The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-08
THIS is A suN-sPoT YEAR.

Is There Any Relation Between That
Fact and Certain Others?
1t is believed from evidences now
seen in the sun, that a,period of great
activity is in progress there. and that
the effects OF this immeasurable force
will be seen during tine next five years
In what is known as sun spots" These
sun spots are supposed to be great solar
volcanoes or other disturbances on the
suns surface in some visible way. The
spots can be seen easily by observers
during the years up to 1905, wnen the
maximum will have been reached
These supposed cavities sometimes go
TO width OF about $4,000 miles. and
then break up into separate spots or
cavities, sometimes separating at the
rate of one hundred miles an hour.
The energy sent out by the same
force that causes these sun spots must
be enormous. There are some reasons
for believing that before the spots them
selves make their appearance to the
sight the energy is at work and is ra-
dated from the sun to the planets of
this system. At all events the sun-spot
periods are usually notable on the earth
for peculiar manifestations of electrical
energy. The electric storms that have
been seen i'm New England lately are
due. in some degree. to the solar ener-
KY and the electricity sent to the earth
as a result. Such, at least, is a widely
received scientific theory.
1t may be that the sun spots or the
energy Of which they are merely the
result work in some fashion that
cannot be so easily traced. During the
past three years, when the suns ener-
giles have been at work, strange things
have happened in the world. Is it mere
ly coincidence? If so, it is at least
worth notice that condolences of this
Kind are not rare IL one takes the trou-
BILE TO look up the story of the civilized
world In the few years preceding each
period OF outbreak of sun spots, say
in the past fifty years.
To trace back the periods, reckoning
eleven years as the cycle. the begin
ming OF sun spot outbreaks would be
, reckoned in 1889. 1878. 1867 and 1856 In
such a count. These dates are not ex.
act, because the period of duration i:
!, not exactly measurable by years. Still
IL Is surely worth some notice that be
fore the period of 1856 there came thu
desperate outbreak of the war in tn
Crimea; that before the period of 1S6
: the United States was ravaged by civil
|. war to an extent hardly ever recorded
In the history of any other country
and that the great tragedy of Lincoln
: death had been recorded; that proceed
I, Ing the sun spot period of 1873 Their
: came the narrowing experiences o
: France, eliminating In the communis
; riots, and the Russian Turkish war
: that before 1889 came the Roumelial
9 revolution. the nihilist outbreak Il
: Russia and the war with the Afghans
J, and that before 1900 came the war wit
! Spain. the Jameson raid and the con
= sequent war with the Beers and tn
( British.
: 1t is also interesting to note hov
: financial movements of importanc
= have accompanied the manifestation {
n sun spots in the past half centur,
> Each period has been accompanied
- great business booms and the china
"a and disappearance of the sun spots
"a close proximity TO a financial panic, e1
e cept in 1861, when the immense pref
y, arations for war in the United State
III rather caused better business. Sine
that date, however the years 1873, IS
and 1895 were years of widespread
financial and industrial depressio
AZ This coincidence Is also striking enoue
ln to be noted. or course, such coinc
ic dences do not prove that the energy
a. the reaction in the sun causes such r
se suits on the earth: but IT Is at lea
In remarkable that the suns energy az
fd the human energy on the earth shou
y have rtir In cycles SO closely alike.