Evening star., 1900-07-07
To Be Made the Subject of Special
Study in the Future.
INTO NATURES SECRETS
Description Of an Observatory to Be
Built Near this City.
WONDERFUL MACHINERY NJ
Written for The Evening Star.

| Near this city. at Honolulu and at Sitka
| Alaska. Uncle Sam has just selected sites
for three Of the most unique scientific
| workshops ever heard of. They are to
be occupied by corps Of specialists who will
| make a careful study of old earth's mag
| netic climate
| Perhaps you do not know that every min
ute of every day there are thrills of this
strange influence called magnetism cours-
| ing, this way and that, through the sky
| above. the earth beneath and the waters
| under the earth. Such is the case. 1t is
| also certain that these pulsations have an
| important bearing upon human economy,
| comfort and safety The magnetic climate
Of this huge spinning top upon which We
| dwell Is one Of storms and calms. A mag
netic storm may be at its height when the
| sky is cloudless. the winds hushed, the sea
calm magnetic calm may occur during
ram, hail, snow, tempest, lightning or
! tidal wave. To probe deeper into the many
mysteries of magnetic climate is the pur-
pose, then, of these projected institutions.
House Within "a House.
Near the national capital will be erected
the most important of the three. 1t will
| be known as the standard magnetic OBJ
servatory.' Its foundations will be
straightway dug at Cheltenham, a Mary
| land town, sixteen miles southeast of here.
Its architectural eccentricities will aston
| ish the villagers thereabout 1t will be
square, box-like, fat-roofed house with no
windows and but one door. 1t viii be
house within house. Between the inner
shell of the larger and the outer shell of
| the smaller structure will be left a space
three feet wide all around and over top.
This will be filed in with sawdust tightly
| packed. Against the front end of the build
| ing will be a smaller square house about
| half as high. This will be a large vesti-
| bule divided into three compartments, each
| shut off by door.
During this hot weather the thought CT
living in a house without any windows
ard only one entrance is appalling. Yet
this freak building will, in summer, be the
coolest of Uncle Sans government institu-
ticns. The absence of windows the saw
dust layer and the great ycstibule with its
three compartments were designed for the
express purpose of preventing outside air
from mngling with that inside Thus will
the interior atmosphere, the year around
be kept at an even temperature somewhere
between 40 and 20 degrees f. The nervous
compass needle, which will play the all
important part in the Investigations of the
observatory, is extremely sensitive to heat
and cold. AS 1t grows warmer its mag
netism diminiShes. Hence il cannot be de-
pended upon to tell the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. unless pro-
| tected from heated currents of air.
Automatic Scientists DO the Work.
Automatic scientists. actuated by. clock
work, will do all of the routine work of
this queer institution. Machinery is not
only doing the work Of mans hands, but
of his brains in these progressive days. Just
as our new census machines will be de-
pended upon to perform the drudgery of
counting and classifying our millions of fe-
low COuntrymen, these new automatic mag
netcians will be expected to look out for
magnetic storms and keep a record Of
every tickle current which distracts the
compass needle
The last of the three doors leading into
the innermost portion of the observatory
building. will open into a central hallway
separating two pitch-dark rooms. One will
cortain the self-actuated instruments: the
other various complicated compasses and
other magnetic needles. to be studied by the
observers employed at the IL stitution. These
savants. as well as those at Honolulu and
Sitka, will be under the direction of Dr.
L. A Bauer. chief Of the coast and geo.
detic surveys magnetic department.
Magnetic Storms Explained.
To the popular mind the most fascinating
work to be performed in these observato-
ries will be the study Of magnetic storms
You may not know that the EARTH in the
opinion Of great physicists of the present
day. Is spherical magnet-or magnetic
shell-constantly traversed by magnetic
currents. Just as the weather-vane stands
in the direction Of the wind. the magnetic
compass needle points the direction in
which the magnetic current enveloping It,
is running. On our weather maps we see
little weather-vanes scattered over the
country and showing that the wind is blow
Ing in great variety of directions. Were
compass needles substituted for these vanes
they also would disagree among themselves
AT the approach Of ordinary storm of
wind and rain the weather-vane whirls and
cuts various capers, which tell the lay
weather prophet that the elements are pre-
pairing to pour forth their wrath. Slm.-
larly as to the magnetic storm. His eye
riveted upon his delicate compass the mag
netician in one Of the new observatories
will see Its needle suddenly jerk to one
side. swing rapidly back and forth for
while. and finally come to rest to one side
or the other of Its true north and south
line. Here 1t may remain displaced for
several hours or several days These the
magnetician will at once recognize as the
symptoms of a magnetic storm. At such
times the earths magnetic currents often
form into whirls and funnci-like vortices in
the upper atmosphere just as do currents
Of wind.
SunspOts to Blame.
Magnetic storms are the opposite of thun-
der storms. in that they increase in inten-
sity as we approach the colder regions of
the earth. Thus, at Los Angeles, Cal, in