging series Of facts,
have transformed the suspicion Of an
eleven years cycle, common to the
phenomena Of the earth and the sun.
into u demonstrated fact. The years of
maximum sun spots are the years Of
maximum magnetic storms, and tele-
graphic enterprise must make account
Of them. The temperatures Of the
globe are probably higher in the years
of minimum sun spots, and some day
agriculture may well arrange itself to
suit the event. The hurricanes of the
West Indies, thu cyclones of the Indian
ocean, and the wind disturbances on all
sides Of the globe rise with the increas-
ing and fall with the decreasing sun
spots; and Lloyd's record of marine
casualties shows that ;he percentage Of
losses on the total during the common
eleven years cycle was Is per cent.
greater during the maximum years Of
the common cycle than during the two
minimum ones. The insurance Of the
commerce of ali nations will reckon
hereafter with tho sun spots, as with
winter and summer. Coincident with
the cycle Of maximum sun spots is the
maximum flow of water in the great
rivers of the globe, and probably in the
fluctuations of the great Laurentian
lakes
Along with the cycle Of marine casu-
alties runs step by step the cycle of
tropical rainfall. which has itself por-
tentuous coincidence with the cycle Of
Indian famine, So that the speculaiions
of obscure Herr Schwabe and the sta
tistics of Mr.. w. w. Hunter have been
the prime causes of that success with
which Lord Lytton, the viceroy of In
dia, measured and mitigated the appall-
ing calamities of the last famine. So
that hereafter the cyclic character of
the tropical rainfall will be regarded
duly in the greatest problem of Indian
adminiStration--the h standing and
distributing of the water supply, so as
to insure n continuous food supply for
the people of that crowded peninsula.
These are but few slight indications
of consequences already visible from
the discovery of this new law, yet they
are of wide reach and deep moment
1t is probable that still vaster conse-
quences to the happiness of mankind
will attend upon the further unfolding
Of these concurrent phenomena in earth
and sun, this eleven-ycar rhythm in the
outpour of solar force.
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