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Drawing the Enemy’s Aerial Battleships to Destruction by Means of the Magnetic Ray—A Possibility of Future War.
In This Picture by A Lsnos, the Famous French Imaginative Artist, the Enormous Transmitters of the Magnetic Rays in the Wireless Are Seen in Actions A Scouting
Dirigible Has Been Drawn Irresistibly Through Miles of Air by Their Power, and Is Now_Menaced by the Guns., ;
How Sun’s Spots and the Moon’s Pull Produce Airy Tides, Whirlpools, Gulfs
and “Pockets” That Balk Man’s Efforts to Make Himself a Flying Animal
‘By 2 Member of the Royal Astro
nomical Society of England.
VIATORS in this country and England have
A been greatly impressed by a new theory
that some of the most disastrous and in
explicable recent accidents which have befallen
men of thelr calling were due to unrecognized
“gravitational! pulls” in the atmosphere.
It has been suggested, for instance, that the
chief of these unknown factors is the supple
mentary gravitational actlon which the planets
exercise in certain circumstances, not only upon
the incandescent mass
below the earth's crust,
thus causing earth
quakes and volcanic
eruptions, and upon the
oceans, 80 giving rise to
marine disasters, but
gl!so on the aeridl ocean
The theory is that all
bodies exercise their
tHHde-producing gravita
tional action on the flu
ids of our planet in di
rect proportion to their
masses and in inverse proportion to the cube of
thelir distances. It is sald that the bodies which
exerciee this activity to any degree worthy of note
are: Firet, the moon; second, the sun, and then,
of Yery much less importance, but still to De
taken into account, the following planets in
order of intensity: Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mer
cury and Saturn,
Thig theory has been worked out in great de
il to show that the vast majority-of aerial acei
ionts have coecurred when thé planets named
lave Yeen in copjunction with the earth.
The list of casualiifes has been carefully
aualyzod, and the conclusion has been reached
that planetary influence may not be ignored.
While rashness and lack of skill upon the part
of the aviator, on the one hand, and defective
machinery on the other, must, of course, be taken
into consideration in copsidering the causes of
aeorial disasters, there is not the slightest reason,
it is pointed out, why these factors are more
Likely to be present on days when the planets
gre in adverse conjunction than on others. In
other words, it is permissible to disregard these
factors altogether in considering the extent of
the influence of the planets. Considered from
this aspect, the conclusion is reached that avia
tors will have to pay due regard to the position
of the planets in the choice of days for flight.
In support of this theory it is pointed out that
fn 1913 there were only 174 “black” days—days
on which the planets were in adverse conjunc
tion to the earth—as against 181 white days—
days on which the planels were favorably placed
B A e LA
.l 0 ;;_36l,«§fq§f§';‘xév,3 ig4
. A el - 15
Lo N ‘i‘ B A i
v RSt T e !
Diaaram I(llustrating the Action e'f the “Holes in
the Air” so Dreaded by Aviators and Now Be
lieved by Science to Be Caused by Sun and
Mcon. Arrows Show Ascending Air Currents
and Thin Descending Currents
—and yet the total number of catastrophes due
to atmospheric conditions were only 67 on
“white” days, as agalnst 136 on “black” days.
The results of 1912 are shown to be even more
significant: 159 ‘black” days with 139 disasters,
against 207 “white” days with only twenty-one
catastrophes. The figures of 1911 are said to be
equally impressive.
In 1913 there were only thirty-four aerial dis
asters on the 191 white days, while the smaller
number of black days, 174, showed the largely
increased figure of sixty, the last victim in that
year belng a British aviator Captain Lushing
ton, who was the flight commander of the naval
wing of the Royal Flying Corps and used to be
the airman of the First Lord of the Admiralty,
black days, as against two only on white days.
This theory Is very interesting but it is be
lieved to be founded on fallacious reasoning.
The real canse of adverse aerial conditions, it
{s now belleved, must be laid to the influence of
the sun and moon, particularly the. sun. The
influence of the planets named must be so in
initesimal as to be negligible.
Jug how little influence the distant planets
can nave in producing tides or other distur
bances of the ocean, land or air, can be readily
seen by referring to the accompanying table of
sizes and distances, keeping in mind the for
mula that their influence is in direct proportion
to their masses, but in inverse proportion to
their distances.
(These figures are approximate only.)
Nearest
‘Mass m
Compared Compared Tida! Influence
: with that with that Compared with
PMaoet. of Moon. of Moon, that of Moop.
Mercury ...sssess 26 240 .000,000,188
VARus ..iv.ociv: O 108 .000,051.600
(Moon) ......ives 1 1 1.000,000,000
MErs ..iiaiiaee 85 204 .000,001,062
JUpiter .....i..20000 1,600 000,006,098
Satarn .........4 1,600 3,400 000,000,193
Usente ... IAM 7,100 000,000,003
Neptune .....,... 1,360 11,340 000,000,001
(The sun has an effect comparable with that
of the moon, for although it is further distant
than Mercury. Venus or Mars. it is nearly a
hundred million times bigger than the moon )
in the Orst column of figures 18 given the
e
was killed at East
church on December 2,
a “black” day, since
there was a conjunction
Jupiter-moon the pre
vious day.
In 1912 there were
forty-ive aerial trage
dies on the 159 “black”
days, while only four
teen occurred on the
207 “white” days of the
year.
During the first two
months of the present
year there were twelve
aerial disnste}rl on
“mass” of each of the planets as ccmpared with
the mass of the moon. (The word “mass” be
ing the scientific term corresponding with
“weight,” because “weight” is only a relative
term, and applies specially to objects weighed
upon the earth’'s surface.)
In the second column is the approximate
distance of each planet when nearest the earth
as compared with the distance of the moon.
In the third and last column the figures are the
result of dividing the mass in each case by the
cube of the distance to find the relative tidal
influence as compared with that of the moon.
It will be noted that the greatest is that ef
Venus, which is only about one-twenty-thou
sandth as strong as that of the moon, while
Mars has only about one-miilionth as much
effect on the earth as the moon has, and Nep
tune less than one-billionth.
In fact, if all the planets were in ‘“conjunc
tion” at the same time (which means all in a
straight line with the sun and earth), their com
bined “influence” on the tides of the earth—
whether ocean, land or air—would be about
seventeen thousand times less than that of the
moon—so slight that it is doubtful if the most
delicate registering instruments could record it,
even in the ocean tides.
When, therefore, we consider the land and air
tides, which, if caused at all by the sun and
moon, are exceedingly slight, we can readily
see that one-seventeen-thousandth part of some
thing that is barely noticeable would scarcely be
enough to cause shipwrecks and aercplane accl
dents.
There is, however, another way in which-the
sun in particular may have a very considerable
effect on the air and the weather, and may be
the direct cause of aerial disasters.
It has long been known that the Aurora Bore
alis, or “Northern Lights,” {3 in some way
caused by so-called storms on the sun, and it
has also been observed frequently that the send
tng of telegraphic messages has been interfered
with during an electrical storm (of which the
Aurora is only a sign or symptom).
o > B Tmte Wi s > -
'f,.'.B(/ ST S ke
Mok th g T i 3 . %
W e | e
Diagram IHlustrating the Action on an Aeropiane of the
Invisible and Destructive Air Pocket, Now Be
lieved to Be the Resuit of Sun Spets,
It is also known that the sun is a great centre
of electrical energy, and is continually sending
out tremendous impulses in addition to its light
and heat.*
It is some of these impulses or radialions that
cause electrical changes on the earth and other
planets and give rise to many phenomena which
we do not entirely understand.
Whether the air pockets and treacherous air
currents which have caused so many mishaps to
eviators have some relation to such electrical
impulses from the sun is a question that de
serves much more consideration than whether
the comparatively insignificant and inactive
planets could be the direct cause of acci
dents by any tidal or gravitational action.
In the case of tidal effects the sun and
moon are the only bodies at present near
enough and large enough to exert any ap
preciable effect, for not only is the sun
the only body in the solar system that is
generating such radiant energy in any
appreciable quantity, but it is a thousand
times larger than all of the planets put
together. The moon particularly is a
cold, dead world, and Js wholly different
from the vastly larger and tremendously
hot and active 3,
Then, too, bo!!. the sun and moon are
responsible for various tides, although
the ocean tides are the only ones usually
attributed to solar or lunar influences.
The ocean tides, of course, are caused direct
ly by the varying attraction of the sun and
moon, and it is now pretty generally accepted
that the solid earth itself is subject to tides from
the same cause. In other words, when the sun
and moon are both “pulling” in the same or
opposite directions, the earth becomes slightly
oval or bulging in the direction of the pull
Thede *“land tides” are, of course, very slight,
and are important chiefly on account of the
strains or “stresses” caused in rock strata and
along geologic “faults,” any disturbaunce of which
is sure to cause an earthquake.
Similarly, a volcanic eruption could eull!
be started by a strain which would
upset the conditions which keep
the volcano inactive. Sometimes,
in fact, normal conditions under the
surface of the earth depend upon
very delicate balances indeed, such
as a huge mass of rock weighing
millions of tons, which is supported
over a vast subterranean chasm by
the mere edge of a precipice—like
a dreadnaught's gun on a hair-trig
ger—so that it will take only a very
slight movement to dislodge it.
Then comes a time when the sun
and moon are nearer the earth than
usual, and on opposite sides of it—
at a full moon or in “opposition”y—
which causes the crust of the earth
to bulge ever so slightly, and the
mass of rock drops into the chasm
(it may be only a few feet or
inches), and then, when the sur
rounding rocks are settling or ad-
Unexpected and
Which
Be Responsibls
and the L
By Prof. Rudolf Hensingmuller,
Of the University of Heidelberg.
GREAT series ot fatal calamities upon
A the sea and in the air has convinced me
of the necessity of an international com
mission to regulate the use of wireless telegra
phy and to inquire into various unexplained ard
mysterious phenomena connected with its use
Where wireless telegraphy is valuable in gov
life its installation should be required by la
but if it creates unknown dangers, as I bell
it does, the public should be guarded agai®
them. ;
The possible dangers from wireless teleéra
fall into three principal classes:
1. Magnetization of steel and iron ships so th
they exercise a powerful attraction upon o
another and upon other steel and iron objects.
2. Fires and explosions caused by sparks pro
duced by the wireless,
3. Derangement of ships' compasses by the
wireless.
In support of my contention that some myt
terious influence is at work in drawing ships
from their courses and producing disasters, 1
call attention to a number of recent catastrophes.
Never since the development of iron steamshigs
were there as many accidents as during 1&
past year. Now we know that the science
navigation has been perfected during this pdricj
and there should be fewer accidents thdn e
before. It seems clear then that some n
factor has cntered info the sftuation.
Why did the Empress of Ireland, af
swerving several miles from her course, conje
into disastrous collision with the Storstad, whi
both were going slowly, or not at all? Why di
the Pretoria wander twenty miles from her
course, bringing her into collision with the chw
York, also said to have been off her course,
June 137
Why did the North German Lloyd liner Buelow,
navigating waters thoroughly familiar to ner, r
ashore in the English Channel on June 187 W
did the British steamship Incemore ram the Gep
man liner Kaiser Wilhelm TI. in the
waters on June 177 fl?
Why did the Red Star llner Gothland r.
ashore on the Crim Rocks at the emtrance
justing themselves to stable positions, the shocks
or tremors are felt all over a continent.
There is a third kind of tides about which
little is known, and these are the so-called at
mospheric or “air tides.” These are supposed
to be similar to the ocean tides, and despite
the extreme fluidity of the atmosphere and the
absence of obstructions (such as continents,
islands and shallow waters oppose to ocean
tides) it is now thought that perhaps such air
tides not only affect the barometric otf air
pressure but are the direct cause of the “air
holes” or “pockets” which prove so disastrotfi
to aviators.
e SN
s o = / e
The “Geyser,” Another Air Terror No Aviator Can Forel\se-‘
That the atmosphere is very complex in it
structure i{s being realized more and more, since
serious work has been attempted in aeronan‘t!
and aviation. ;
Formerly it was supposed when barometr'
and temperature measurements were recordt
by aeronauts at different heights or by capti
balloons which gradually ascended or descende
making records as they went, thal certain ©!
served sudden differences of temperature, press
ure, etc., were due to inaccuracy of the instru
ments or carelessness of the observers. b
It has been discovered recently that such is
not the case, and that these sudden differences
actually occur.
In a series of writings by Dr. W. N. Shaw,,
Director of the British Meteorological Oftice, 0D
“Principia Atmospherica,” he shows concluswe'\
Iy that so-called air-pockets and sudden changgs
of pressure forming the much-dreaded “holes
the air,” are characteristics of the atmosphl
in its ordinary, every-day condition, and ho
ever little is known about them it is certa
that they are governed by laws which are kno»
to science and that the planets are not panicf»
larly concerned in their formation. These laws
are now being investigated. '
Just how aviators will be able to protect t-heff"
gelvs against the air-currents when their nat“;"
is more fully understood must be left for futur®
consideration, but it i{s not unreasonable to sul
pose that a way will be found to overcome them
The principal thing for aviators, of co‘”f‘i'
is to ascertain the causes of adverse eonditlo“:'[
When that has been accomplished, it will n:‘_
be so very difficult, with the aid of new Rna’
galing devices, to chart and avoid them. ‘'