Evening star., 1924-06-17
SUN.SPOT THEORISTS
AGAIN AT The FRONT
Weighty Arguments Advanced in
Explanation Of the Freaky
Weather Changes.
ARMY OF ELECTIONS IN AIR
Claim Old Sol Breaks Out" Every
Eleven Years.

Not to be left out of the limelight
| by the moon theorists In this weather
| controversy that some one seems to
| have stirred up, the followers Of the
| sun-spot explanation OF Washington 8
| out with an armful of arguments tn 1t
leave the innocent bystander still IN
| the mud.
No longer than yesterday, 1t is re-
| ported. sun spots were observed
| through a telescope by local scien-
| lists, and, with the veil of the last
| few weeks drawn aside, the spots are
understood to have had an extremely
guilty aspect.
1t is to be expected, therefore. the
sun-spot cohorts assert, that weather
conditions hereabouts Will continue
| in q state of uncertainty until they
| become more settled, at least.
seieatists Agree On One Point.
Eminent scientists agree that dur
Ling the zenith of the suns spotted
| ness the earth appears to receive Tess
heat from the sunshine than at other
times. 1t is generally conceded, also'
that Old Sol breaks out about every
eleven years. Singularly enough, rec
ords have been tabulated for various
sections Of the country tending 10
| show that freak weather occurs,
roughly, every eleven years. 1t is
this coincidence that has given rise
to the theory that sun spots are con-
nected with the weather
The spots. briefly. are beiieved 70
be caused by great n asses OF wnlfnms
vapor covering the face of the sun.
The spots are thought to have strong
electrical influence and 1t is thus
easy. to hitch them up with electrical
storms A large army OF electrons
gaIloping earthward is enought to
scare even the largest of dark -visag.
ed clouds from its haunts. 1t is pointed
out, precipitating a fracto-nimbus re-
treat OF the first order.
Effect Of Harmless Clouds.'
This constant harassing Of HARM
less clouds by invading electrons up
sets the weather to such an extent
that It becomes an easy prey to the
| "heebie jeebies," leaving Washington
and other regular customers without
tho service to which they have been
accustomed.
The planet Mercury. the suns nearest
relative, may have had something to do
with starting trouble. On May last
Mercury took its first excursion across
the face of the sun since 1914. the year
the war started. 1t was in the nrst
part OF May. 1t will be remembered.
that the weather began to be the pr1n-
cipal topic among friends. Only eight
hours it took Mercury to complete the
trip. but that was long enough to un-
cover a lot of planetary deviltry, II Mer-
cury had been SO disposed.
Admission BY Weather Bureau.
Even the United States weather
bureau, always most guarded IN lts
statements concerning unusualness
of the weather, admits that Wash
ington, and, indeed, the whole east
ern section OF the country, has expe-
rienced extraordinary weather during
the past two months. 1t has not,
however, been unprecedented, accord
ing to Forecaster Mitchell
discounts most emphatically any con-
troversial theories"
But the sun and moon factions con-
tinue their battle. with the former
calling the latter moon-struck and
the latter retaliating with charges
that they can knock the spots out OF
the sun theory.