The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-25

the barometer the force at work guild
| ing the hand Is eXtraneous and the
dial alone is touched.
| But this ingenious alteration OF the
| standard barometer was an incom-
| plete answer to the problem which
Father Algue had set out to solve. 1t
did not help to locate the centre of
the threatening typhoon, and his OBJ
| Ject was to evolve an aid by which
not only the position of the storm
could be established but its subse-
quent course. He felt that the safety
Of thousands Of lives depended upon
a satisfactory solution. Sometime pre-
viously Father Benito Vines, at the
| observatory in Havana, had also
sought for some natural sign which
would give warning not only of a
menacing hurricane but which would
tell where the centre Of the cyclone
lay. He literally looked for that sign
in the heavens.
HeraIded by Clouds.
He found it there in the form Of GER
tain long, featherlike clouds which APP
peared in the sky and commonly per-
| sisted there days before the arrival Of
the storm. Father Vines discovered
that these cocktails" invariably her
aided the gathering tempest and were
the visible outermost swirls of an at
| mospheric maelstrom whose centre
was possibly hundreds of miles below
the horizon. BY watching the manner
in which these clouds grew and trac-
ing In general way the trend of their
| conveyance he was able to locate ap-
proximately the position of the vor-
| tex. This was about as far as Father
vines went, but that knowledge proved
a sure foundation upon which Father
Algue afterward built so cunnngly.
At Manila Father Algue began to
study the gradual development of the
storm clouds peculiar to that region.
and little later he designed and built
apparatus by which he could both
! measure the height of the clouds and
photograph them as we'll BY carry
ing these studies over fairly long pc
| riod which was marked by a number
or typhoons he was able to determine
not only the rotary movement of the
winds for each of the four quarters of
the compass during the prevalence of
a cyclone, but he also discovered how
| these winds varied with the different
seasons. Further. his photographs en-
abled him to get a graphic record of
Just how the clouds marked the de-
gree to which the vertical axis of the
Storm like that OF a spinning top, in
clined as 1t advanced.
We can better appreciate the mean
ing OF this IL We picture the cyclone II
be whirling cone travelling with its
point downward and in touch with the
earth while its larger and more violent
zones are aloft. If the cone leaned 10
one or the other side that would bring
the more angry winds closer to the
earth in that direction and the ter
ritory on the other side would have
less TO fear. OF course during all these
! Investigations this scientific priest
measured carefully the speed Of the
scurrying clouds at different distances
rom the vortex of the typhoon, and
he likewise observed the varying pres
sures of the barometer as he was near
or far from that dreaded centre.
With all of this data eXhaustively
studied and tabulated, he was able
finally to obtain certain averges upon
which he based his cyclonometer oil
wind chart, which enables a naviga-
tor of even modest learning to asccr-
tain his position in relation to the
centre of the oncoming storm. The
mariner does not have to bother with
the height of the clouds or the char
acter of them, nor does he have Ia
make veXatious calculations; his task
is simplicity personified.
Range of 500 Miles.
The barocyclonometer will respond
to atmospheric disturbances due &c
storms more than 500 miles away, and
Father Algue therefore has divided
the concentric zones on his dial into in
tervals OF 100 miles each. This per-
mits the navigator 10 fix the remote
ness or nearness OF the centre OF q
hurricane, but II does not tell OF the
whereabouts of the storm axis. This
latter information is much desired by
the man at sea as we'll as the master
of a ship at anchor In haroor. and Il
is equally important to the safety OF
persons on shore. In any case 4
gives warning and time i'm which tC
Iprepare for the inevitable or to heaC