Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1890-11-22
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Irregularity in The Storm Waves
Cause Of Drouth.-The San.

moon crosses the earth's equator at
the same time that the storm wave
will be due on the Pacific coast and
the storm will show its greatest
force there at that time while an ex-
ira storm wave will probably de-
velop in the Mississippi Valley at
the same time. The regular storm
wave will be due to leave the Pa
cific coast about the a2nd, cross the
great middle valley from the 23rd
to the 2sth and reach the Atlantic
coast about the e5th. With this
storm Will end the severe Novem-
Der disturbances and expect some
very fine December weather. There
will be two quite severe storms in
that month, however. and the last
one will inaugurats the fifty-two
days rain period which last oc-
CURED about the 18th Of October.
CAUSE OF DRoUTH.
An esteemed friend near Fort
Worth, Texas, wants to know the
cause Of the extreme rainy and
drouth years. 1 know the cause but
the details are very difficult to cal
culate. When a superior planet
these outside Of the earth's orbit
is at perihelion, its nearest approach
to the elrth-the increased cleo
trical tension expands our AT
mosphere by evaporating more
Of the earth's waters. This
causes a deeper atmosphere
which floats the moisture to more
elevated regions like the Dakotas,
leaving dry weather near the SEA
level. When the planet IL at
Aphelion-farthest from the earth
as Jupiter has been for three years
past, II has the reverse influence, a
shallow atmosphere that will not
float the moisture to elevated regions
and the heavy rains fall near the
sea level as has been the case in
Texas for three years. But there
are five Of these planets. Mars pass
Is perihelion about once in %
months, Jupiter In IL years, Saturn
293 years, Uranus 81 years and Lew
ener $50 years. They pass their
aphelion half way between their
perihelion. Their influences some
times neutralize each other. The
middle ground-Ksnsas and Col
orado - suffer from both ex-
/, tremes, causing drouth. Jupi-
ter has influence equal to
all the other planets. When
the perihelion or aphelion Of Jupiter
aud Saturn occur at the same time
the effect Is disastrous but this can
occur not oftener than once in
thirty years. Itoccurred in 1860
and will occur again in 1889.
saturn vas at apheiion in 1901,
Jupiter in October, 1856, Mars Nov.
10, 1889. By long and careful cal
cuiations the results from these
influences may be estimated. An
other influence must be taken into
the account. When the planets are
south Of the earth's equator the
pull the atmosphere south leav pg
Ii shallow north and the reve &c
when they are north of the earth's
equator. This may add TO or de-
tract from the other influences men
toned. The Earth, Venus and
Mercury have the SAME influences
At shorter intervals. The moons
perigee and apogee have n like
influence.
Is THE sun A BURNING MASS?
Several gentlemen Of San Antonio,
Texas, have submitted a number of
questions which 1 will reply to as
space will permit. One Of these
questions is: Chow do you reach
the conclusion that the sun is not a
burning mass?" The laws Of nature
must be the ssme everywhere and
In all time and the sun must have
come into existence by the same
forces in the same manner and of
Cue same materials rs did the earth,
and there is no evidence that The
earth was ever burning mass. All
evidences Of heat IN the earth can
be accounted for by volcanic action
and volcanoes are caused by burning
gases, coal, etc, ignited by the cleo
tric current that il known to move
from east TO west in what biologists
call the crust of the earth. The
croad tops Of the Andes mountains
in South America, lder the equa-
Or, where the sun has its greatest
power, are covered with perpetual
snow, although they are nearer
rbxa tho n. b.. Lnfoxx-
II the sun is hot and the heat
comes to US from it, the snow on
the mountain would melt before
it would in the valley. Our atmos-
phere resists heat and heat coming
from the sun would lose its force
as 1t comes down through the
atmosphere, but We find that at the
equator when the sun Is overhead
the heat Is more than l0a degrees
greater ut sea level than it Is five
miles above and nearer to the sun.
This proves that the electric cur
rents from the sun, resisted by our
atmosphere, are heated just as are
the electric currents when they pass |
through telegraph or other wire |
that Is n poor conductor. Eiectrici- |
y coming from the sun would in
crease the heat in passing through |
our atmosphere TO the earth while |
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