Evening star., 1926-05-09
Solar Stations Under Smithsonian,
At Remote Points, Study Weather
lin nSouthW

and violet rays on our new plate
I'VE were the pioneers in locating
the infra-red region. az formerly only
the sensitive blue and violet rays
were shown on the usual photo
graphic plate
| DR.. Abbot will remain i'm Washing
ton to direct the work of all the solar
! stations but two of his trained as
sistants will proceed TO their new POST
| in Africa, probably some time in July
as soon as the delicate instruments
are ready and packed. Each Of these
expensive items has to be very com
/ pactly made up, as the final ascent of
the mountain peak is up a precipice
by a ladder contrivance, followed by
Commute walk to the station.
I II is rumored that II. Hoover, who
has been in the Argentine for the past
! two years, connected with the solar
work at the Government station
under the auspices Of the Smithso
nian. is to be asked TO go 10 Africa, 10
direct the work there. 1t is said that
he plans to take with him his young
/ son of less than = years, who will
! thus he placed In position to OBJ
serve life at an altitude Of 800 feet.
! and pick up ideas of solar rays at au
early age.
4 BerSeDa, tDe nearest tOWD 10 lUe
station, is q HOttentot village with
white population of two persons
/ Curiousiy enough. the language of
/ the Hottentot is series of clicks.
( which has vet TO lie translated into
any language. and the name Itself
( "Hottentot." is merely an attempt BY
the Dutch to initiate his speech, a..
cording TO the Geogra phic Society
The most explosive quality about
the Hottentot is his converse tion.
which sounds good deal like
I the tribe seldom engages in war and
! is said TO he of a quiet disposition.
/ with but one desire in life-ample
grazing for the herds.
X x 4 ::
( A SAFE political situation is of the
utmost importance for each of
! the stations. and. according to DR..
/ Abbot. the new observatory Will be
fortunate in this particular, as in
! addition TO the friendly assistance Of
the British authorities Of Southwest
| Africa. the local engineer of public
| works at keetmanshoop has been
most helpful. In fact. he has offered
to erect the solar station at cost, and
this is now going forward. Other
courtesies have been extended in the
matter of canCeling the duty on the
| expensive outfit required by the OBJ
servers, and since the cost Of trans
| portation is almost prohibitive, prob
| ably in the neighborhood of $4,000
TO set up the station. this is highly
appreciated.
! one of the chief hopes Of the
! astronomers is accurately to predict
/ storms at sea long in advance of their
! occurrence. While ocean liners may
he said to be the express trains be
/ tween continents. and run on schedule
tramp steamers are the freight trains
of the Seven Seas and drift from port
TO port with the commerce OF the
! world
A nation such as the Argentine
ships out raw materials like hides.
grain and cattle on tramp vessels.
In return. we may send down manu-
featured goods. such as farming I'm
plements or typewriters, which are
compact and which require the ele-
ment of speed. since the value OF such
freight is high in proportioR to its
bulk.
\ cargo of typewriters may be
easily worth around 5000, 900 and the
interest on it for three months at s
merchant wants prompt shipment
and breads loss through delay Of
days or even hours.
Lumber mills can order six months
in advance. hut a retail shop owner
must have a quick turnover, since
style is factor and. indeed. is an
essential part of his success.
notable example of this type of
urgency is Illustrated by the method
of transporting silk when il arrives
at Vancouver from the Orient. AS
soon rs the vessel is due in from
Japan. arrangements are made 70
rush the silk from the dock at top
speed by special guards, who place
il on a special train known as The
silk Train
Every detail surrounding the ship
ment is kept as secret as possible.
The departure and the arrival are
not known in advance. and even the
train dispatchers get the flash to
clear all tracks" only an hour before
the silk train is due.
Constant efforts are made to i'm
prove the running time of this train
and this will be readily understood,
since the value of the shipment is
often around 100000.
): 4 ;:
| K NOWLEDGE of cyclones is impor-
tant in the preparation Of sched-
ules of air flights. OF course. the air
mail is due in and out of a city at a
given hour, but long-range forecast
| of a cline storm" such as wrecked the
huge dirigible Shenandoah last year
would have prevented even the idea of
a start on so dangerous a trip on that
particular day.
Air mail is making itself increas-
| ingly important to brokers and other
business men, as it is said that a re
cent shipment carried bonds and
jewels that actually saved interest
over the sum of $l50.000.
| This is why il is possible to sell
weather forecasts in the Argentine
and why business in general will be
benefited by scientific data as to the
approach of hurricanes on land and
cyclones at sea.
No telescope is used for this work
but machine called the coelOstat re-
fleets the sun in q, fixed manner with
a double mirror arrangement down
| into the laboratory. The problem is
to gain the relationship between the
solar variation and the terrestrial and
meteorological phenomena.
| One of the most interesting Of the
many instruments required is some
thing that looks like an electric fan
lying on it's side. This is a rotating
shutter and is used to cut off some of
the light temporarily from the plate.
as part of the spectrum gets into hot
ter and higher regions, and also this
action of the rotating shutter brings
down the beam on the plate where the
operator can handle it.
About so Of the important instru-
ments used in the solar radiation
work have been made here in Wash
ington and sent out to the various
stations throughout the world, and
are, of course. accepted as standard
for it was here that they were first