Omaha daily bee., 1915-12-01

every day, and six and a half years 10
decline again to minimum. when for
months in succession the suns face is as
clean as polished mirror. Upon the
whole, the heat on the earth, taking It's
entire surface into account, and bas'ng
the observation on the temperature OF
the atmosphere, Is about one degree and
a quarter Of the Fahrenheit scale lower Mt
sunspot maximum than at sunspot
minimum.
This cannot be wholly due to the dark
ening Of the sun caused by the presence
of the spots, since. as Mr.. c. @, Abbott
of the Smithsonian institute has shown
the amount by which the temperature is
lowered is five times too great to be ac-
counted for in that way.
But there. are other ways In which an
invasion OF horde of spots on the sun
makes It's effects felt upon our globe.
The most conspicuous OF T. csc is in CON
nection with the earth's magnetism.
The earth is a great magnet. and the
sun appears to exercise a direct in
fluence upon it's magnetic state. that
influence varying with the condition OF
the sun as to spottedncss. When sunspots
are at maximum, magnetic storms of
great violence occur, during which the
| electromagnetic excitement Of the earth
I is vividly manifested-in the atmosphcre
by imposing displays Of the aurora
borealis. ahd in the earth itself by
vagabond currents which interrupt tele-
| graph and cable communication, and
! sometimes leap into visibility and
ardibility in the form of cracking sparks
and electric flames playing about the
instruments.
Occasionally IT has been possible to
trace phenomena of this kind to the
influence of individual sun spots of unu-
sual magnitude and activity. 1t is like
the transmission Of . shock from the
sun to the earth across a gap of 3d.
100000 miles, supposed to be filled with
nothing but the invisible and intangible
| ether.
Exactly how the forces that produce
| spots upon the sun affect the earth 8
weather is an unsettled question. There
is a considerable amount of evidence
for saying that such storms as our west
ern tornapoes, the hurricanes of the West
Indies and the typhoons of the China
seas, are far more numerous during sur
| SPOb BndAlinds anu ebpeClhlty curing tne
time that spots are increasing in mum
bers. 1t has also been thought that we
and dry seasons are connected in SONS
way with the sun spot cycle. but on thii
subject the evidence is contradictory
Some statistics show that dry seasons
accompany sun spots. and others tina
wet seasons accompany them.
But all of these things are really o
little account in comparison with th'
great question of the effects produced
upon the sun itself The earth is a specl
in the infinite vault of space. we arr
animated atoms living for the Fraction
of a moment upon that insignificant
speck! OF how great consequence II
the vast scheme of the creation can tn
little questions that relate to our ephe
neral comforts be? II a sunflam
: should lick us up our disappearance from
| the universe, physically considered
would be of less Importance than tha
of the minutest drop of water from tn
ocean. But II the sun should disappea
there would be star gone from heaven
A part Of the universe. at least woul
notice its absence. Whatever threaten
the existence of the sun, then, has a.
appreciable importance. The astronome
finds that the sun spots are sympto
matte of progressive changes which vii
eventually bring the suns career to a
end, and so he studies them, not for tn
sake of finding out merely how the
may affect our petty affairs, but in OF
der to trace, for his intellectual salts
faction. the grand phenomena OF the III
and death of star. And in. doing tha
he is pursuing the only course while
can rescue man from oblivion. offsettin
his material insignificance and nothing
ness with the relative greatness OF HI
mind,