Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-24
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Everybody talks about the weather,
but nobody does anything about it,
remarked Mark Twain. Yesterday 1t
was noted on all street cars and in all
offices that Mark had been q keen OBJ
server, for the weather was the sole
topic, yet who turned faucet to let
the heat out, or the humidity to dry
up? There were no whereaseS or
resolutions addressed to the District
Commissioners, nor was there a pop
ular appeal to DIR. G. G. Abbot of the
Smithsonian Institution to knock the
spots off the sun, nor to the Weather
Bureau to call off it's dogs. People
just continued to talk in do-less and
submissive manner. Everybody could
tell everybody else that Prophet
Brown, who had guaranteed a heat
less Summer" should be compelled to
stand by his bargain or be roasted at
the stake in the broiling sun.
The weather is the one topic on
which most persons feel free to d.
vulge wisdom: they have known
weather all their lives, so they know
what is what concerning it. 1t is sim
ply amazing how much they know
that isn't so. The weather-she's a
lady, for she always goes by con-
traries and changes all rules of con-
duct as often as she pleases.
For example, scientists tell us that
More air goes up than ever comes
down'-when measured in volume.
Also when air is pushed north, by a
current from the south, it invariably
blows eastward. Also, the way to dry
the air is to rain through it, and to
cool the atmosphere, heat 1t; or to
warm it, just cool it first. And while
all solar heat comes from the sun, the
closer the sun is to the earth the
cooler is the air, and the most torrid
parts of the earth are covered with
the coolest air. There is a weather
adage:
As the days grow. longer
The cold grows stronger.
The notion that noon is the hottest
part of the day was demonstrably
this week, as 1t invariably
is. for the scientists of the United
States Weather Bureau declare that
"As the sun descends, the tempera-
ture ascends" Was not the climax al
ways after o'clock?
Comdr. Byrd recently told a swell
tering world, after his sail over the
North Pole, that the coolest spot in
the world Is really the South Pole,
but he was talking just plain English
and not the language of the Weather
Bureau, which says, 1.-THE absolute
maximum diurnal insulation is at the
South Pole" To demonstrate this
thesis even more clearly, the good DR..
HUMPHREYS of the Weather Bureau
explains:
quantity of solar energy per minute,
per unit area, normal to the incoming
radiation at the limit Of the atmos-
phere"-fWhew, let's get that clear!-
at the limit of the atmosphere'-not
philosophers, but actually at the top
wave of the shakespeare, that's the
limit, ZEN combleIE"then the total
amount @ of solar energy, per any
consecutive "a hours. per unit area
of a horizontal surface, also at the
limit of the atmosphere, is given by
40 equals 144O divided by some
Greek, Oh sin l sin d cos 1 cos d
sin h."
Doesn't that prove that the man
who sailed over one Pole and says it
was mildly chilly compared with the
South Pole is a Byrd? Science of
the weather is simply grand! And
when we take the temperature of
both Poles plus that of Washington,
the, average weather is just perfect,
even if the Weather Bureau does
spell cos with an instead of a u and
double SIS, while it talks so piously of
sin.
x Il 4 X
1t may be all right for the scientists
to cos and sin about the weather, but
they are not the only ones interested
in the facts about It. -
What IL is moulds the life OF man7
The weather.
What makes some black and others tan?
The weather.
What makes the Zulu live In trees
And Congo natives dress in leaves
While others go In furs and freeze?
The weather.
y ~ X X
Now the Smithsonian Institution.
with DR.. G. G.E Abbot and his CO.