The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-30
CHANGES IN CHINA TE

shoes when the experiments are going
on "a
The Weather Bureau has q most ex-
tensive service. q sort OF press neso-
citation of its own. II gets reports from
a.s0o land stations. 1850 ocean vessels,
and forty foreign. stations. some al
them az far awayas Asia From these
Y gets its reports upon which tina
daily forecasts are made. Sometimes
. storm will refuse to follow the bea-
ten path. and then the weather man
misses HIS guess. But II N said that
about IS per cent OF the winds. rains
and storms follow In the even tenor OF
THAR way, behaving after established
principles. ana doing Just as the wea-
Their man expects, them to. In these
cases the forester hits the bulls eye
In his predictions. In the other cases
we'll. that Fourth of March hare-
back is good example OF what hap
pens go
Although rainmaking by powder
explosions was described in this coun-
try some fifteen years ago, New zea-
land tried It again last year. but with
the efforts here. when It 10 figured
out what It takes to produce en- inch
OF rainfall on q square mile of ter
ritory II shows how unlikely It fx that
man can produce rain. The water that
falls on q square mile Of territorysto
the depth of one inch weighs. s4.ss0
BY the condensation from vapor to
water Of this amount Of rain 10 equi-
valent to the energy developed By
one hundred million horsepower work.
Ing thirty minutes. In comparison
with this the most gigantic explosions
man can make amount to nothing.
But the rainmakers have not clairl-
A. ..lA r. a 49,
They simply declared that when every
other condition was favorable to the
fall OF rain. and only the straw that
broke the camels back was needed to
accomplish results, they could suppiy
the straw. Their view was that at
times there Is a perfect balance be-
tween the elements and that only
the hair that turns the scales 10 need
ed TO throw the balance to rain. In
other words. the weather is on q
hair trigger. and they believed their
explosions had force enough to pull
that trigger. But II their premises were
right their conclusions were not, and
rain making will probably never be at
tempted again by scientific men.
The idea Of having rain fall to or
Indians Of every part Of North AM
erica thought they had men who could
produce rain at will. The froquois.
the Muskingurns. the Choctaws. the
Natchez. the Aigonquins. and the
cherokses all had their weather
estsfion, ' sna a.S q pipes IN IN
burning Of tobacco were among
the means they took to
coaxi the rain. Then they had
others who undertook to stop II at
the proper time. 1t is related OF the
Iroquois that they had a crowd Of
braves who would tight the thunder
storms. OF course they always ceas-
ed In due course any way, bat the In
dams thought their fighters had van-
duished the thunderbolta One day a
bolt Of lightning struck half q dozen
Of these warriors. killing the whole
group. Thereafter the thunderstorms
were not challenged.
y is said that no one who survived
being struck by lightning was able
to remember . thing about having
been hit. IT win be recalled that
MANY victims OF lightning have their
clothes torn, completely from their
bodies. This 10 benaved to be- due to
the rush of the wind that causes the
sss SoSv ssspR Dnss the o, sloshss ss9%
the person struck by lightning falls
to the around Instantly. Sometimes.
however. they remain in the identical
position in which they were struck
Medical science records an tne 70
of q half dozen farm laborer. u M.sx
under tree eating their midday meat.
A bolt OF lightning struck the tree and
killed the group. Each man MAIN
tanned the posture he had when struck
One was lifting piece OF food to, his
mouth and another was drinking
water. bfE
Experts from the insurance comma.
MES and elsewhere estimate the value
ct the Weather Service at fifty mill
lion dollars year. Even the railroads
receive great BENEFITS. WheA laying q
eulvert they need TO know the amount
Of rainfall they must prepare to take
care o. When building q bridge they
must know the Hood stages Of, the
river they propose TO span. The shIp-
ping of the world finds the work val.
liable. Everywhere the weather ser.
vice makes itself felt In useful ways.
But even the weather man does not
think he has more. than touched the
possibilities OF ths work OF forecast
ing. He believes that the experiment.
al work now going on will give man
q vastly better understanding Of tha
weather, and enable him to plan hts
affairs with q fuller foresight than
ever before. Suppose, for Instance,
that the cycle theory is properly es-
tablished by another generation nf i.
tabulated observations. Thereafter
we may know in advance the years
of drought and the years OF wet
weather. Sowing crops to suit those
years might entirely revolutionize the
(Copyringh. 1903. by Frederic ].
a 4