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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1955)
Is That So? The greatest show seen on earth is our sun, a huge, burning, tumbling, spurting ball of gas. What matter that the stage is 93,000.000 miles or so away? And as with most things which seem commonplace, the more we know about it the more impressive the daily spectacle becomes. Our earth is 7,900 miles through yet it would take a line of 109 earths to reach across the sun's fiery diameter and more than a million to equal Its bulk. , To change this to understand able terms, let's reduce the sun to a ball only ten feet through. Then proportionately, the earth 1L 0 we llvt on would become as large as a small marble spinning Kme 900 feet away, making it Invisible to our eyes. Yet far away as this distance between sun and earth may seem scarcely anything can occur on earth which isn't of the sun's do ing. From it we get both heat and light, directly; our rain, thanks to evaporation caused by the sun; our winds, caused by the sun's unequal heating of land and water; our food, which is stored- up sun's energy in plant and ani mal; and the base of our power, through wood, petroleum and falling water, all forms of the sun's energy. What is the source of the sun's tremendous energy? Heat caused by the transformation of hydro gen atoms Into helium. Earth's Heat Cold And so great is the heat result ing that the sun's surface temper ature is estimated to be from 8,000 to 11,000 degress Fahren heit with an inside temperature infinitely hotter estimated from 29 to 40,000,000 degrees. In com parison any heat on earth is cold. And for a good reason. Nothing could be made that hot for more than a split fraction of a second for the very simple reason that no furnace could stand so high a temperature the materials would evaporate completely. - Although the sun consists of gases, and extremely hot ones, nonetheless the pressures within the central regions are so great that they reach the tremendous value of 10,000,000 atmospheres a density about six times that of mercury. The sun's tremendous heat nat urally releases a fantastic amount of energy in fact more than 4,000.000 tons are poured off into the surrounding void every second. And energy can be weighed in "tons" even the light from an electric light bulb has weight, although much too little to measure. Of these 4,000, 000 tons the earth intercept's the tiniest portion a mere four pounds each second. But yet, small as this amount may seem, it adds up to 173 tons a day. In releasing this energy, the sun gives away of its own mass and substance a total of 11,- 000,000,000,000th part of its re sources each year. But lest the depletion of the sun and its heart cause you undue worry, consider that it has been shining on the earth for hundreds of millions of years that we know of judging by the earth's past life, and at the rate it is now consuming itself, it will keep on shining for thousands of millions of years to come. MOW ACME HARDWARE lefts jm WfUVE tr kmh nar Ism ta EAST CREDIT TEMSt m cash ma . CP TO 24 MONTHS TO PAY1 SMALL MONTHLY PAYMENTS ttat ft YOUI Mtt! ft jsato a lit start ef catk . ., tate aemton at this C0MVW1CMT PAYMENT PUN. lay ANYTHIM fta START NOW I It Costs LESS Than You Think I By EUGENE BURNS Ranger-Naturalist How does the surface of the sun look while this is going on? Seen As Neat Disk To the naked eye, of course, the face of the sun appears as a neat disk with clean-cut edges but that is because it is so bright that we cannot see its features clearly (and if you are to look into the sun, by all means use darkened glasses otherwise you may ruin your eyes within sec onds). But when there is a total eclipse when the moon passes between us an dthe sun then we can see something of the great activity of the sun's surface the great fountains flaring out at the edges in silvery light. And the reason why we call it the great est show on earth. How great are these surface fountains playing every minute of the day? These solar promi nences, as they are called, are hundreds of thousands of miles high twenty times and more the breadth of our earth! Thus the whole surface of the sun is seething, tumbling, shoot ing out and falling back in a heaving, restless sea of gases. A sight at once sublime and im pressive. (Copyright. 1955, by Eugene Burns Released by McClure Newspaper Syndicate) In The Day's News Free': By special arrangement with the editors of the Enclyclo pedia Americana, my panel of judges will award each week to the reader who sends me the best true-life nature adventure, or the best nature observation, or the best question on nature and wildlife a complete 30-volume set of this world-famous refer ence work in a handsome Seal- craft binding. Each week new submissions will be considered. Sorry, I simply can't answer your many friendly letters. Please address your letter to IS THAT SO! co Medford Mail Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito, Calif. Power Line Funds Pleases Senators Washington U.R) Oregon's U. S. senators Saturday ex pressed "delight" that $2,038,000 to build power transmission lines to a new aluminum reduction plant at The Dalles, Ore., was contained in a Department of In terior supplemental appropria tion request. Senators Wayne L. Morse and Richard L. Neuberger, both Democrats, said the supplement al rryessage received by the Sen ate Friday was "better late than never." The senators said that while it was regrettable that the In terior Department "delayed this recommendation for two years," they would do all within their means to help facilitate passage of the appropriation through the Senate. . . The, appropriation covered con struction of Bonneville "Power Administration transmission fa cilities. Once it was passed , by Congress, Senators Morse and Neuberger declared, plans could go ahead immediately for The Dalles aluminum plant. A final fall-winter count of whooping cranes at their winter refuge in Texas shows the flock of America's rarest migratory birds has dwindled to a total of 21, three short of the previous year. " - 3 Wast Sixth Street Medford, Oregon y A"..-:- -.?-.- -v- ': i i 'A . . v t ' ; 1 DESIGNED for use by officers on attache and foreign mis sions, new Air Force white uniform will not be worn or required within United States. Uniform may be required in tropical and semi-tropical areas when prescribed By FRANK JENKINS Human rights note: . The senate of the United States has approved a resolution ex pressing the hope that CAPTIVE SATELLITE PEOPLES will re gain the sovereign rights of self government. The resolution had the backing of the senate leaders of both par ties. The vote of the senators present was 89 FOR and NONE AGAINST. PERSONALLY, I think the vote of the people of the people of the United States if they understood all the principles involved would be in about the same proportion. 1ITHAT are these principles? ' Let me quote again from the American Declaration of In dependence: 1. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre ated equal, that they are en dowed by their Creator with cer tain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Gov ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov erned." 2. "That when ever any form of government becomes destruc tive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute NEW GOV ERNMENT, laying its foundation on such principles and organiz ing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happi ness." . THE. RESOLUTION adopted unanimously by the senators present and voting will miff the Russians, because it will seem to them to be a direct invitation on the part of the United States of America to the people of the captive and enslaved satellite na tions to REVOLT against their Communist masters. It MIGHT so anger the Rus sians as to remove all possibility of agreement on relaxation of present tensions at the upcoming meeting of heads of state of Rus sia, the United States, Great Britain and France at Geneva. I1TELL ' WHAT ARE WE? -Are we men? Or, are we mice? WE, or DON'T we, believe that "all men are endowed by their creator with certain un alienable rights (including life, liberty and the pursuit of happi ness) . . . that to secure these rights governments are insti tuted among men, deriving their just powers FROM "THE CON SENT OF THE GOVERNED and that whenever any form of gov ernment becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to ALTER OR ABOLISH it...?" I THINK this is a good time for us to remember the conclud ing sentence of the Declaration Sunday. July 17, 1955 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE Once in a Blue Moon By J. HUGH PRUETT Astronomer, Extension Division Ore. Higher Education System "Once in a blue moon" used to mean "never"; now it seems to indicate "hardly ever." Lit erature on the subject is practi cally non-existent. Seven,, times in 19 years there are 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and two with two. This second in a month was once called "blue moon." It was considered un lucky and a real nuisance as it occurred' at various times of the year and upset scheduling of church festivals. According to this, "once in a blue moon" would mean once in two or three years. A friend recently called my attention to a statement in a book lately published in Eng land which read, "Also a blue of Independence: "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Prov idence, we mutually pledge to each other OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES AND OUR SACRED HONOR." TF THE United States of Amer ica ever ceases to be in this world the defender of the right of ALL PEOPLES to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness we might as well close up the books and call it a day. moon was seen in 1944 by J. H. Pruett of the United States." Said Pruett certainly did see one. I had always been rather skeptical of a moon that would appear blue until on the evening of July 28, 1944, when before my astonished eyes there hung in the southern sky just such an object. My wife and two of the neighbors" were equally amazed at the very unusual sight: i Noticed After Sunset The moon,, at first-quarter phase that day (half moon), was first noticed shortly after sun set. It was then thinly veiled by a small patch of high cirrus clouds, which were tinted a beautiful orange-red by the sun just below the horizon.; We thought that the lunar blue might be the effect of contrast with the red of the clouds. But while we looked arid wondered, our lunar neighbor soon "float ed" out into clear sky and was just as blue as ever. " The blue was not uncertain and elusive, requiring close at tention to discern the coloration. Not the least imagination was required. Normal eyes were im pressed immediately with a very distinct blue so unnatural to old Luna's usual smiling face. The effect was evident for about 15 minutes. As the sky became darker, the weird coloration was gradually lost in the yellow radi ance of the night moon. Shortly after this I discussed the phenomenon in my weekly newspaper column used in sev eral states and asked for simi lar observations from readers. Soon I had a large number of "testimonials" at hand. Most ob servers had seen only one such appearance each during the pre vious years of their lives. On Nov. 8, 1948, while wait ing for a city bus on a street corner, I witnessed my second blue moon. When I called the bus driver's attention to it, he said, "I have been noticing the past few minutes how green all the auto lights appear." Prof. Fergus J. Wood, present science editor of the Encyclope dia Americana, has stated that he believes such blue moons are due to the presence in the atmos phere of numberless, infinitely minute, suspended particles, in dividually too small to be seen, yet together having a sensible effect on light rays transmitted through the atmosphere. The Arctic tern is the champ ion long distance bird, cover ing 20,000 miles annually, trav elling from its breeding grounds in the north to its winter quar ters in the south sea area.' MONEY GROViS quickly when invested here . . . where INSURED SAFETY and LIBERAL EARNINGS await your savings. Open an account tomorrow and get these worthwhile savings from now on. FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS LOAN ASS'N of Medford 27 North Holly Am iMtHiiriM Deaftcstea' Te TImm Wfce Save RAINBOW MOTEL Grocery & Patio Cafe Crater Lake Highway (62) Shady Cove NOW OPEN Featuring Fresh Trout (Caught Daily) Steak Dinners FISH at our COMMERCIAL TROUT PONDS Pony Rides Picnic Grounds Dance Floor with Juke Box Music Housekeeping Cabins by Day or Week Trailer Park o o o o PI WATCH FOR THE MONDAY, JULY 25 OF OUR NEW C?E NORTH BARRETT STREET Next to Greyhound EVERYTHING will be BRAND NEW - NOTHING from our fire damaged store EVERY ARTICLE in this temporary store will be BACKED BY MEDFORD FURNITURE STORE as TOPS in VALUE and QUALITY! . ETOSY SHOWONG Mew LTD Televisions And Appliances! Actually, this is the FIRST SHOWING of NEW PHILCO PRODUCTS te be held in. the United States! We. are grateful to PHILCO for fine cooperation replacing PHILCO TELEVISION and APPLIANCES which were destroyed or damaged in our recent fire with the only available PHILCOS-NEW 1956 MODELS SOON TO BE SHOWN ELSEWHERE in the country. They're certain to please and appeal te YOUI ALL OF US AT MEDFORD FURNITURE STORE . . . We are sincerely grateful to our many friends, here and throughout the country, for their expressions of sympathy following our recent fire. Especially do we want to acknowledge with deep appreciation the. cooperation and encouragement extended by manufacturers and wholesalers which makes possible the early resumption of our service to this community. For years the Medford Furniture Store has offered to the people of this area the .very finest merchandise the markets afford, and prices that represent, the peak of value. It is because that we are prideful of this reputation for QUALITY and VALUE that ... We Will TO Mi a FIHE SALE! We. do not want to offer to those who know the excellence of our home furnishings, merchandise that 'had, been damaged by water or smoke. Instead, we have secured a temporary location and will open Monday, July 25th with a BRAND NEW STOCK the kind we can back with our name and reputation. Workmen will begin soon on rebuilding our store which was dam aged by fire BIGGER and BETTER than ever before. Our SERVICE AND, CARPET DEPARTMENT CONTINUES TO FUNCTION and every effort is being made to offer you the very best of service with out interruption. .- .. Thanks again for your friendly sympathy and cooperation at this trying time, and for your patience. We can promise you a bigger and, finer store for the future-wider selections and improved service. Robert Reef or Temporary Location - NO. BARTLETT - Next to Greyhound Depot
