Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Roseburg news-review. (Roseburg, Or.) 1920-1948 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1936)
'-- Scientist ;V,S4.V -: Intensive Study of a Double ' S , C,imax Due in 1939 Will That ' , fm -k Be a Dangerous Year for V 1 i f Mankind? Floods, Typhoons, '"" ' ""i Earthquakes Are Anticipated A k iLI if r' vfr- Constant observation of the sun is r - ni-de from this 185-foot tower located A ft JrJm' "i at the Mount Wilson Observatory Nr ' 5 -VL ' 'I P ISES5Q By G. K. Spencer WATCH out for sunspots I The Old Man of the Heavens Is misbehav ing again. He v. ill be cutting allies for the next throe years, climaxing his strange doings in 1030. World-famcus scientists have marshaled their forces to learn all they can and delirmtne more definitely Just what effect sun . spots have on this worlu of ours. According to these scientists, we are In for a double dose of sunspots in 1039. Not only will we face the climax of what Is known as the 11.1-year cycle but also the 1400-year cycle will coin cide in the sami year, the first time in the history of the universe, so far as scientists are able to determine. Astronomers, volcono'ojlsts, seis mologists are all active with their ob servations, keeping in closs touch with each other and reporting every vlsiole change on the face of the sun. Why are they so anxious to know more about these spots? Well, we know that the sun has a tremendous Influence upon our lives and well-being. THIRST In importance, perhaps, the " work on the coming 1039 sunspot maximum is expected to re.lne methods of predicting weather, volcano erup tions, earthquakes and other physical effects. Second, the secret of the sudden on slaught of Spanish Influenza In 1918, a year of sunspot maxima, will be further sought on the supposed principle that the Impulses from the sun under cer tain conditions favor noxious germ life. Finally, a vast field of electrical magnetic, gravity, thermal and chemi cal reactions will be exploited. As was expected in many quarters the appearance In 1936 of the vanguard of sunspot "flow" In the inexoraole march to the 1939 maximum was ushered in to the accompaniment of earthquakes In many parts of the world, notably those In Formosa. Quetta, India; Mount Ararat, In Asia Minor, with numerous otheu in .omewhat minor key In the Uniteo 3tates later In the year, With these phenomena science got -trictly down to "cases." At Santa Jlara University Observatory, In Cali fornia, where the late Father Jerome 3. Rlcard, first of the great sunspot specialists, originated the attacks ol -clence 'on sunspots decades ago, his successor, Dr. Albert J. Newlin, ar ranged for "two-point observation" during the coming four years with Father A. R, Nuttall, SJ., United SU-.tes Jovernment . astronomer at Manila, Philippine Islands. "We are now entering the period ol maxima," said Dr. Newlin, "and inten sive study to under way. We shall make careful check of effects In prog i ess." The great observatory on Mount Wilson, California, one of whose tele scopes la the largest In the world, IS taking "progress photographs" of the sun dally by direct photograph) through a, special sun telescope and taking frequent spectrographs, which are at once relayed to the tun labora tory for chemical analysts. Part of this great system of sun ob servation, exchanging data with the telescopic observatories. Is the volcano observatory of Hawaii, directed by Dr. T. A. Jaggar. .1- - . Dr. Jaggar Is the man who not only proved specific effects on earth's mate rial of the 11.1-year sunspot cycle but also la the discoverer of the 132-year supercycie. He found his pet volcanoes performing like thermometers, with their great lava tubes showing a rise and fall of lava In sympathy with the sun's variations, Just as the mercury In a small thermometer rises and falls ' with the varying degrees of heat. By these volcano observations Dr Jaggar for the first time predicted actual volcano, eruptions to take place late In 1939. ANOTHER reason for the unusual concentration on the present march to maximum of the sunspots I that there will ocur In 1939, coincident with the 11.1-year cycle of maxima, the end of one of the great 1400-yeai cycles and the beginning of a new 1400 year cycle. This 1400-year cycle was discovered by Father Rlcard, who, when he died, was also studying possibilities of a thirty-seven-year cycle, an eighty-three-year cycle and a 300-year cycle. What effect will coincidence of the 11.1-year cycle and the 1400-year cycle have In 1939? Nobody knows, but astronomers and volpanologlatt alike remember that for the first time In the history of modern sunspot observation a double maximum occurred In 1928 1929. That is, there was a period oi maximum sunspota In 1928 and an other, sty normally due for 11.1 yean, came along Just one year later. Rising and falling of many Islands in the Pacific, the great long Beach earth quake, the Baffin Bay eartbquak tad action by every "live" volcano In the world were coincidents of that cycle and the period immediately afterward In which Its effects were sUll flowing. Do tun cycles, by varying the out- 1X71 A.1 J'l'i.S a vW-i " Here thown the ruins of a aun temple, used centuries ago by a f Sl'-A"' l)j-fl a. 0 J V f race of sun worshipers. It is in the Mesa Verde National Park ' - - Here are actual close-up pictures of sunspota. They are really whirling pits of burning gases. Trie dot, lower left, showa the size of the earth In comparison with the. sunspot flow of energy from the sun. actually cause disease germs to become more active or Is It that they reduce the energy and defenses of human bodies and probably others against some forms of germ life? This Is a question science also seeks to solve. On the side of the theory that it l the human energy which la reduceo there Is the fact that In every great 1400-year aun cycle humanity proceed' through about 900 years of reduced activity and 500 yeara of hectic rapid progress. The 900 yeara, In our present 1400-year cycle, which commenced In 539 A- D, were what historians call the ' '"Middle Ages" or sometimes the "Dark Ages." "Middle Ages" occurred in the 1400 year cycle before ours. That one began In 861 B. C and near Its end came the fall of the Roman Empire after eco nomic troubles, doles, Oovernment relief and many of the troubles we know today. In the 1400-year cycle before that one, with Its beginning far bark In 2281 B. C, there were also "Middle Ages," and the end of the cycle In 861 B. C, came Just after the fall of the nation Solomon built up. W the 1400-year cycle beginning Just four years from now runs true to form 0 sort of "Middle Ages" should start In 1939 and continue until about 2839 But It will come In a period when man appreciates knowledge and science enough to properly preserve hard-won Information. In that period ' would occur no such catastrophe as, for In stance, the burning of the Alexandrine Library, which was an irreparable loss to mankind. Secrets in chemistry and history perished there which have never been rediscovered. Nor will science have to find refuge in monasteries for preservation, , as during the last "Middle Ages." "Middle Ages" are not as dark as they seem for the average man. They are livable, but science slows up. Man's energy, which in more active times runs high and Insists on political independ ence and forms of democracy, in "Mid dle Ages" ebbs a bit, so that he welcomes dictatorships, feudalism and anything In fact which will relieve him of the strain of governing himself. THERE Is another Interesting fact about this. 1400-year cycle. If you trace it back through the centuries you find that In precisely the year the old Hebraic calendar sets as the year of the Creation, a 1400-year sun cycle began; that was the year 3661 B. C. But this Is no stranger than the dis covery that the old Hebrew prophets of the Bible themselves made their pre dictions either with knowledge of or In coincidence with a regular rhythm In human events which exactly coincides with 11.1-year sunspot effects. Checking back 11.1 -year sunspot maxima also reveals the fact a great number of the vaster movements In history, such as the beginning of Genghis Khan's march from the Keru lon River on his path to the conquest of Asia and Northern Europe, are In accordance with what Is at least co Incidence with the sunspot maxima. Some time ago Harvard University scientists checked back the 11.1-ycar cycles of maxima to a period about 200 years ago. This has now been extended back to 5000 B. C. In the future, archeologlsts and geolo gists who have determind the approxi mate prehistoric date of a great catas trophe In nature or In human progress may be able to turn to a sunspot cycle and bring their computations to a high degree of refinement. We who are alive today actually live in what might be termed by future his torians the "days of the giants." as re ferring to those men who will receive the plaudits of history for originating a great science of the sun. Such men as Dr. C. O. Abbot and Dr. Walter S. t,.irtMWlr ivit, i Adams, the former of the Smithsonian Institution and the latter director of Mount Wilson Observatory, have given , us the very basis of sunspot cycle mathematics, and they are still with us and will add to their works. Future his torians may be hard put to decide which was the greater development of our generation, the evolution of aerodynam ics or discovery of cyclical values from the sun which will benefit all the gener ations to come. Yet, withal, there Is a suspicion that all this was discovered on the earth before and actually used by great and powerful peoples, Jewish prophets who predicted coming events with cyclical knowledge of some kind, It has been suggested, had only preserved a part of some knowledge discovered by vast lost empires which perished in a world catastrophe, leaving merely population remnants to carry on and repopulate the earth. Definitely, archeologlsts have discov ered that the Mayans, who flourished In a far-past geological age and wars ut terly wiped out so that many feet of solid lava cover their ruins In Central America, worshiped the cycle archeolo glsts use the term "wheel" when writing on the subject. The Mayans, it seem, believed the cycle or wheel to be sacred. When you ask why, .the answer it, of course, that no one knows now. Egyptian empires of the past have left signs that they also worshiped the mm; these empires flourished at the time the pyramids were built, not as tombs, at popularly supposed, but at refuges from vast floods. w E DO know that the slightest the slightest magnetic changes In the sun Immediately affect the earth. Dr. Jaggar has long been working on a problem which If solved may reveal why sunspot affect us. It may, In fact, reveal how the sun controls ut at all times; he wants to know the cause of it, the physics, chemistry and mag netics of It. And he leaves the problem to us laymen with this hypothesis. It Is this: "If you ask why sunspots should have anything to do with volcanoes, the an swer Is that nobody knows. Timet of maximum sunspots affect radio recep tion on earth, magnetism on earth and aurorae In the Arctic regions. Sunspots are accompanied by gigantic eruptions of gas on the sun and colossal electrical phenomena in the whole solar system. If earth magnetism and electricity art In some way associated with gravity, volcanlsm may be affected.' PAGE THREE
