Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-11
THIS IS A sUN-spoT YEAR.
IL There Any Relation Between That
Fact and Certain Othersf

From the Boston Daily Advertiser
IT is believed, from evidences now seen in
the sum- that a period of great activity Is
in progress there. and that the effects OF
this unreasonable force VIII he seen curing
the next five years in what Is known as
.'sun spots" These sun spots are supposed
to be great solar volcanoes or other as
turbances of the suns surface in some visi-
Bile way. The spots can be seen easily by
observers during the years up to 1903, when
the maximum will have been reached
These supposed cavities sometimes go to
width of about oOODO miles and then break
up into separate spots or cavities. some
times separating at the rate of 100 miles
an hour.
The energy sent out by the same to"cs
that causes these sun spots must be enor-
nous. There some reasons for 5eiieF-
ing that before the spots themselves lHake
their appearance to the sight the energy IS
at work and is radiated from the sun to the
planets of this system AT all events. the
sun-spot periods are usually notahle on
the earth for peculiar manifestations CT
electrical energy The electric storms that
have been seen in New England lately are
due, in some degree, to the solar energy
and the electricity sent to the earth as
result Such, at least, is widely received
scientific theory.
1t may be that the sun spots or the en-
ergy of which they are merely the result
work IN some taSnlOn Inal cannot De 50
easily traced. During the past three years,
when the suns energies have been at work.
strange things have happened in the world.
Is it merely coincidence? If so. 1t is at
least worth notice that condolences of this
kind are not rare II one takes the trouble
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 beginning of
sun-spot outbreaks would be reCkoned in
1882 1873. 1861 and 1s56 in such count.
These dates are not exact. because the
period of duration is not exactly measur-
able in units of years. Still. 1t is surely
worth some notice that before the period
Of 1856 there came the desperate outbreak
Of the war in the Crimea. that before the
period of 1851 the United States was raw
aged by civil war to an extent hardly ever
recorded in the history of any other cOun-
try, and that the great tragedy of Lin
coins death had been recorded; that pre-
ceding the sun-spot period of 1873 there
came the narrowing experiences of France.
eliminating in the communist riots, and the
Russian-TurKish war: that before 1889
came the ROumelan revolution, the nhiliSt
outbreak in Russia and the war with the
Afghans. and that before 1900 came the
war with Spain, the Jameson raid and the
consequent war between the Beers and the
British.
II is also interesting to note how financial
movements Of Importance have accom-
panied the manifestation of sun spots In
the past half century. Each period has
been accompanied by great business booms
aud the climax and disappearance of the
sun spots in close proximity to a financial
panic, except in 1851. when the immense
preparations Tor war In the United States
rather caused better business Sine, that
date. however the years 1873, 1854 and 1895
We're years of Widespread financial and in
dustrial depression. This coincidence Is
also striking enough to be noted OF
course, such condolences do not prove that
the energy or the reaction in the sun causes
such results on the earth; but 1t is at least
remarkable that the suns energy and the
human energy on the earth should have
run in cycles so closely alike