River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-07-08
SPOTS ON THE sun
The Way They Affect Our Source
of Light and Heat.
POINT TO THE GRAND CLIMAX

Rhen Darkness and Cold Shall Over
| take Our Planet and Smother Ii In
the Chill of Death-Their Effect Upon
! Climatic and Weather Conditions.
The return of sun spots is q phenom-
enon that astronomers always regard
with great concern. They come flock
| ing back once in about every eleven
and a half years for them to reach
maximum of numbers, when the sun
! is seen to be more or less speckled eY-
cry day, and six and half years to
| decline again to a minimum. when for
months in succession the suns face is
as clean as a polished mirror. Upon
the whole the heat on the earth. tax
| ing it's entire surface into account and
basing the observation on the temper
allure of the atmosphere, is about IL
degrees of the Fahrenheit scale lower
at sun spot maximum than at sun spot
| minimum.
This cannot be wholly due to the
darkening of the sun caused by the
presence of the spots, since. as Mr.. c.
G. Abbott of the Smithsonian institu-
ton has shown, the amount by which
the temperature is lowered is five
times too great to be accounted for in
that way.
But there are other ways in which
nf Of re- no
sun makes it's effects felt upon our
globe The most conspicuous of these
is in connection with the earth's mag
netism.
The earth is q great magnet, and the
sun appears to exercise a direct int1u
ence upon its magnetic state, that in
fuence varying with the condition of
the sun as TO spOttedness. When sun
spots are at a maximum, magnetic
storms of great violence occur, during
which the electro magnetic excitement
of the earth is wildly manifested
the atmosphere by imposing displays
of the aurora borealis, and in the earth
itself by vagabond currents which in
terrupt telegraph and cable communi-
cation, and sometimes leap into visi-
bility 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 I'M
usual magnitude and activity. 1t is
like the transmission of q shock from
~ -
93,O00,00O miles, supposed to be filed
with nothing but the invisible and in
tangible ether.
Exactly how the forces that produce
spots upon the sun affect the earth's
weather is an unsettled question.
There is a considerable amount of evil
dence for saying that such storms as
our western tornadoes, the hurricanes
of the West Indies and the typhoons of
the China seas are far more numerous
during sun spot maXima, and especially
during the time that the spots are in
creaSing in numbers. 1t has also been
thought that wet and dry seasons are
connected in some way with the sun
spot cycle, but on this subject the evil
dence is contradictory. Some statistics
show that dry seasons accompany sun
spots and others that wet seasons ac-
company them.
But all of these things are really of
little account in comparison with the
great question of the effects produced
upon the sun itself The earth is a
speck in the infinite vault of space,
and we are animated atoms living for
the fraction of a moment upon that
insignificant Speck. Of how great con-
sequence in the vast scheme of the
creation can the little questions that
relate to our ephemeral comforts be!
If a sun fame should lick US up our
disappearance from the universe, phys
icalIy considered, would be of less i'm
portance than that Of the minutest
drop of water from the ocean. But if
the sun should disappear there would
be a star gone from heaven. A part
of the universe at least would notice
its absence Whatever threatens the
existence of the sun, then, has an ap-
probable Importance. The astronomer
! finds that the sun spots are symptO-
matte of progressive changes which
will eventually bring the suns career
to an end, and so he studies them not
for the sake of finding out merely how
they may affect our petty affairs, but
in order to trace for his intellectual
satisfaction the grand phenomena of
the life and death of a star. And in
doing that he is pursuing the only
| course which can rescue man from OBJ
livion, offsetting his material insignifi-
| canoe and nothingness with the rela-
tive greatness of his mind.-Garrett P.
Serviss in Spokane Spokesman-Re-
vic