Evening star., 1924-01-10
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL r.. COLLINS

east, and from Alaska on the west
there lies between those two extremes
an area large enough to contain two
gnited states OF America. from which
there comes no report of weather OF
anything dse-unAess an occasional dot
ana dash message from Explorer Mac
MILAN, lying, at about Is degrees lati-
tude, be so designated
1t Is the unknown conditions Of these
vast regions which make weather fore
casting for all the rest of the world SO
lnperfect, what storms are gathering
| there which will travel into the report
cd regions tomorrow or week hence:
< x 4 x
The. weather bureau issues general
forecasts covering q whole week,
which are supplemented and modified
| from day to day as conditions change.
The forecaster comedies that these
weekly prophecies are more accurate
I Tor the first part of the week than
for the latter part, since new condi-
ttons are constantly appearing 10
modify or change the weather in
addition to the general forecast for
the respective groups of states.
there is also, at all weather fore
casting stations. local forecasteT
who considers local modification
considers the visible clouds and the
direction OF the winds. Such local
1orecaster. an expert Navy of1cer.
be the authority on it's. weather con
ditions affecting it's safety,
x X X
The weather risk in the Arctic IN
| midsummer. IS not so bad as it seems
In the light of the dearth of reports
1t is seen by weather maps that
during the months of June, July and
August nearly all the storm tracks
| across this hemisphere are confined
within belt close to the boundary
between Canada and the United
States-between so and So degrees
north latitude. There are hardly any
storms in the nTOre northern latitudes
though such are not impossible Even
! II storms come, up there, they will
not arrive suddenly. The aerologist
VIII be able to foresee them a day,
or two days, ahead. so. that the air
snip can steer to whichever mooring
mast is neareSt-Poiut Barrow or
| Spitzbergen. At no point on the voy-
age viii the ship be mora than TWEEN
" hours from one of these masts.
The whole trip will be made within
! forty hours.
The cruising radius of the Shensr-
doah has been rated as 5000 miles.
This may now be increased, through
discovery made by the bureau OF
standards, since preparations were
begun for the polar voyage. When
starting on a long voyage the air
ship must be heavily laden with gaSo-
line to operate its propellers. AS the
gasoline is burned the ship loses this
ballast BY the new discovery water
ballast may be recovered from the
product of combustion of the gaso-
line. As the gasoline burns it liberates
hydrogen, and the scientists have
found means to combine that hy-
drogen with the oxygen of the air,
which makes H2O-Water. The weight
of this manufactured water almost
replaces the lost weight OF the con-
sumed gasoline.
X X x
The airship will be equipped with
many scientific Instruments pow
erful broadcasting radio, with photo
graphic cameras to map the terrain
over which it flies, and with three
kinds of ompasses-magnetic gyro
and radio. BY the latter it will re
ceive the angles Of directions at all
times from known stations, from
which information the navigator can
calculate the ships location, regard
less Of solar observations and indc-
pendent of magnetic variations.
X x x x
Many old-time theories about wind
and weather have been contradicted
by science since 1875-the beginning
of scientific observations. Among
these is the idea that warm air at
the tropics is always rising and
travelling toward the north. at high
attitudes, and being replaced by cool
air from the poles, at lower attitudes.
This is untrue. There are no such
trade winds" to encourage alrshlpS,
tCopyrisht, 1924 by Paul V. Collins)