The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-05-30

IN the treatment Of disease Is marked in
/ every community. Nearly every reader
nas some friend OF acquaintance who has
I MADE Journey 20 some region known 10
/ throat trouble
] MeteOrologists figure that the average
/ temperature of the world is about 50 de-
grees, with ma jority Of the earth's pop
I ulatlon living in regions warmer than the
/ average. Before the nineteenth century
! lhe population in the cooler temperate
/ zones was comparatively small, but mas
doubled many times since then. The sci
entists claim that the hairless skin Of the
| human being proves that he originated in
] warm climate, seeming TO lose signt
! Of The fact that The monkey OF the torrfd
zone has always had a hair covering.
| CiimatOlOgists declare that there is moth
lng true in the theory that our fore-
| fathers were healthier than We are be-
cause there were Old-fashiOned winters
and summers then. They say that the
decline Of national health must be traced
/ to other sources. that there has been no
change anywhere. Some winters are
colder than others. and some summers
I dryer than others. but they average about
[ the same as they did in the earlier days,
to which the old folk delight TO bark
/ back
This is true in North America as well
| as in every other part of the earth; In
the Bible one reads Of how Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob had to fight for watering
places for their herds. In that same re
/ gion today the struggle still goes on Inc
mete0rologist declares that enlightened
man may adjust his ways TO a given ell
mate. but that the climate VIII never al
| Just its ways TO him. A most interesting
and unique way of settling the question
of whether the climate Of a country
changes OF not was hit upon by a French
climatolOgist. He taDulated the dates OF
the wine making seasons in france DaCk
to the fourteenth century, ana III al thS
five hundred years he found no material
change in the climate as shown Dy those
dates He did find that the weather Is
inclined to move I'm cycles, some years
being a little behind the average date and
others a little ahead of it, These back
ward and forward years seemed to &C
cur i'm such sequence as 70 indicate cycles
in the weather By some these cycles
were placed at eleven years and by others
at thirty-five years. If it can be estab-
lished that these cycles dc occur. 1t viii
be a big feature in the cap Of the long
range fOrecaster.
The work of the Chronological associa-
ton is in entire harmony with that OF the
weather bureau. Someone has said that
the weather for 365 days makes the ell
mate of a place. The climatOloglsts get
their weather data from the weather bu-
reau. and thereby determine the climate
No other country approaches the thor-
ouEhness with which Uncle Sam studies
the weather Spending million ana
half dollars a year to be weather-Wlse, ne
is learning many secrets Of the atinos-
phere that have never been known. His
station at Mt. Weather, on the Blue
Ridge mountains of Virginia has been
equipped with every sort Of instrument
human ingenuity can devise to pull down
the secrets Of the upper air. Grown men
fly kites there in a way that would make
the heart of the small boy green with
envy.
Not long ago d box-shaped kite, carry
ing kit of instruments, was sent up into
the air 3 III feet-a little over fOuf mics
One of the instruments it contained was
a self-recOrding thermometer. 1t showed
a temperature of five degrees below zero
at that elevation. although it was not at
all cold on the mountain. Another IN
strument was made Of a single hair from
q woman's head. All the oil had been
taken from the hair. and one end was
tied to a stationary strip while the other
had a little fountain pen attached TO II.
This pen was filled with non-freeZing ink
and marked the expansion and contraction
Of the hair as humidity increased ana
decreased Still another instrument reg
istered the direction Of the wind and an
other the velocity with which II moved
In studying the temperatures OF the at
mosphere the weather station must nave
thermometers which viii register 100 de
grees above freezing and 100 degrees be-
low In contrast with this wide range
the ma ghetto laboratory must nave
rooms in which the tempera ture does not
vary more than one-tenth Of a degree the
whole year round.
Many Of the instruments through which
the weather men are trying to gain new
information about the atmosphere and lts
changes are so delicate that iron of any
kind anywhere i'm the neighbOrhOOd would
adversely affect their precision. one house
had to be built without windows. An
other had to be constructed without iron
OF steel. not even excepting nails Even
the WOrk-hOrses cannot wear iron SHOES
when the experiments are going on.
The weather bureau has a most extern
sive service. a sort of press association of /
its own. II gets its reports from 5.,sE
land stations. l-25o ocean vessels ana Iorty
foreign stations, some OF them as far
away as Asia. From these It gets its
reports upon which the daily forecasts /
are made. Sometimes a storm will re-
fuse to follow the beaten path. and then
the weather man misses his guess. But il
is said that about IS per cent of the winds. /
rains and storms follow in the even tenor
Of their way. behaving after established
principles. and doing just as the weather
man expects them to. In these cases the
forecaster hits the bulls eye in his pre- Z
dictions- In the other cases-wen, that 1
fourth Of March bareback is a good eX-
ample of what happens
Although rainmaking by powder explo- /
siOns was discredited in this country F,
some fifteen years ago. New Zealand /
tried IL again last year, but with no bet !
ter success than characterized the efforts I
here. When II is figured out what power /
IL takes to produce an inch Of rainfall I
on a square mile of territory IL shows I
how unlikely il is that man can produce
rain. The water that falls on a square 4
mile Of territory to the depth Of one inch I
weighs $3.50 tons. The heat developed /
vspor tC water Of this amount Of rain is I
equivalent to the energy developed by /
10000 900 horse power working thirty I
minutes. In comparison with this the /
most gigantic explosions man can make I
amount TO nothing.
But the rainmaksrs have not claimed /
they could make rain at any time They I
simply declared that when every other I
condition was favorable TO the fall of I
rain and only the straw that broke the /
cameTs back was needed to accomplish /
results they could supply the straw
Their view was that at times there is 1
perfect balance between the elements, /
and that only the hair that turns the I
scales is needed TO throw the balance to /
rain. In other words. the weather Is on /
a hair trigger and they believed their /
explosions had force enough to pull that
trigger. But If their premises were right I
their conclusions were not. and Tain-mak-
ing will probably never be attempted .
again by scientific men
The idea of having rain fall 70 order [
is by no means new one. The Indians \
Of every part OF North America thought 1
they had men who could produce rain /
at will. The Troquois. the Muskingums. I
the Choctaws. the Nstchez, the AlEon- !
ouins and the Cherokees all had their I
weather makers. The smoking Of pipes.
ircantations and dances ard the burning 4