Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-19
BY WILLIAM ATHERToN DU pUY


wind" and the storm center is to your right.
If you draw little jigger like a watch
spring, you will have diagram of hurrl-
cane But be careful to draw in the direc-
ton opposite the hands of the watch if you
are north of the equator, and with the hands
of the watch if you are south of it. Now
place yourself, in imagination, at any point
on one of these lines. Its direction at that
point will represent the direction of the wind.
Face the wind. The storm center is on your
right. With this diagram of watch spring
any landlubber can tell where the storm
center is. The knowledge of the savants is
not necessary to convince him in which di-
rection he should steer, flee, set sail, and
beat it.
The direction in which the storm center
is moving may be determined by taking sue
cessive observations. AS you turn to face
the changing wind, you have only to observe
in what direction a point would move to be
still on your right. 1t is the simplest thing
in the world thus to determine whether the
storm center is cutting in ahead of you or
behind you and to turn tail or steam ahead
accordingly.
When Icebergs Are Near
TCEBERGS indicate their presence by a
"blink" in the sky long before they may
be seen. This blink is path of sky above
them lighter than that surrounding. 1t is
caused by their capacity of refracting the
sunlight or moonlight. An iceberg in fog
looks black If of any height. it will send
back an echo when the whistle is blown.
"By noting the time between the blast of
the whistle and the reflected sound" say the
men of the photographic office, "the distance
of the object in feet may be approximately
found by multiplying by five hundred and
fifty"
Recalling Yesterdays
THE Fiji Islands and the Samoan Islands
are about quarter of an inch apart,
according to the map. But the Fiji Islands
are on the western side of the 18Oth me-
ridian, and Samoa is on the eastern side.
Therefore, it is always Saturday in Samoa
when it is Sunday in Fiji. If you lived in
Fiji, you might celebrate Christmas or the
Fourth of July or your birthday or any other
such occasion, then 60 over to Samoa the
following day and have the celebration all
over again. You might recall your yester
DAYS; for the 18Oth meridian is the inter-
national date line which we have all tried
so hard to comprehend, but in which we
have mostly failed.
If the world was any sort of fruit, it would
be a nice juicy peach, one of that sort from
which the skin may be peeled with the
fingers. Let's let the skin represent today,
Sunday. This skin is cut along the 18Oth
meridian. At twelve midnight we begin to
take off the skin. We pull it gradually to
the west. For each hour we take off one
twenty fourth of the whole skin. All that
is peeled is Sunday. The rest is Saturday.
1t is Sunday just beyond the 1SOth meridian;
but it is Saturday just east of it and practi-
cally the same time of day at both points.
The skin is taken gradually off the peach to
the westward. 1t becomes Sunday in Aus
tralia, in India, along the east of Africa, in
Europe, in Rio Janeiro, in New York, in
San Francisco, in Hawaii, in Samoa The
skin of Sunday has been taken entirely off
the earth. The curtain of Monday is now
taken up and gradually removed. So the
procession of days follow one another. 1t
is the same day the world round only at the
moment of taking up the new day. At other
times there is different date line in Fiji and
Samoa.
Other Puzzles
THERE is an old dread of encountering
derelict that is just below the surface
of the water. There is no such danger. A
derelict that will sink below the surface will
sink to the bottom. Take tub of water