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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1936)
paw. l""!iiJt ,vi&m Scientists Are Preparing for an Intensive Study of a Double Climax Due in 1939 Will That Be a Dangerous Year for Mankind? Floods, Typhoons, Earthquakes Are Anticipated Constant observation of the sun is m?de from this 185-foot tower located at the Mount Wilson Observatory By G. K. Spencer WATCH out for sunspots! Toe Old Man of the Heavens Is misbehav ing again. He Ull be cutting antics lor the next three years, climaxing his strange doings In 1939. World-famcus scientists have marshaled their forces to learn all they can and determine more definitely Just what eflect sun spots have on this worlu of ours. According to these scientists, we are in for a double dose of sunspots in 1939. 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 cams year, the first time in the history of the universe, so far as scientists ate able to determine. Astronomers, volcanolojlits, seis mologists are all active with their ob servations, keeping in cloce touch with each other and reporting every vlsiole change on the face of the sun. Why are they so anxious to know more about 1 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 1939 suntpot maximum Is expected to reiine 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 ravor noxious germ life. Finally, a vast field of electrical magnetic, gravity, thermal and chemi cal reactions will be exploited. As was expected in many quarter the appearance In 193S of the vanguard of sunspot "flow" in the lnexoraole n.arch 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, wlih numerous othci in -omewhat minor key In the Unltco States later In the year. With these phenomena science got .trlctly down to "cases." At Ba.ila -lara University Observatory. In Call .ornla, where the' late Father Jerome 3. Ricard. first of the great sunspot specialists, originated the attacks ol -cience on sunspots decades ago, his successor, Dr. Albert J. Newlln. ax ranged for "two-point observation' during the coming four years with Father A. R. Nuttall, S.J., United Sutes Jovernment astronomer at Manila, Philippine Islands. "We are now entering the period ol maxima," said Dr. Newlln, "and Inten sive study is under way. We shall make careful check of effects In prjg lSS." The great observatory on Mouni Wilson, California, one of whose tele Mopes Is the largest In the world, is taking "progress photographs" of the sun dally by direct photograph) through s special sun telescope and taking frequent spectrographs, which are at once relayed to the sun labora tory for chemical analysis. Part of this great system of sun ob servation, exchanging data with the telescopic observatories, la the volcano observatory of Hawaii, directed by Dr. T. A. Jaggar. , AM , A W , d & i -"PiApA V , W,(0 iW&aWF -TX ! ' " 4 ft . : 4 Here are ahown the ruins of a sun temple, used centuries ago by a race of sun worshipers. It la in the Mesa Verde National Park Dr. Jaggar Is the man who not only proved specific erlects on earth's mate rial of the 11.1 -year sunspot cycle but also la the discoverer of the 132-year supercycle. He found his pet volcanoes performing like thermometers, with their great lava tuocs 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 193S. ANOTHER reason for the unusual concentration on the present march to maximum of the sunspots 1 that there will ocur In 1939. coincident with the II. 1-year cycle of maxima, the end of one of the great 1400-yeaj cycles and the beginning of a new 1400. year cycle. This 1400-year cycle was discovered by Father Ricard, who, when he died, was also studying possibilities of a thirty-seven-year cycle, an elghty-thrce-ycar ccle and a SOO-year cycle. What effect will coincidence of tlx 11.1-year cycle and the 1400-year cycle have In 1939? Nobody knows, but astronomers and rolcanologlsU 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 ol maximum sunspots in 19M and an other, not normally due for 11.1 years came along Just one year later. Risint and falling of many Islands In the Pacific, the great Long Beach earth quake, the Baffin Bay earthquake and action by every "live" volcano In the world were coincidents of that cycle and the period Immediately afterward In which Its effect were still flowing. Do sun cycles, by varying the out- Here are actual close-up pictures of sunnpots. They are really whirling pita of burning gases. The dot, lower left, rhnwa the tht of the earth In comparison with the sunnpots flow of energy from the sua actually cause disease germs to become more active or is It that they reduce the energy and defenjes 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 I.' the human energy which is reduced (here la the fact that In every great 1400-year sun rycle humanity proceed through about 900 years of reduced activity and 500 year of hectic, rapid proerr. The 900 years, In our presenl 1400-year cycle, which commenced in 13 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 Ml B. C and near Its end came the fall of the Roman Empire after eco nomic troubles, dolrs, Clovernmenl relief and many of the trouble we know today. In the 1400-year cycle oofore that one. with Its Beginning fai bark In 2281 B. C, there were also "Middle Ages." and the end of the cycle In Sfil B. C. came Just after the all of the nation Solomon built up. If the 1400-year cycle beginning Just four years from now runs true to form n sort of "Middle Ages" should start In 1939 and continue until about 2830 But It wlil 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 insist 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. rpHERE 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; thnt was the year 3601 B. C. But this la no stranger than the dis covery that the old Hebrew prophets of the Bible themselves made their pre dictions cither with knowledge of or In rolncid nre with a regular rhythm In human events which exactly coincides with ll.l-vnr 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 ills path to the conquest of Asia and Northern Europe, are In accordance with what It at least co Incidence with the sunspot maxima. Some time ago Harvard University scientists checked back the 11.1-year cycles of maxima to a period about 200 years ago. This haa now been extended back to 6000 B. C. In the future, archeologlsts and geolo gist who have detfrmlnd 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 torian the "days of the giants." aa re ferring to those men who will receive the plaudits of history for originating a great science of the sun. Such men a Dr. C. O. Abbot and Dr. Walter & 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 prophet who predicted coming event 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, archeologlsta nave discov ered that the Mayans, who flourished In a far-past geological age and were 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 seems, believed the cycle or wheel to be sacred. When you ask why, the answer Is, of course, tiwt no one knows now. Egyptian empires of the past have left signs that they also worshiped the sun; tiiese empires flourished at the time the pyramids were built, not as tombs, as popularly supposed, but a refuges from wt floods. WE DO know that the slightest change In the thermal values or the slightest magnetic changes In the sun Immediately affect the earth. Dr. Jaggar has long been working on s problem which If sqjved may reveal why sunspots affect us. It may, In fact, reveal how the sun controls us at all times; he wants to know the cause of It, Uie 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. Times 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 gaa on the sun and colossal electrical phenomena In the whole solar system. If earth magnetism and electricity are In some way associated with gravity, volcanlsm may be affected." CliilSI PAOE THREB
