Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1914-11-06
NEATHERFORECASTS
Ambitions of U. S. MeteoroIogists
May Be Attained.
with Aid Of Baiometer It 10 Possible
70 Measure Heat Changes Of the
Suns Ray - Predictions
Far Ahead.


who complained that people kept talk
ing and talking about the weather. but
nobody ever did anything about 1t.
This just reproach may be removed
as the result of some very important
discoveries that have been made by
little group of American meterologlsts.
These scientists have been carefully
observing the sun for ten years. and
have come to the conclusion that our
weather is due to changes upon the
surface of the sun. They say that the
sun spots are responsible. When the
spots are many and large the weather
is apt to be cold. When they are small
and few the weather will probably be
warm. The differences are questioned
by some other scientists, but their
chief scientific discovery. namely, that
the radiation of heat from the sun Is
not constant, is being generally ac'
cepted, and is considered of great
value to future observations.
The discovery that there was no
~'solar constant" as it is called, name
ay, that the amount of heat radiated
by the sun is not constant, but luctu-
ates almost as much as the amount OF
heat generated in furnace. was due
to the invention by Prof. S. P. Langley
of the Smithsonian Institution Of a re-
markable instrument he called the boil
rometer. This apparatus is a thermom'
eter Of such surprising sensitiveness
that 1t will record millionth of a de-
gree of heat. Equipped with bolom'
seters, a special post of observation
was established near the summit OF
Mount Whitney, in California. and an
other in Algiers. The object of max
ing the observations from two widely
separated stations was to insure
against error due to local atmospheric
causes. For ten years the bolometers
have been at work in California and AT.
r,ca. and the scientists believe that
the time has been long enough to JUS
1ify them in making some important
concentrations concerning sun spots.
They have found, for instance, that
sun spots appear and disappear with
a certain regularity. Every eleven
years the sun spots reach maximum
as regards number and area. Four
years later they have reached min
1mum, from which they gradually in
crease for seven years. They have
also found that the sun spots have
controlling effect upon the amount OF
heat radiated from the sun. They act
as sort of blanket, and less heat
comes from the portion of the sun I'M
der the spots than from the other por.
Gions. A difference Of IS per cent. was
recorded in the heat radiated from the
part Of the sun covered by a spot and
the clear portion. This discovery,
taken with careful examination Of
meteorological data, such as tempera.
lures in the year when the sun spots
we're most numerous, has prompted
the scientists to venture the opinion
that the presence of sun spots makes
for cold weather.
II their theory is right and the com.
Ing and disappearing Of sun spots can
be predicted years or months in ad.
vance, it follows that it should be pos.
sible to make weather forecasts si1
months or so ahead of time. 1t would
not be possible to know, of course,
that 1t would rain on a given day in
the future. but it would be known
whether the winter would be severe
or a mild one, whether the spring
would be late or early, whether the
summer would be wet or dry In 9th.
er words, 1t would be possible to know
as much as the patent medicine alma.
macs pretend to know. That this
knowledge would mean the saving OF
many million dollars a year is plain
after moments thought. Farmers,
for instance, would know what sort OF
crop to sow in order to take advan.
tage of the coming season. Manufac.
turers would know what sort of cloth.
ing would be most seasonable, and all
industries that are more or less de-
pendent upon the weather would be
able to calculate precisely for months
in advance. Some such stride in the
science of meteorology might be rea
sonab'y expected. 1t is long overdue