Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-28
Popular Impression That OBJ
server Is Unreliable Does
Not Give Him Due.
DR.. Marvin Points Out Differ
ence Between Human"
and Other Thermometers.

The United States Weather Bureau,
according to widely accepted cur
rent opinion, is prevaricator.
In the minds of many there is some
concern as to whether the learned
meteorologists who unhlushingly re-
port that the temperature for sum-
mer month has been normal when
everybody knows it has been unpieas-
antly cool will be among those whom
we shall miss in Paradise.
It is one thing to predict fair
weather for tomorrow and then have
a drenching rain all day. That is
human error and forgivable. But
when DIR. Marvin and his aides come
out with such an apparently bald-faced
whopper as that this past July was
only three-tenths of degree below
normal July temperature-weH. 1t is
a matter for the quill of the recording
angel.
Difference lin Measurements.
Yet the staff of the Weather Bureau
not only makes this bald assertion. but
stick tn it in the face or reproaches
from those concerned with their
eternal salvation. And it must be ad'
mitted that they make out a fairly
good case for themselves. 1t Is one
of those matters where two people
or for that matter any number or peo-
ple-with conflicting viewpoints may
be right. 1t is all matter or psy.
ehology. The mental reactions OF
human beings to sensory impressions
due to variations in temperature con-
stitute a field of research which never
has been very adequately explored.
The Weather Bureau. DR.. Marvin
axnlains. measures weather variations
with thermometers-the finest ana
most sensitive thermometers obtain
able. The man on the street ais"
measures these variations with
thermometer-but a rather crude ana
deceptive thermometer. He uses MS
own body. To a mechanical ther'
mometer temperature variations are a
single reaction-the expansive erect
Of heat on a chemical element. These
can be measured to almost any de-
gree of accuracy. Temperature Is an
absolute quantity A certain known
degree of heat will send up the mer'
curry column in a tube certain
known distance.
But to the human body heat ana
cold are relative terms. changes
register vaguely in the mind-the
nature Of the impression depending
upon hundreds of other factors, both
mental and physical. If the spirits
| of the human thermometer are de-
pressed on a normal July day 1t may
seem unusually cool. IT the human
thermometer is sick he may shlver
| while others sweat. Probably no Two
persons, however close they may De
to a single mental and physical stand
ard, register exactly the same TO
| weather impressions.
Subject Is Complicated.
The whole subject of weather psy-
chology. according to DR.. Marvin, is
| so complicated that little is to be
| gained by discussing 1t. At one time
| the Weather Bureau attempted to give
a set Of daily temperature f1gures re-
| cording the changes Of temperature
| impressions on the human skin. as
we'll as those recorded by the ther-
| mometer. Some delicate instruments
were devised to record these changes.
| The results however, never were very
| atisfactory-probably because no two
persons ever have quite the same I'M
| pressions.
Temperature, Weather Bureau scien-
lists say, is something like time. For
any human being there are two kinds
|
| recorded by watch and the intan-
| eible. mystical time which drifts
| through his consciousness. Five min
| utes always Is the same to the watch.
| But to the individual there is q vast
| difference between the five-minute IN
| terval which slips away unnoticed In
the ordinary course of life and the
last FIVE minute interval Of existence
when he is waiting TO be hanged. the
| latter interval may be longer In the
individuals consciousness than any
hour which he has known beforehand
also he may be bothered by the cold
although it is hot night.
Summer Not Unusually Cool.
In any event, according to DIR.
Marvin, this is not a strikinsly cool
Summer to the thermometer-and
the business of the Weather Bureau
is TO record thermometer tempera-
lures and not human temperatures.
Every man on the Bureau staff is
himself a thermometer and may reg
lister very differently from the me-
chanical instrument by which he
makes his records. But he has to
depend on the mercury, not his SEN
sorry nerves.
Probably nine out OF ten persons
In the District Of Columbia believe
that this Summer Is cooler than last
Summer and considerably cooler than
the ma jority of Summers which they
have experienced here. But it is only
general impression. 1t is not at
all likely that single individual, un
less he Is engaged in this particular
branch of scientific research, actually
remembers whether it was unusually