The daily Alaskan., 1914-01-15
wHIMS OF THE AIR
Curious and Rapid Changes In
 the Velocity of the Wind.
HOLES IN THE ATMOSPHERE.

tors Viewpoint, Are Born of the AL
 most instantaneous Variations In the
 Force of the Aerial Currents.
 Since man has provided himself with wings be has learned more astonishing things about the air than were dream ed of in his old philosophy. Be has had to learn them in order to make travelling safe on his new aerial high way. The wind was almost complete mystery until aeronauts began to make close acquaintance with It's strange moods and vagaries. The startling ex- l per!enCes of aviators have stimulated the anemOmetrists-L e., the wind measurers-to fresh Investigations, which have had surprising results.
 Consider. for instance, these things which have been found out by the Aerotecbnic institute of the University Of Paris:
 If two thermometers (wind measur- ersl are placed side by side about seV- enty-two feet above the ground when wind Of from thirty-three to forty eight feet per second is blowing the most remarkable differences fin the ve- locity of the wind are observed. If the thermometers are only ten inches apart both usually show nearly the same wind velocity, but If the distance be- tween them k increased to about thir- ty.rwO inches one will sometimes show a wind velocity Of ten feet per second more rapid than that shown by the other BuI this difference lasts only for an instant. If the distance be- tween the uuemUmetCrs is increased to twenty three or twenty four feet, the usual length 0f an aeropane, the diff fcrences in thp velocity Of the wind shown by tnem are occasionally enor- nous. but Os very brief duration. This must clearly produce a racking effect upon an aeroplaue which may be dis Gstr1us. for one end of 1t may for a second or so experience a resistance double thas felt at the other end.
 But this Is by no means all. Not only does the wind vary in this capricious fashion at places few feet or few yards apart. but it varies with equal violence and suddepneSs at the same point as is proved by fixing a single unemometer Rt a height of seventy five or eighty feet above the ground and observing the successive changes in it's indications of velocity. Thus it has been found that a wind whose av- craze velocity was about thirty-eight feet per second maintained that ve- lQcity for as much as ten successive seconds and then in a second and a half dropped to less than fourteen feet per second, which 1t maintained during two seconds. after which in the course of half a second 1t sprang up to a ve- locity of fifty feet per second! It main tained the last mentioned velocity for only a single second
 In another case the velocity of the wind rose In threequaTters of a second from twenty-siZ and one-quarter feet to ifty-seven and one-half feet per sec oud
 Considering these facts, 1t Is no won der that aviators meet with strange accidents by running into what they call holes in the air" for the sustain. ing force of the air, on account of the sudden variations of the wind, may almost instantly lose half its value and then with equal suddenness recover, or 1 more than recover, it's former power Such things enable any one to under stand the peculiar perils that the aVia- tor has to face. Even ordinary mortals know that the wind is capriciOus, but to the navigator of the air it becomes sometimes a very demon, or a legion of demons, whose eccentric gambOlings . are as uncomfortable as they are uney- pected,
 It took thousands of years for sea ! men to learn how to face with un- 1 diuching hearts the vagaries of the ocean waves and currents and for ShipbuiIders to devise vessels that could defy them. but 1t seems likely that We iu a few decades shall have mastered the caprices of the atmOs- phere and have produced airships that will safely ride the widest wind.
 It is the advance of science that has given us the great advantage which We l possess over our predecessors iD over coming natures obstacles. but in- increase of knowledge would not have served Us if there had been decrease Of courage That there has been no such decrease is proved every day by the daring feats of aViators.-Garrett