Evening star., 1923-05-15
THE WAYS OF WASHINGTON
BY WILLIAM PICKETT HELM.

( was so much killed by repeated frosts
| that grazing cattle would scarcely
eat it.
The average temperature Of this
month was only 6S.'
And how would you like an August
that measures up to August, 1916, de-
scribed by Mr.. Perce as follows:
| The medium temperature of this !.
month was only &c.
This poor month entered upon t.
duties so perfectly chilled as to -
| unable to raise one warm. foegy
morning or cheerful sunny day.
sit commenced with q cold northeast
| rain. and when it cleared the atmoS
| phere was SO chilled as to produce
| ice in many places half an inch thick.
1t froze the Indian corn which was
in the milk SO hard that it rotted on
| the stalk and farmers moved it down
| and dried it for cattle fodder.
Every green thing was destroyed,t
| not only in this country but in Eu
rope. Newspapers from England SAID.
| 1T will ever be remembered by the
present generation that the year 1916
was a year in which there was no
| summer!
Indian corn raised in Pennsylvania
| in 1915 sold for seed to plant in the
spring of 1917 for 81 per bushel in
many places"
| Mr.. Peirce's record has been abun-
dantly supported by cotemporary
| literature. Our own weather bureau
| knows about this year without q sum-
| mer. although the bureau was not'
| then existent
What caused the calamity? Are We
| approaching a repetition?
I The cause, SO far as scientists can
! figure, was two-fold First, a vol
| cano, Tomboro, in the Malay archi
| pelago, had roared out with a ter
| rife explosion in 1915. the year
preceding. That explosion. which in
cidentally killed $4,000 persons
blanketed the whole world with Il
! layer of volcanic dust through which
| the suns rays filtered, bereft Of much
heat, in sickly and puny disarray.
The dust of that mighty upheavaI.
in our upper air the following year
and shaded the globe partially from
| the beneficent warmth of the sun.
/ That is one of the reasons Assigned.
| The other is the sun-spots. Or
| rather, the lack of sun spots, for in
| the year 1916 they had reached the
minimum, perhaps, for more than i,
century. r<t
According to the observ alton a
our scientists there is direct connec-
| tion between the spots on the sun
and the temperature on the earth.
! 1t seems that many spots cause more
heat and few spots, or none of any
| size at all. cause shrinkaGe in the
volume of heat We receive from the
| sun.
There is a definite cycle of sun
spots. Minimum and maximum oc-
| cur at intervals of little more than
eleven years. On every fifth cycle
| the minimum and maximum are in
tensified. That means that about
every fifty-five and one-half years
we have a hotter hot wave than
| usual: and that the coldest cold waves
may be expected also at fifty-five-
year intervals.
Just now. We are nearing the crisis
of the fifty-five-year cold cycle Mr..
Browne tells me it is due in 1925. as
| he figures it, or about three years
hence.
Without an obliging volcano to
charge the earth's upper air with
dust between now and 1926 we prob
ably shall be let out with only
] series OF unusually cool summers and
! cold winters-that is, of course, if
the theory works out and there are
| no other relevant factors introduced
| unexpectedly.
| But If a Tomboro blows it's head
| off between now and then-look out!
We may have another year without
q summer