Palisadian., 1925-08-28
p Is HH IS - =
WEATHER IN CYCLES

One of the anomalies of science is
that it has never mastered process
of mastering the weather. The cause
of weather is, of course, known-that
is what produces it. The state of the
barometer is the truest indication or
what the weather may be, though
even this knowledge which the
mercurial tube gives hint on is not
always reliable, though often it is. 1t
is the variation of barometric pres
sure that makes forecasting many
times unreliable. But with the
barometer substantial aid in getting
at the possible state of the weather,
the big thought next is the cause of
the barometer. In other words, what
is the cause of the cause? Science
does not know and cannot know, until
it masters the science of the solar
system. Barometric pressure is an
effect of a system we so far have no
knowledge of whatsoever
Thus, with only the cause of fact
known, science halts at the verge of
a precipice because it cannot solve
the mystery of the over-yonder cause,
the cause of the cause.
But with all of our weather specu-
lation we are far advanced over what
we were fifty years ago. That is, we
know more of the science of weather
effects and possible things to be than
formerly, though this does not carry
very far in specific directions. 1t has
recently come into the public eye,
however, that a French priest has
done more to prove the possibilities
of weather forecasting than any of the
scientific savants so far have solved
This man with fine reason claims to
have discovered system of forecast
ing based on the actual records of the
weather over period of many hun
dreds of years, and which records are
subject to authentic proofs of re-
liability as well as dates. In other
words, this newest weather scientist is
no weather scientist at all, but mere
ly a man who delved into actual his
torical records and found the answer
to the mysteries of weather-not its
causes, for he does not touch upon
that, but the mere record of what the
weather has been. Then, taking these
records and analyzing them, he has
found that weather comes in scycles.
That is through period of years (say
,rt. Ia
weather makes certain record, and
so on through another period. That
is to say, taking two hundred year
periods, for distance of eight hun
dred years, there are four two-hun-
dred-year periods, and he notices that
the weather has been virtually the
same for each of these two hundred
year cycles, In this year, taking the
historic records he has gone into, he
makes the deduction that weather re-
produces itself every so often, and
that it is the same always through
these cycles. In this way, he claims,
if there was a cold August in 1875,
there will be another cold August in
1926. And so on, the new weather
claimant has it, through any year he
can forecast about what the weather
should be- His ideas were questioned
as being merely theoretical and not
probable, but he comes back and
says, Fact is fact, to disprove my
claims you will have to change the
records, and these are not approxi-
mately correct, but actually So"
Thus we have something unique,
original and very new. Since the
Frenchman has already made a num-
ber of outstanding predictions and had
them fulfilled. the world can only wait
for the fulfillment of his cold summer
in 1926 as verification of his weather
theories. So sure is he that his plan
is true, he says he can tell what the
weather was two thousand years ago
if the records previous to that date
and all since are placed in his hands.
And when all is said and done, any
man who has conquered the weather
has conveyed a boon to mankind
beyond computation-almo as big
as New Jersey would do to five billion
dollars if it exterminated the
mosquito.