Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Proposed Co-operation Between United State? and Germany In Study of Atmosphere Aleut Tropica. Boston, Jan. 10.-One of the greatest of the unsolved problems of meteorol ogy is concerned with the permanent circulation of the atmosphere, especial ly 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 boen 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 tin trade winds and in an opposite direc tion, while in the north temperate zone peculiar conditions of temperature and directions of air currents have been dis covered that have led many scientists to conjecture that great masses of worm air rise about the equator and roll off in constantly descending and cooling streams toward the two poles. In support of such a hypothesis the scientists bring forward the well estab lished fact that the air does not grow steadily colder at the rate of one degree Fahrenheit for every 183 fet t of vertical ascent, as we were taught in our phys ical geographies at school, but thal there are warm strata even up in thc region of. eternal cold. This phenome non has been noted frequently In tht klte-llying experiments at the Hine Hil observatory, the meteorological statler of Harvard university, situuted a mill south of Boston. In the opinion of mos' authorities, however, the problem o: such seeming irregularities can be set tied only In a manner proposed by Mr A. Lawrence Roth, the director at Bim HUI, who was able, moreover, at tlv recent meeting In Washington of tin American Association for the Advance ment of Science to present a deflnih proposition from the German govern nent for International cooperation li stuJy of meteoric conditions In the mid del Atlantic about the equator. The Germans, Mr. Roth then an nounced, have agreed to furnish a shi] equipped for a three months' cruise ii the tropfc-s on condition that America! scientific men provide the necessary ap patat?s and pay certain of the inciden tal expenses. The total cost to th people on this side of the water wout notexceed $10,000, */and although Mi Rotch addmitted 'frankly that no on can foretell with assurance that the re suits of the expedition would be c commercial, or even scientific value since lt ls a case of venturing into a entlcly unexplored field-hels person ally confident that great benefit wi come to the weather service of th whole world If lt can be discovered ac curate)y just what goes on above th tropical trade winds. It ls a theory of Mr. Rotch's that bc tween the trade winds and the ant trnda Intervenes an interval of compai atlvely still air. ThlB is by no mear absolutely certain, but lt ls accordam with conditions discovered in the kit? flying experiments at Blue Hill obsen atory; and. If found, lt will justify M Rotch's contention that the moBt fens ble means of exploring the higher n -mospherlc levels about the tropics through use of kites flown from a mo1 abel base. It ls Indeed upon the kite that tl American scientists will chiefly rely the proposed expedition takes plac< though the rubber balloon employed f< similar research by Dr. Assman of Be Un will also undoubtedly be used. Tl limitations of the balloon, however, a ea manifest that it will scarcely nu; plant the "Hargrave" and "I anson high fliers. It can be sent io gre heights but lt cannot be maintain) there for purposes of continuous o servatlon. Furthermore, theh unt f the meteorological instruments whit are released from lt by parachutes over a circle of 20 or 30 miles radius ls an annoying feature of the sport < land, and will be likely to constitute very serious objection by sea. As f the paper balloons which the Fren meteorologists still use, their case even worse: they do not burst, like t German balloon, on attaining a certa altitude, but drop slowly, driftli sometimes 100 miles before they rea earth. Over both these methods, therefoi th? kite han decided advantages. KU hu ve been sent to th-* height of tht miles at the Blue HUI >bservatory, a by working from a movable base & Rotch ls confident that he can higher yet, for, the most serious dra back in flights from the land ls tr above the surface winds one ordin?r encounters deep strata of stagnant i through which the kite will not ri By utilizing the onward pull of a mc lng yessel lt has been shown that t kite can be drawn through this qui? cent layer Into the next windy tra A further advantage ls that If the rectlon of this upper current proves , be opposite to that of ti:e surface wi the ship can na kt. ?. tur i to accomn date Itself to thee hanged conditio and that if any cr??eie proves too s for the kite the vessel can be steel slowly In the direction of the air c rent, thus virtually modifying Ita . loclty. This use of kites on shipboard Is i a matter of mere theory, however, has already been pretty thomugl tested on the sea route from Boston Liverpool, on one of the Dominion L steamships. The methods adopted a the results secured have been descrll In a paper by Mr, Rotch published the recently Issued report of the Sml sonlan Institution. The facis are c tatnly interesting enough to bear su marizing. Mr. Rotch and his assistant, ! Sweetland, Installed a huge kite i on the stern of the steamer Comm wealth on August 28, 1901, and made flrst recorded exploration of the rr Atlantic atmosphere. On the five of eight days occupied by the voyage tl were able to raise the kites, though breezes were so light that the sh speed of 16 knots an hour had to utilized to cretae an east wind sufflcl to lift the kites to the height of 2 feet. With larger kites and stror wire this could easily have been ceeded. Automatic records were ta of harmonic pressure, air temp?r?t relative humidity and the wind ve Ity. No especially noteworthy dist eries resulted nor was this cxpec for the flights were not high eno to explore the upper currents and region traversed is not especially in estir.g to the meteoroliglst. The r remarkable fact noticed was that four of the flights the temperature creased far more rapidly as one cended than the normal rate w< have led to suppose, suggesting pt bly that great streams of cold air < down the Atlantic from the pole; that on one of the flights the air found actually to be six degrees wo ?v at the maximum height nttalnei the kite than at the surface of the ter. These phenomena are at pre Inexplicable. They will be expiai If ever, Mr. Rotch believes, by stud the great equatorial air currents. The apparatus which was used or earlier trial trip, and which will doubtedly be the mainstay of the expedition, has been brought to a degree of perfection In the nine j ti at have passed since the Blue observers first learned scientific flying from Mr. Wm. A. Eddy of ?-"ine, N. J. Tr "Mr kites are of the .M.ow?? "box" pattern, of two dis types, one the Hargrave, an AUB tr Invention modified by Mr. Claytc the Blue HUI qbservatory; the otho Lam son. Invented by Mr. C. H. La of Portland, Me. Each has its pet i uses, and both are frequently us< tandem, the more powerful La 1,109,315 b<^o? I M^^^m^^^^^^ 83,790,300 Bottles of i I \*\f jj) \ \j| /m M^^^^S^L Made of selected barley-malt and I l?r vrVI /i'f?r-- /^^^-W best imported hops, pure water I I 111 7/M vK. Ffer- ir and fresh yeast. A7o corn used. I I tl |fJK/ p^^S? ' The purity, maturity and excel- ; I % \ Wr-' fl\\\!N> il Tl lenee of their beers have made I Jm Jw^ra. Anheuser-Busch I i/iff <J||iSifec. The Largest Brewery in the World I j) \ w/M vV 'J^- ? ^====^^ ^\ Greater than all the breweries In Pilsen, I ?$?km f l Ix* ?v**^^ Bohemia, combined, o?r the three B ^L^^1^?) I principal breweries in Germany. I serving; as a leader followed by two or more of the stendler Hargraves. The string employed in steel piano wire, which wus long ago found in deep sea soundings to be of great strength and very slight liability to sagging. A steam winch, a modification of Lord Kelvin's steam power windlass for sea soundings, is placed on the stern of the vessel. This works almost auto matically, for the pull of the kite suf fices to unwind the drum; only when drawing the kite In does the observer havo to resort to steam power. An au tomatic register keeps account of thc length.of the wire paid out and the pressure exerted, facts necessary to be known in order that the tandem may not break loose. *, - ? . The self-recording instruments are all included In a so-called meteorogruph, a compact lanter-shaped carrier which contains an anemometer that records continuously the velocity of the wind; an alcohol thermometer, the liquid of j which as ll contracts or expands con ' stantly alters the curvature of the tube 1 Itself, and 'thus furnishes a second con tinuous record; a hygroscope, consist ing in essence of a bunch of human hairs which lengthen in moist air and shorten In dry, thus revealing the rel ative humidity of the atmosphere; and a barometer which records the heights reached and substantiates the calcula tions made trigonometrlcnlly at the sea level station. These last are, of course, performed with greatest accuracy, the error caused by sagging of the line having been colculated to a nicety. All changes In direction of the wind are also minutely recorded by the shift ol the wire at the windlass. The deck ol a vessel, lt should be noted, offert especially good vantage ground for sea level observations contemporaneout with toso of the instruments aloft lr the air. If this Joint American and Germar ploratlon of the tropical atmosphere depths should not be made, lt ls prettj clear that somebody ls going to utidler take It before very long, for Mr Rotch's idea of flying kites from a mov ing vessel has already caught on li Europe. Thos past summer Count voi Zeppelin, the Swiss scientist.of nlrshij fame, has boen towing kites up an? down Lake Constance from the sten of a .small steamer, while two Germai meteorologists, Messrs. Berson am Elias, who by thc way have been ap pointed to attend Mr. Botch on hi prospective tour, have already take records from shipboard in the Arcti waters about Spitzbergen. Further more, the German Antarctic explorln vessel Gauss and the English ship Die covery both set sall more than a yea ago equipped with meteorological kites and they will undoubtedly bring bac interesting reports from the South Seat Oft the coast of Scotland Mr. Dines i the British Royal Meteorological soc ety has been cruising with kites an declares himself very enthusiastic n gar ling their possibilities. It appear i therefore, that this plan of oceanic kll ; flying has abundantly Justified itsel: > and lt ls only ? question whether tl i country where it was evolved will ha> > the credit of making notable sclentlf i discoveries or will leave it to the amb , tious Germans. t 'V. ' ? ,'.*..?' . . ? The route to he chosen for the trip , hss not been definitely settled . '.n, , nor the time. In a general way,, how ever, Mr. Rotch approves of July 1st, 19033, as the date for setting forth, and would be inclined to follow the itiner ary suggested by Prof. H. H. Hilde? brandsBon 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 for kite soundings. The party would proceed thence to Tenerliffe by way Of Maderla, through an ocean tract where the anti-trade is always in evidence, since it dips in some places as low as 6.000 feet. After a stay in the neigh I borhood of Teneriffe they will go south past the Cape Verde Islands to the I doldrums, and thence westward to the ' South American coast, running at right ' angles to the southeast and southwest monsoons. As they turn again toward I Africa some curious phenomena will ' demand their attention at Mauritius, j where the upper winds are regularly ? from the northwest against the son "h I east trudu. On Ascension Island tuey I will send up a balloon without lnstru ' monts to tho greatest possible height, in order that its drift may be accurate : ly observed. Thence return will be ' made past the calms that He southwest j of Guinea to the Azores, avoiding prox imity to the coast of Africa, wh*r.- . V . atmosphere ls frequently disture i ay ? hot blasts from the Sahara. Following 'such a course they will .solve, so Prof. j Hildebrandsson thinks, some of the ; most pressing problems In meteorology. I Guesses at th? world's ag? differ wide I ly. Slr Edward Fry points out that the physicist, reasoning from the dis sipation of the earth's heat, the' con traction of the sun, and the action of the tides, finds that the earth consoli dated at a time nearer 20 than 40 mil lion years ago; while the geologist, 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 the globe. The biologist thinks the time must be still more vast since the beginning of life, on the assumption that species have multiplied by very slow variation, the estimate, being 2,700 million years. Sir Edward contends that the ninkle phenomenon, of,"pelor isrn," a sudden transmissible variation among plants, sufficiently shows that thc biological estimate is unnecessar ily long. This abnormal development was first observed more than'160 years ago in the yellow toad-flax of a Baltic island, and has since been traced by one observer in 110 varieties of plants. An attempt to fix the velocity of light with greater accuracy, using the toothed-wheel method of Fizeau under Improved conditions, bas been described by M. Perrotln. In previous experi ments, the beam of light was made to travel a distance of 12 kilometres (7,452 miles) and back, but in the recent ulah it was reflected from a mirror placed at a distance of 45 kilometres (28.566 miles) from its source. 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