Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-11-27
THE MODERN WEATHER MAN.
He Makes a Perfect Score Eight
Times Out of Ten and Saves Us
Money,

People don't laugh at the weather
man as they once did. The reason is
that they need him in their business.
OF course, when two long-promised
fair inauguration days turn into howl
ing billiards, the laugh is on the Wea-
ther man. and a certain percentage of
wise people begin to declare that
there never was and never will pe any,
thing in the science of meteorology
besides guess work and good 5obs. But
the fact that in this country lie wea-
ther man makes a perfect score eight
times out of ten, and that one or two
ef his misses is far from being bad;
the fact that last year the weather
man saved the people of the Western
coast $1500O.000 in one night by his
warnings: the fact that the weather
man is now working to make nine out
of ten predictions come true, with a
hope for a fun score of ten-these
ought to be sufficient to give him q
high place in the professional life of
the country.
The fact is, the old term, meteor
ologv," no longer fits the work of the
weather man. He is beginning to
speak of his science as "aerol0gy." He
is beginning to chart the air. There
are rivers in the air just as there are
rivers in the sea. II is ignorance of
the current of these rivers that has
hampered aviation in its bolder at
temLts. When the aerial rivers above
the Atlantic are charted, we may eN-
pect TO see airships paying calls be-
tween New York and London. Winds
and storms are not always free lances,
striking here and there undesignedly
and without traceable cause. The phy-
sizes of rain, the nucleus of tEe rain
drop. the centers of condensation, the
cradle of winds-all these are being
patiently studied by disciplined minds
And for much wider purpose than
the mere forecasting of weather The
weather forecast is. beyond doubt OF
immense value to the country. On
accurate foreeasting depends millions
Of money every day. But the new sci
ence ef aerology seeks vet fafthel-lt
seeks to control the weather. Hereto
fore this spiendidly audaciou8 illus
tratien of mans ambition las been
conned To more or less nondeserlpt
'.rainmakerS. But the Weather Bu-
reau of this Government has already
eeptrived inventions which contro'
frost in fruit growing seeticns-tight-
ing the frost by heating the air by
adding moisture to the air. by covering
the plants or by mixing other chemi-
cal elements 10 the air which sing III
mystic authority, Come not near.
Come not near!' The beauty of Ibis
fact goes well beyond the practical
value indicated, for the weather men
who invented these contriEanees have
freely surrendered all chance of private
patent monopoly and have given them
generously to the farmers without
royalty.
One aspect of dangerous weather Is
the fog. The weather man entertains
no lesser hope than Of being able e
dissipate the fog which makes harbors
dangerous and cities dreary. He doe
not hope. of course, to blow it from
the vast face of the ocean, but he has
been so successful in dispelling 1t fror
small areas that he hopes in due time
to be able to dispel it from cities ane
from places of crowded shipping.
Sc. YOU see, the day of the weather
man IS coming, is here.-Detroit News