New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-28
of Mai8er's Realm
from Outside Weather In.
lormation Is q Serious
Handicap.
Handicap.

lied that their craft could not be kept aloft
they discovered that they were close to the
Danish coast The capt in ordered his men TO
jump. Every man plunged overheard and
eleven Of them were picked up by fishing
vessel and saved. The airship, relieved OF
their weight shot upward and disappeared.
Undoubtedly it soon sank again, hOated while
until its many chambered gas bag was broken
by the battering waves and lies now at the bot
tom OF the North Sea.
The fate Of the Ia was something more
than proof of the chief weakness Of the gas
supported aircraft. 1t was a graphic illustra-
ton Of serious handicap, serious but little I'M
derstood, under which Germany labors In the
present war. BY this handicap ! mean the
loss of facilities for forccasting the weather.
r lack Of storm warnings, easily available in
times Of peace, was the real cause OF the loss
Of the LA. Had the admiral OF the German
air fleet known that snowstorm was brewing
over the North Sea he would have kept his
craft at home.
AS weapon in the hands Of Germany's enc
mics. the isolation Of that empire from all news
of outside weather deserves to rank next to
the blockade against food and munitions OF
war From military point of view, especially
during the first months of the war before the
material resources Of the Teutonic allies were
impaired, the lack OF foreign meteorological
reports NAV well have been hardship greater
than the loss of commerce. For without these
reports the German scientists are powerless TO
prognosticate their countrys weather.
THE ELEMENTS HAVE PLAYED THEIR PART
IN WORLDS BATTLES
Cold and heat and wind and rain and snow
have decided battles since the days when
cloudburst flooded the plain Of Canaan and
mired Sisera's nine hundred chariots Of iron.
AS a battle factor the weather ranks with the
conformation Of the terrain. It's importance
has not lessened since the ragged hordes OF
Barak overran the valleys Of the Promised
Land Notwithstanding the fact that meteor
ology has come to the aid Of military science.
Although the modern army has Its corps OF
weather experts and receives warning OF ap-
preaching storms. the enormous size OF the
military bodies engaged in the present conflict
and their unexampled dependence upon heavy
ordnance and rapid transportation have made
the weather vastly more important than 1t was
before the time of high explosives and rail
roads and automobiles
This has been emphasized by the recent win
ter campaigns No other great war has found
the combatants so actively engaged during the
cold season as they were last winter in both
the eastern and the western theatres OF strife.
It is in winter that the weather counts most
And we know that during this season OF storms
and of extreme cold the military headquarters
of the allies-British. French and Russians-re-
ceived accurate weather forecasts, while the
Germans and Austrians had to get along with
the scant twelve hour warnings OF their baroH1-
eters. which compare with the marvellous re-
suits of modern meteorological science about
as an opera glass compares with an astronomi-
cal telescope.
The weather is not an affair of localities; it is
worldwide. AS you reaG these words storm
brewing in Alaska may, two or three weeks hence'