South Bend News-Times, Volume 34, Number 266, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 23 September 1917 — Page 26

RUMiAT, sr:rT. 23, 1917. THE SOUTH BEND NEWS-TIMES i I I fc ' - V . . ' . ' TV '5

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X71 i " ! O $ iV. i:Cy;. - ' - .'V'v? 'I Photograph of a Sun Spot Eruption Taken at Mount Lowe Obscn IP Py I Pprtl jf inlr r:y:;yyf . , V --':- -rvv-- White Clouds Are Masses of Flaming Gas and Electrical Enerj

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ow the Titanic Electrical Sol

torms Xnat Paralyse Our

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1 eiegrapii and I elephone Dy stems

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Observatorv. The

White Clouds Are Masses of Flaming Gas and Electrical Energy Hundreds of Thousands of Miles Through Space a Store of Force Which Man Will

sometime .Learn to LontroL

May Be Utilized to Destroy

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By Prof. Garrett P. Servlss. SOON after midnight on the morning of August 9 a reat magnetic storm broke over the earth, sotting the heavens iflame with mysterious flickering lights, making telegraph operators nervous by the leaping and snapping of unwonted sparks, and putting telephone and telegraph lines out of commission for one or two hours at a stretch. It received very little public attention, probably on account of the absorption of all minds in the war news. Yet that storm of unloosed solar energies, strangely raging in the earth and air, had a possible significance with regard to the great struggle of nations which would have awakened universal and thrilling interest if it had been generally under so od. That storm struck at the mightiest and tho most cunning tool and weapon that nature has ever suffered man to take from her arsenal applied electricity and by temporarily paralyzing it in some of its applications showed that she not only retains control of it but, in exceptional circumstances, la ready to eiercke her continued control. Sine a magnetic storm of the intensity of that of August 9 demonstrably has power to irrest the operation over a whole continent tnd ft wholo ocean of telegraph, cable and telephone linea, and to burn out tht ir instruments, how much more intense would a similar rtorxn have to bo in order to stop the engines of prowling submarines and of soaring aeroplane which in one case directly and in the other indirectly depend for their functioning on electricity t The source of the disturbance is in the sun, which exercises its rower of interference from a distance of 93.000,000 miles. Might not the sun put forth inergy enough to stop a battle, to bring about the defeat of an army, to send thousands of air fighters tumbling to earth like stricken birds ; acting, in short, as Zeus and his Olympian minions used to act when they intervened with euperterrestrial weapons in the battles of the Qreeks and Trojans t In these questions lies the new significance of such a magnetic storm as that of August 9. which occurred coincidentally with the existence on the sun of a vast disturbance that broke up million of square miles of its lien' purface. The force of that disturbance, as it reached the earth, perhaps it the form of torrents of electrons, was only sufficient to be noticed in its effect, through the magnetic currents of the eartJ., upon deli lately balanced energies in electro-magnetic instruments; but imagine it ir.ngniiled ten times or a hundred times, an J then what? Sun-spots and their repercussion upon the earth have oruy jeen studied for a few decades, and it is .sct a few years since first came into possession of instrument? nd engines depending on electricity for their action, so that vre have not yet experimental knowledge of what the maximum of this polar explosive in-Suci-ce upon them may be. O There are various theories concerninz the

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precise manner in which the solar influence is transformed to the earth. One of the most probable supposes it to be done through shafts of invisible radiations, resembling the kathode ra)v;thich come from the sun. and. upon meeting the atmosphere, alter tho conductivity of the upper strata and thus stimulate the circulation of aerial electric currents. The shafts of radiation, or of electrons, arise from centres of violent disturbance on the sun's surface. So far we have said nothing about the question whether it would be possible for man to play, in any degree, the part that the sun plays in producing magnetic storms or disturbances affecting the general operation of electric apparatus. But this is a question which has alreadv been, to some extent, answered in the affirmative. Somewhere near the beginning of this century Nicola Tesla. if I am not mistaken, during his extraordinary experiments on Pike's Peak succeeded in generating mysterious electric currents which burned out the connections in generators several miles away. No satisfactory explanation, as far as I am aware, was ever found for the phenomenon, except the conclusion that, given sufficient energy, a current capable of producing physical and mechanical effects could be sent long distances without the aid of wires. Was it a mimic magnetic storm that Mr. Tesla produced! Has he found the beginning of a way to play the role of the sun when it is excited by the forces that make sun-spots? The well-known phenomenon of interference of waves by which wireless messages may be confused, or broken up, is another indication that man is on the verge of a discovery that may have astonishing applications "in the direction of a central mastering control over the operation of distant electric apparatus. So, too, is the steering, stopping and starting of electric-driven torpedoes from wireless stations situated far away on the shore. There is even some apparent evidence or reason for suspicion that the nodes of wireless waves happening to coincide with the position of depots of explosives have produced disasters through accidental sparks induced by the passage of the electric waves. At the present moment it is indubitable that many inventive brains are brooding hopefully upon these suggestive ideas in the expectation that a way may be found to blow up an enemy's magazines without ever going near them, by simply concentrating upon them a shaft of invisible radiation, or sending shivering through them declenching waves of electricity, which may produce sparks wherever they encounter suitable gaps between conducting materials. Such a means once found, the advantages of relatively near approach afforded by the

aeronlaa would add immensely to its effec

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A Photograph of a Group of Sun Spots, or Solar Eruptions, from Mount Lowo Observatory.

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The Aurora Borealis. Which Science Believes to Be Caused by

the Passage Through the Rare Gases of the Upper Atmosphere of an Enormous Number of Electrical Particles Thrown Out by the Sun.

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Pictorial Diagram Illustrating a Curious Theory of Astronomical Science as to One Cause of Sun Spots. It Shows Swarms of Meteors Colliding with Saturn's Rings and from Thence Drawn by the Sun's Pull Down to Its Surface, Causing the Disturbances That We Know as Sun Spot, in Just the Same Way That a Stone Cast Into Water Causes a Similar Displacement.

tiveness. An aviator, safely soaring at a height beyond the reach of artillery, could deliberately sweep his destroying shafts of electric influence over tho enemy's magazines, munition works, dynamo-houses, elec

tric plants, motordriven vehicles and t rolle v lines, while remaining perfectly safo himself unless the enemy happened to have a similar weapon with which' to bring him down. Anything in the nature of a shaft of solar radiation, like those which set the heavens aflame with auroras, and distribute over the earth currents that make sparks leap from telegraphers' instruments and burn out the connections of electric wires, if once placed in the hands and under the control of man would make its possessor the dictator of the whole planet. He alone

could make war, and, unassisted, he could put an end to war. It is not likely that war will ever cease until something of that kind happens, and if it ever does happen it will be necessary to give the sun-spots the credit for the hint. How quickly the woes of the Allies over the devastation of the U-boats would be soothed by a solar influence machine of only just sufficient power to electrify the waters of the war zones to such a decree that no electric engine could be made to function within them. A submarine aurora borealis

would probably suffice to do ihf busme

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Tesla's Towei Near Shoreham, Long Island. Which Was Built b the Inventox to C o n t r ol and Intensify Currents ol A tm osphcric E 1 e c tricity. Some Such Mechanism as This Will Be Necessary in the Future tc Control and tc Utilize Electrical Energies Let Loose by Solar Dis-turbix.ee.

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f!oDrrtcht. 1917. bv th Star Compiny. Great BrIU.!n Rishts llerv!

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