Evening star., 1924-02-15
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

Though there is no unexplored re-
gion upon the surface OF the earth,
there's still room at the top. The
, United States weather bureau pur-
! poses to travel upward in place of
sidewise In exploring the great un-
/ known. No celestial explorer has
ever been more than seven miles from
home. No balloon or flying machine
has ever gone higher than the top of
Mount Everest. What Is beyond?
Humanity Is like termites burrowing
and crawling over the surface, proud
that some few individuals have
wings, though they can fly but a
/ little What do such creatures know
| of the ocean of space above? The
f; course Of the eagle and the condor
| Is scarcely free from obstructiens Of
; towering mountain peaks. The
loftiest peak is to the surface Of the
calm sea no higher than the ridges
| of grapefruit are above the In
/, dentations of the peel. All the wis.,
dom Of weather experts comes from
what they have learned in exploring
the atmospheric peel around the
globe, no thicker than twenty-five
miles above sea level. Imagine some
wonder tales of the world over our
MISUNDERSTANDING phenomena of the
! Stratosphere and of how the hotter
the suns rays the colder is our own
air-and then learn that he has never
been up there at all. and that his
vertical research has been no farther
than half way to Baltimore!
X * * *
1t is true that weather bureau OBJ
servers have been sending up pilot
| balloons" twenty inches In diameter.
and watching them through tele-
scopes. The balloons carry self-re-
| cording instruments which register
| the temperature and atmospheric
pressure. Another kind OF test bal
loon also is sent up, which ascends until
| the lightness Of the atmosphere re-
moves counteracting pressure against
| that of its own gas within the ball
, loon; then 1T bursts. and down come
its recording instruments, sailing
safely in a little parachute.
But none of these pilot gas bags
has ever reached higher than twen-
ty-two miles. They tell the weather
doctors that after passing six miles
up. the temperature remains station
ary so far as increasing elevation
goes. though on different days 1t
varies. Does that mean that up there
all the space is empty and meaning
less to explorers? Until aviation
made the discovery of air pock
even scientists seem to have assumed
! that air was a great mass OF uniform
density. except that altitude lessened
the density or pressure uniformly
the higher 1t went.
For eighteen years. Astronomer
George a. Hill of the Naval Observa-
tory has been making almost hourly
observations Of the declensions of a
particular star-Alpha Lyra-and the
way that star has danced up and
down according to the hour of day
or night was an astronomical puzzle.
Always the recording sheet would
show the curve dropping down as
the sun traversed the heavens. while
during the night the star remained
very steadily at the same degree and
minute. Why should star wabble
around by day and be staid and sober
all night? Through thousands Of OBJ
servations the declension Is shown to
! follow that daily drop, according to
the hour.
The theory is that the air is not one
Inorganic mass, but is a series OF
layers OF varying density and varying
angles. laminated and ever shifting.
The sun warns them and they
change. The light passing from one
density to another is refracted. bent,
twisted. distorted. Even astronomers
, must therefore not trust their own
eyes or telescopes and assume that
beam of light Is a straight line When
star seems to move out of place, II
may not be the star that has moved,
but the ray of light that has been
refracted as 1t traversed through
some unknown layer of denser or
lighter atmosphere. What a wonder
TefTactiOnl
ders some Marco Polo of astrology Is
about to display when he actually
visits the aerial ocean heights, hun
dredS Of miles I'D instead of crawling