Evening star., 1923-03-24

inca deep over one square mile. ]"
any one undertook TO hoist two lie
viathans few miles up into the al"
and let them fall it would be neces
$ary to attach about all the balloors
in tho world 10 gain sufficient lifting
power. Yet rays Of sunshine, some
how, have the power to raise water
for a rain, covering not on" squar"
mile. but hundreds Of Iniles-l13 tons
per acre per inch Of rainfall.
K 4 x x
The most recent scheme for forcing
rain in a dry season is 10 spray "elec
triffed SAND" from airplanes. but sci
entists laugh at the notion that sauii
or dust in the air would have any 81
feet on releasing its moisture. For
ner plans included the explosion o.
gunpowdcr or high explosives. 10
shake the waetr out, but when great
battles We're fought. with continuous
and deafening roar, and no rain came
that plan was abandoned.
viii dust in the air make il rain
In the Hawaii Islands there IS no
dust, and it rains. Upon the Sahars
there are great dust Storms-and ~
rain. The heaviest rainfall in tn
world is in Assam, where it averages
500 inches Il year and no dust flies
there. That means, literally, mOur
tains Of water. lifted high above II"
ordinary cloud altitude, and trans
ported many miles from the sea
whence it Gomez
The fact is that mcu are obIigei
TO realize that they are rather puppy
insects crawling over ready-to
Wear world. and they can not chang
tie pattern very much. Above US -
a great ocean Of gas, and while il is
believed To be from 100 to 200 miles
deep--nr rather "high"--no man hss
ever asceuded more than about seven
and Dne-half miles (4O,o00 feec, ard
the highest that even q registering
baioou has risen is only twenty-five
mites. We know about as much about
the storms Of the air-ocean beyol-d
the first ten miles. as the monsters q
the depths Of the Pacific know Of a.
planes The first SIX miles UP. " .
ternperature grows colder as the al
titude Increases, but above six miles
that IS not so.
=
In that s!x-m,le layer. called thu
r'troposT,arr.." there are clouds and
moisture There the gasses are nj
trogen and oxygen, with a little car
honic acid gas and gas argon. In the
layer above the "tropospaere, call
II the 'StratOsphere." there are H."
clouds and no change Of temperature
proportioned to increasing altitude
and nobody knows very much about
Science tells US that in the .'strato
sphere" there is much hellum-the
metallic gas. which was found IL
the suns corona, tWenty-seVen year
before it was known to be on earth.
| Perhaps that hellum is stormlng
about, like the storms we see as sun
spots. Some observers claim 10 ,be
able TO predict weather by watching rle
sun-spots. What effect. then. may the
hcIium storms of our own atmos
phere have upon the transforms q
our immediate locality"
The most violent storms o. th'
ocean. leave the ocean depths calm.
the deep sea monsters do not kno"
IL is Storrning above them. So w
may be beneath helium cyclones
which lift their waves miles hlgn-
perhaps hundreds OF mics hish' ~
the streaming flames from the sun
corona.
,: x x y
when we burn out the oxygen from
the lower stratum Of troposphere, VIE
get nitrogenous fertilizer TO make
CROPS grow. Our forefathers had no
idea that they had a fertilizer bed
miles deep right over the farm. Elec-
tricity burns the dross out of that
bed-oxygen-and gives us the pure
gold-nitrogen. Yet. without that OK
gen. all life would be extinct in "a
minute or two. What will be our
treasure when we learn 10 tap the
sea of helium in the unfathomed
"stratosphere" a hundred miles above
! US? Helium is somehow related 10 ra-
dium-the most costly metal in the
world. Perhaps that is what gives
luminosity to the. sun, and It may
yet light the earth.
lcopyright. 1893. by P. Y. oollinsA