Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-03-10
DIR. MYERS TELLSOF
WARMER WINTERS
And Many Other Things Few of
Us Know About This Good
Old World of Ours

lister recently - an Associated
i Press article, in which it was
stated by some one that our win
ters are gradually growing warm
J er. while someone else contra
! cliCted the statement by saying
that on the whole our winters av-
era9ed up about the same, OF
! words to that effect.
i The fact is. our winters on the
northern hemisphere, actually are
!; growing. warmer. and eventually
there will come a time when the
! difference between winter and
| summer on the northern half OF
our globe will practically be an
initiated. This will be due to
the cccentricity of the earth's or
bit and what is known as the
procession OF the cquinoxes.
In order to make this clear to
the reader who is not a student
Of astronomy. it may be we'll to
explain that the glacial period, or
what biologists call the Great
! Ice Age, occurs at long intervals.
| The last glacial period passed
aWaN some nine in ten thousand
years ago, altho remnants of it
still remain in the high Alps and
III the Arctic regions.
There are two kinds OF winters
in both northern and southern
hcmisphcrcS. One is the annual
Writer. due to the fitting of the
earth'S axis on its journey around
the sun. The other is the Great
Winter. due to the cccentricitv OF
the carth's orbit. Now. it must
be understood that in passing
around the sun. the earth does
not describe a circle. 1t describes
an ellipSc. An ellipse has two
diamctcrs--a major apd a minor
The sun apparently moves across
the major axis. The fact. howcv-
or. is that it is. not the sun. but
the cllipsc that moves. At pres
emf we are much nearer the sun
in winter than we are in summer
because the sun is nearer the
one side of the major axis than
the other. But. as the earth's
rotation on its axis does not CO.
incide with the plane of its orbit.
but is tilted at an angle of 23H
degrees. it happens that our nor
thern hemisphere is tilted away
from the sun in winter. when we
are nearest to it, hence we do
not receive its direct rays. In
summer, when we are farthest
away from the sun. the northern
hemisphere is tilted toward it and
we receive its direct rays. AS a
result we have neither the eX-
treme cold in winter nor heat in
summer that we might have were
conditions different. But condi-I
tons are gradually changing.
Owing TO the protuberance Of
the earth along the equatorial
regions. the attraction of the sun
and moon tends to pull the axis
aside and make it describe a con-
ical movement like that of the
axis of a top around the vertical.
Hence each pole points success
sively to different stars. In 9TH
er words. the north pole describes
Il complete circle every 21.OOO
years. AS a result the geograph-
ic and electric north poles are
never Identical The needle of
the compass does not point to the
geographic north pole. but sever
al degrees to one side of 1t. y
At present the winter in our
northern hemisphere comedies
with the eartl's approach to the
sun. or perihelion. 1900 or A.
900 wears he1tce our winters will
take place when the earth is ap-
preaching the farthest part of its
orbit from the sunAthe aphelio@.
DR.. Croll, in "Climate and Tire"
says:
The mean distance. of the sun
at present is 92.4OOO0O miles.
That means that we are 0O.S4|.-
go miles from the sun in the win
ter, and something like 100000
miles in the summer) When
the eccentricity (of the earth's
orbit is at its superior limit, the
distance of the sun from the
earth. when the latter is in the
aphelion of its orbit, is no less
than 90, 5S4,1OO miles, and when
in the perihelioh it is only s5,215.-
600 miles. The earth is, there
fore ID, 36S, 200 miles farther from
the sun in the former than in the
latter position. The direct heat
|of the sun being inverseiy as the
square of the distance, it follows
that the amount of heat received
by the earth in these two posi-
+;o,,e x,,;i1 ~, &c 10 - 1k nxx,;r,cr