Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-12-14
FLUCTUATIONS OF SUN
CAUSE GREAT INTEREST
certain Critical Epoclls Which Affect
the Climate Changes Are
Conspicuous.
UNIVERSAL THOUGHT SUBJECT
Variations of Earth's Greatest Planet
Casts Weird Reflections and Cause
Unlocked For Conditions-Study
Of Stars Becomes Popular.
ny GARKE-T,r =. sERvIss.

The old story. or old complaint. that
the climate has changed is revived and
many persons are asking the cause.
as II 1t were new phenomenon. or
course the climate has changed; 1T is
always changing. But there are GER
c IAN critical epochs at which me ac
come conspicuous TO the human Sen-
sivity Then everybody cries out that
the cl! mate has been turned topsy-
lurvy in way never heard OF before.
ANY middlcagcd person can rcincm-
Der hearing the old people of Ills youth
full days make tho same assertion
changes of climate would probably be
found az regular in recurrence as the
annual change of seasons, If our lives
and our memories were prolonged in
me ratio. Say Of year to month,
%onody wonders at the seasons be-
Keep step. upon the whole. with the
swing of tho sun. which carries il
Alternately ~ far north and far south OF
me equator. And a fun swing is com
p!et"d every twelve months
Late In June the noon sun. as seen
rom me northern part Of the United
southern horizon late in Docembcr
runs only - degrees above. rho
neat mat !, furnishes TO a given area
LIS everybody understands 7, Is
!ihe The regular variations in tho tenn.
In, III a'u n.s OF "a room between waking
lowed 10 die down -
Perhaps an Obstruction.
Rut now suppose that the furnace
tho regular day-and- night cha unon
SuDDosc that. owing to some rarnr
rcnt obstruction of the flucs or
Of "H heat ,h or oihcT cause the quality
nntlF, so that sometimes II ci,.ns los.
neat In the DAYTIME and more bnat
-" ,niEht Than the average regulation
The effect would be analogous 70
What is called change OF climate,
would resemble tho phcnomenai
occurrence OF warm winters and Cnid
summers. But there ls this difference
namely. ma; in tho case OF the room
IA h'sca avnre hopody would be at loss
u'SooNcf INC source Of the discord-
"ncr. and the furnace would be ixcJ
M lhr fireman discharged. while in tho
ease OF tho climate very few cvc- hi mi.
81 tho true source Of tho ,-ouhio Va
I'M, source is beyond our in,crfcrcnco
Here is tho whole thing i, M,
5fh.cli; the carth depends for it's
"limat"s upon the radiant energy ~
rrc, io9 Fan, and the sun is variable The
Ei,ht furnace of tho solar systcm is
.rreEuiar IN its activity The pcriodis
"a outbreak or sunspots is ono OF the
,T,sihic proofs tn. variab!iiiy Of
,.o Thf recu5rsn changes in the form.
rsc9ndi,c details ofsei,s photospheric
.nci or heated Napors Is a third. OBJ
s"rEations and measurements Of nnC
a ouhaSions IN .lhst amountt:of heat and
1ah"r iorgtS 20 cnrr sSssstHat q, sends
10 tho Garth cdnstitutc a Kind of nron<
even more convincing than those rcst.
Ing on iHferences from visual apncarE
The sun Star.
Ihen, back OF all this Is tho in
n"tc variable character OF the sun as
revealed by its .Geneaiogy. The sun
SIMPLY one OF the stars. the par
'iCuiar star that our world belongs to-
Now: the stars notoriousIy
NariaDie. II is doubtful if there exists
= single star whose radiation is per
icctly constant. Some Of them vary
TO an enormous extent. and others so
slSht!y mat careful watching is re-
CURED 10 detect the changes. one star
=, Of this last order OF Variability.
watched by an astronomer from the
depths OF space il would seem almost
steady IN it's light. hut careful ohser-
Nallon would probably reveal to him
what our own astronomers have dis
covered. viz. that the suns radiation