Bisbee daily review., 1909-08-24
SUNS RADIATION
osscoveRlEs PROVE IT TO sE
 LESS THAN WAS SUPPOSED.
Remarkable Investigations Of the ! Astrophysieai Observatory Main. tainsd by the Smithsonian h.
 stituts st Washington.

The weather as . topic of conversa ton may not be very edifying or in- structive, but the weather as a subject os investigation by scientific men. aid cd by instruments of the most delicate and accurate construction is most profitable to the human race. for when man comes to know natures secrets accuratetly. and is able to forecast with certainty the atmospheric condi- tions, he will be in position to more successfully carry on his various pur- suits. especially those of agriculture.
 The United States is far in the lead of any other nation in the develop ment of practical meteorological science, and be it said to our credit xhat the government maintains under the ad- ministratiye guardianship of the Smithsonian institution an astro- physical observatory. the only station of its kind in the world.
 It is at this astrophysical observa. tory under its director. Prof. c. G. Alb bolt, that many epoch-making dis coveries have been made, among them being the fact that the sun gives the earth only half as much heat as has been commonly supposed by astronomers, and that the radiation of this heat is variable instead of con stant. and. further, that man Is pro tected from one-half the heat given to the earth by the operation of atmos- pheric conditions. These, and many other facts of importance and interest nave been ascertained after years of painstaking effort and observation, and astronomers and meteorologists who have known the direction of the inves- tigations have been eagerly awaiting the announcements of these results. and which have just been made public through government publication.
 Speaking of the suns radiation. Prof. Abbott says:
 The sun is the promoter of all life on earth. and maintains the earth it. self at a habitable temperature. It does this through the rays which 1t sends to the earth, and it is our first interest 10 learn the amount of these rays available to us. Exaggerated es- inmates have prevailed for the last 90 years.
 We find the average tensity of the suns radiation 10 be two units in the scale adopted for such measurements.
 Our computation that the average intensity of the suns radiation is two means that it is two calories per square centimeter per minute. These are strange terms to most people. A cubic ceGtimeter is about the size of a dice used in gambling. Suppose we place up above the earth's atmosphere, and thus independent of its clouds and dust. little cube of water of that size. Now, if the suns rays shining directly on one side of this cube for one minute could be wholly absorbed in 1t. they would raise the tempera- ture two degrees centigrade. That Is what we mean by our two units-our new estimate of what astronomers have termed the solar constant of radiation. so called because the sun has been supposed to give practically constant radiation for days and months and years.
 By two methods we have obtained new estimates of the suns tempe-a- ture. which we find to be at its surface from 5000 to 1000 degrees centigrade. OF. on the scale of our household ther- mometer, 10000 to 1S000 degrees Fahr. Astronomers in the last 50 years have variously estimated it to be from 1000 to 100000 degrees centigrade, but all estimates of the last ten years have ranged from 5000 to 10000 degrees"
 Just outside our southern window here we, have a 'pyrheliometer' for measuring the rate at which 1t is re- ceiyed at the earth's surface. Now a bucket of water is warmed by the sun much faster upon high mountain top than it would be at sea level because there is between it and the sun less air to cut of its rays by absorptiop and scattered reflection