St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-27
THE MAGNETIC POLE.
Description of the "A ONE of Aurora
BOreaiis.-Trave Around the

Description of the "A ome of Aurora
BOreaiis.-T Travelling Around the
Earth.
For the same latitude, the United States
is better situated than other lands to view
the aurora borealis when it breaks forth.
At Pekin, in China. display of the north
ern lights has never been seen. and the
Chinese are very careful with their records
of this character, and run much farther
back into ancient time than our own. Still,
Pekin is about the same distance from the
North pole. or On about the same parallel of
latitude as Philadelphia. Columbus, o.;
indianapolis. Springfield, ILL.,. and Denver,
Col, at any one of which places the dis
plays are not infrequent, and oftentimeS
quite vivid. About New Y DIRK city and that
parallel, says the Youths Companion, we
see them as frequently as they do along the
northern shores OF Siberia although it is
nearly two thousand miles nearer the pole.
In fact, the aurora bUrealis has sort
OF pole OF its own, or what we call the
magnetic pole, description of which you
can look up in your cyclopadias, which tell
you that the needle of the compass
here refuses to work. and that the mag
netic needle, working in vertical plane
(or dip-needle), stands straight up and
down.
Now this magnetic pole is just north of
the United States, and some 400 miles
nearer to us than the geographical pole. or
earth's axis, so this readily explains why
we see more frequent displays or the north
ern lights than our opposite neighbors. who
must be some 1,400 to 1,500 miles nearer
the polar regions to see them as well as we
is trayL Limo
slowly westward around the other pole, go
ing around the earth in its parallel of lati-
tude every 1000 or 1000 years. and the
time will come in the far future that the
Chinese at Pekin will have as frequent dis
plays of the aurora borealis as we do now,
and we will then have none.
Nearly all our readers have probably seen
the beautiful bows of brilliant flame the
auroras form in the north. Well the cell
ter Or highest point of this bow. or arc, is
always directly over Or on a line drawn
from the spectator to the magnetic pole.
Its highest point appears almost directly
north to us, because the magnetic pole is
almost due north; but in Great Britain or
Norway the highest pc Mt of the beautiful
chromatic curve would be to the northwest,
while in Siberia or the upper part of the
japanese islands the top OF the arc would
be to the northeast. In fact. many eX
plorers have been north of the magnetic
pole, and from here they see the highest
point Of the brilliant bow in the SOUTH and
if they passed northward on the east side
of this peculier pole the auroral arc was in
the west at the time; in short. as we have
said before. it is in the direction of the
north ma ghetto pole. and if you will look
ON a map of North America you will prOba-
bly, see this point charted ON the west side
of the Bothnia peninsula.
1t was here that it was discovered and
located by Sir James Clarke Ross in 1881,
but since that time it has travelled westward.
The rate at which it so travels has been
given various values by different scientists.
There seems to be a general movement
westward around the world of all magnetic
forces, which the pole is only accompany
ing with all the rest.
When the mariners compass was first
discovered, OF brought from China, many
hundreds Of years ago. the needle pointed
nearly north in England, and the magnetic
pole was probably about SpitZbergen, Or
between that country and Greenland. Now,
the place where the needle points true
north is in the United States, having crossed
the Atlantic; and in Great Britain the mag
llGtlC LeeUl6 pOllltS HcdIly uOIGuNc auu
so the auroral displays, which are celestial
manifestations of magnetic force. are also
slowly travelling around the world every
1000 to 1000 years, giving each northern
country series of most beautiful effects.
But if the aurora borealiS is so depend
ent upon the north magnetic pole, and in
ereases in frequency and brilliancy of dis
play as it is approached. what must they
be, one would naturally think. at the mag
netic pole itself? The first inference is that
we would expect to see perfect dome OF
playing prisnlatc colorS in the heavens all
the time. Or at least in the winter, when
the long arctic nights would be favorable
toward such brilliant effects. On the con-
trary. the north magnetic pole is one of the
poorest places possible to see the maximum
displays of these fireworks of the frigd
zones. The author of this article spent a
small part of a winter very near this spot
near enough to have witnessed any aurora,
and the few displays witnessed where SO
many were expected were quite noticeable
for their paucity. after diligently watching
for them tor long time. In fact, an OBJ.
server must get a few hundred miles
away from the magnetic pole to see the
greatest number of aurora borealis and the
finest displays of them.