Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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/ KITE FLYIKG EXPERIMENTS. Proposed Co-operation Between United States and Germany In Study of Atmosphere About Tropics. Boston, Jan. 10.?One of the greatest of the unsolved problems of meteorology is concerned with the permanent circulation of the atmosphere, especially in the higher reaches in altitudes greater than 15,000 feet. The surface currents, including the steady trade winds of the tropics, have been pretty thoroughly studied; but just what takes place in the upper air has still been rather guessed at than discovered. In the tropics on either side of the equator there are supposed to be great anti-trade currents flowing above tht trade winds and in an opposite direction, while in the north temperate zone peculiar conditions of temperature and directions of air currents have been discovered that have led many scientists to conjecture that great masses of warm air rise about the equator and roll off in constantly descending and cooling i streams toward the two poles. In support of such a hypothesis the scientists bring forward the well established fact that the air does not grow steadily colder at the rate of one degree Fahrenheit for every 183 feet of vertical ascent, as we were taught in our physical geographies at school, but that there are warm strata even up in the region of eternal cold. This phenomenon fias been noted frequently in the kite-flving experiments at the Blue Hill observatory, the meteorological station of Harvard university, situated a mile south of Boston. In the opinion of most authorities, however, the problem of such seeming irregularities can be settled only in a manner proposed by Mr. A. Lawrence Roth, the director at Blue Hill, who was able, moreover, at the recent meeting in Washington of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to present a definite proposition from the German government for international cooperation in study of meteoric conditions in the middel Atlantic about the equator. \ The Germans, Mr. Roth then announced, have agreed to furnish a ship equipped for a three months' cruise in the tropics on condition that American Ertentifln men nrovide the necessary aD paratus and pay certain of the incidental expenses. The total cost to the people on this side of the water would notexceed 510,000, and although Mr. Rotch addnaitted frankly that no one can foretell with assurance that the results of the expedition would be of commercial, or even scientific value? since it is a case of venturing into an entierly unexplored field?heis personally confident that great benefit will come to the weather service of the whole world if it can be discovered accurately just what goes on above the I tropical trade winds. It is a theory of Mr. Rotch's that between the trade winds and the antitrads intervenes an interval of comparatively still air. This is by no means absolutely certain, but it is accordance with conditions discovered in the kiteflying experiments at Blue Hill observatory; and, if found, it will justify Mr. Rotch's contention that the most feasible means of exploring the higher atmospheric levels about the tropics is through use of kites flown from a movabel base. It is indeed upon the kite that the American scientists will chiefly rely if the proposed expedition takes place; though the rubber balloon employed for similar research by Dr. Assman of Berlin will also undoubtedly be used. The limitations of the balloon, however, are so manifest that it will scarcely supplant the "Hargrave" and "Lansom" high fliers. It can be sent to great heights but it cannot be maintained there for purposes of continuous observation. Furthermore, theh unt for the meteorological instruments which are released from it by parachutesover a circle of 20 or 30 miles radius? is an annoying feature of the sport on land, and will be likely to constitute a very serious objection by sea. As for the paper balloons which the French j - * - .4.1 ? ! meteorologists sun use, uieir case is even worse; they do not burst, like the ' German balloon, on attaining a certain altitude, but drop slowly, drifting sometimes 100 miles before they reach earth. Over both these methods, therefore, ; the kite has decided advantages. Kites j have been sent to the height of three : miles at the Blue Hill observatory, and ! by working from a movable base Mr. Rotch is confident that he can go j higher yet, for the most serious draw- I back in flights from the land is that above the surface winds one ordinarily encounters deep strata of stagnant air through which the kite will not rise. By utilizing the onward pull of a moving vessel it has been shown that the kite can be drawn through this quiescent layer into the next windy tract. A further advantage is that if the direction of this upper current proves to be opposite to that of the surface wind the ship can make a turn to accommodate itself to thee hanged conditions, and that if any breeze proves too stiff for the kite the vessei can be steered slowly in the direction of the air current. thus virtually modifying its velocity. ; This use of kites on shipboard is not a matter of mere theory, however. It j has already been pretty thoroughlyj tested on the sea route from Boston to Liverpool, on one of the Dominion Line i steamships. The methods adopted and j the results secured have been described . in a paper by Mr. Rotch published in ! the recently issued report of the Smith- ' sonian institution. The facts are cer- t tainly interesting enough to bear summarizing. Mr. Rotch and his assistant, Mr. Sweetland, installed a huge kite reel j on the stern of the steamer Common- j wealth on August 28, 1901, and made the first recorded exploration cf the mid- j Atlantic atmosphere. On the five of the : eight days occupied by the voyage they ! were able to raise the kites, though the j breezes were so light that the ship's j speed of 16 knots an hour had to be j utilized to cretae an east wind sufficient j to lift the kites to the height of 2,000 1 reet. witn larger auea aim suungci wire this could easily have been ex- ' ceeded. Automatic records were taken I of harmonic pressure, air temperature, ) relative humidity and the wind veloc- } ity. No especially noteworthy discov- j eries resulted nor was this expected, for the flights were not high enough ; to explore the upper currents and the 1 region traversed is not especially interesting to the meteoroligist. The most remarkable fact noticed was that in four of the flights the temperature decreased far more rapidly as one ascended than the normal rate would j have led to suppose, suggesting possi- j bly that great streams of cold air drift \ down the Atlantic from the pole; and that on one of the flights the air was found actually to be six degrees warmer at the maximum height attained by the kite than at the surface of the water. These phenomena are at present inexplicable. They will be explained, i if ever. Mr. Rotch believes, by study of the great equatorial air currents. The apparatus which was used on the earlier trial trip, and which will undoubtedly be the mainstay of the new expedition, has been brought to a high degree of perfection in the nine years that have passed since the Blue Hill observers first learned scientific kiteflying from Mr. Wm. A. Eddy of Bayonne. N. J. Their kites are of the well known "box" pattern, of two distinct i types, one the Hargrave, an Australian invention modified by Mr. Clayton of the Blue Hill observatory; the other the J Lamson, invented by Mr. C. H. Lamson 1 of Portland, Me. Each has its peculiar 1 uses, and both are frequently used in < tjtndem, the more powerful Lansom 1 serving as a leader followed by flo or more of the steadier Hargraves. H The string employed in steel Mlano wire, which was long ago found ii^fteep eniindinp's to he of exeat Stl^HlKth and very slight liability to saggr^B. A steam winch, a modification of Ajord Kelvin's steam power windlass fAsea soundings, is placed on the stcAt of the vessel. This works almost Automatically, for the pull of the kitAsuffices to unwind the drum; only^Bhen drawing the kite in does the observer have to resort to steam power. .A^B automatic register keeps account BB the length of the wire paid out ar^B the pressure exerted, facts necessarj^Bo be known in order that the tandeiAfciay not break loose. ^B The self-recording instruments all included in a so-called meteorogiWBh. a compact lanter-shaped carrier ^Hhich contains an anemometer that r^Bords continuously the velocity of theHBind; an alcohol thermometer, the liqjBd of which as it contracts or expand^Bconstantly alters the curvature of tfc^Btube itself, and thus furnishes a secondBcontinuous record; a hygroscope, consisting in essence of a bunch of hBman hairs which lengthen in moist aiaBand shorten in dry, thus revealing the? relative humidity of the atmosphere; Band a barometer which records the heiBhts reached and substantiates the calculations made trigonometrically at the sea level station. These last are, of coBirse, performed writh greatest accuracy* the error caused by sagging of the jB line having been calculated to a nicej*^ All changes in direction of the wiBd are also minutely recorded by the sBiift of the wire at the windlass. The dBeck of a vessel, it should be noted, M offers especially good vantage ground Bor sea level observations contemporBneous with tose of the instruments aBoft in the air. If this joint American and GBerman ploration of the tropical atmoBp^e.ie depths should not be made, it isfl pretty clear that somebody is going to iBundlertake it before very long, foBr Mr. Rotch's idea of flying kites from B moving vessel has already caught B on in Europe. Thos past summer CoiBnt von Zeppelin, the Swiss scientist of Bairship fame, has been towing kites iBp and down Lake Constance from thB stern of a small steamer, while two (Berman meteorologists, Messrs. Berso^i and Silas, who by tnc way nave D?en appointed to attend Mr. Rotch Bon h:s prospective tour, have already? taken records from shipboard in them Arcticwaters about Spitzbergen. FBurthermore, the German Antarctic exBploring vessel Gauss and the English sbBip Discovery both set sail more than?a year ago equipped with meteorologieaBl kites; and they will undoubtedly brinMg back interesting reports from the SouiBh Reas. Off the coast of Scotland ??Ir. rBines of the British Royal Meteorologic?U society has been cruising with ki'Bes and declares himself very enthusiastic regarding their possibilities. It aHppears, therefore, that this plan of oceaBhc kite dying has abundantly justified? itself; and it is only a question whetBier the country where it was evolved wHH have the credit of making notable s?-'tentifiC discoveries or will leave it to th?^' ambitious Germans. H M immm M l.MU^m^>/l-!? bjkgfJEg&gjE "^wrarr-. T r.._ The route to be chosen for the trip 1 has not been definitely settled upon, j nor the time. In a general way, how- j ever, Mr. Rotch approves of July 1st. j 39033, as the date for setting forth, and! would be inclined to follow the itiner- J ary suggested by Prof. H. H. Hildebrandsson of Upsala, who would have him start from the Azores Islands, after landing a party at San Miguel for brief observations of the clouds and j for kite soundings. The party would proceed thence to Tenerliffe by way of ! thrnnsrh an ocean tract where i ?o.auv?i vv.0 the anti-trade is always in evidence, { since it dips in some places as low as i 6,000 feet. After a stay in the neigh- ' borhood of Teneriffe they will go south ' | past the Cape Verde Islands to the i doldrums, and thence westward to the j South American coast, running at right! angles to the southeast and southwest' monsoons. As they turn again toward ! : Africa some curious phenomena will ' demand their attention at Mauritius, ' where the upper winds are regularly ifrom the northwest against the south; east trade. On Ascension Island thev will send up a balloon without instru- j ments to the greatest possible height, in order that its drift may be accurate . ly observed. Thence return will be . made past the calms that lie southwest of Guinea to the Azores, avoiding proximity to the coast of Africa, where the atmosphere is frequently distured by .hot blasts from the Sahara. Following such a course they will solve, so Prof. : Hildebrandsson thinks, some of the j most pressing problems In meteorology. i i Guesses at the world's age differ widely. Sir Edward Fry points out that i the physicist, reasoning from the dis- ' sipation of the earth's heat, the con- j traction of the sun, and the action of! (the tides, finds that the earth consoli-; I dated at a time nearer 20 than 40 mil-! ! lion years ago; while the geologist, j | from the present rate at which sand, < {chalk, etc., are being deposited by river [ and sea, infers that 450 million years ! must have elapsed since life began on j the globe. The biologist thinks the ! time must be still more vast since the ! beginning of life, on the assumption j that species have multiplied by very slow variation, the estimate being 2,700' J million years. Sir Edward contends that the sinkle phenomenon of "pelorism," a sudden transmissible variation among plants, sufficiently shows that '* - td i<5 unnecessar ; me uiuiugn ?i ... - ily long-. This abnormal development j was first observed more than 150 years ago In the yellow toad-flax of a Baltic j island, and has since been traced by one observer in 110 varieties of plants. An attempt to fix the velocity of light with greater accuiacy, using uik toothed-wheel method of Fizeau under improved conditions, has been described by M. Perrotin. In previous experiments. the beam of light was made to ; travel a distance of 1- kilometres (7,452 ! miles) and back, but in the recent trials | it was reflected from a mirror placed at j a distance of 45 kilometres (28.56G miles) i from its source. From 1,109 observa| tions the velocity has been found to be 299,880 kilometres (about 186,225.5 miles) ! per second, with a probable error less ' than 50 kilometres. / I k Hi w a Made of sel< best import j|[ and fresh ^ j??l?ra The purity, |P lence of th The Largest I - Greater than Bohemia, I principal 4,e*\ ^ \Cy%e <#>* \ _^r -f^V/ < ^ -4O ^ <? \ V/ t" -v ^ iVA?0* \ ^ - V" >' >9 \ \ /* ee*' **?e. *!V * V*S? iJvY, '<<V' c? ?? V^ V^vf^VVS^ ! \ 0^ . <ve ^ A<* \v v> rA tf, > *sP \ C- 4S ^ 4IV ll^ ^ Don't worry Lid about the future. 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