Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 22, 1910, Page 17

N 3 \ ( . the nature of the whole body of air has been gained. # PART TERER HALF-TONE PAGES ONE TO FOUR, THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE. FOR ALL THE NEWS THE OMAHA BEE DEST IN THE WES1 VOL. XXXIX—NO. 49. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, 09 MAY 1910. COPY FIVE CENTS. SINGLE TOLLOWING FLIGHT OF BALLOON WITH THEODOLITE C.5W00DS AT INSTRUMENT — W. R .GREGG -NOTING OBSERVATIONS, s OR CENTURIES men have been unraveling the mysteries of the heavens above and probing the secrets of earth beneath, but the air we breathe and winds that bring the changes that have come to be called weather are only now ylelding to the efforts of the investigators. Barth is wrapped with a covering of atmosphere which can only be com- pared to an ocean. It has its currents, its tides and waves in fan- tastic varfety. The craft by which man can sail this gaseous sea cannot navigate beyond a very few miles from port, so there has through all the centuries remained a great undiscovered realm of the upper air. Sclence has found a way to penetrate into this azure wilderness of space for a few miles more and now they are writing the stories of the skyland on the pages of the book of human knowledge. The United States weather bureau has devised an apparatus to be carried far into the upper air to automatically record the condi- tions met there and return to earth again with the record of its travels. Small spherical balloons with a lifting power of scarce half a dozen pounds carry enough intricate instruments into the dis tances of the sky to ascertain the temperature, the height and the barometric pressure at every point in the journey as accurately as though the observations were being made on the laboratory work bench. The extent of this ocean of air in which the earth is submerged {8 yet unknown. Estimates, largely conjectured, have placed the depth of the sea of air at perbaps 150 miles, and long this has been an accepted figure. The “sounding balloon,” as the experts of the Mount Weather, Va., station, the headquarters of the explorers of the upper air, call their device, has shown that there is probably little atmosphere worthy of the name above fifty miles from the sur- face of the earth. The range of investigation is limited to the jour- neys of the sounding balloons, which have thus far not penetrated beyond eighteen miles. In that distance, however, a fair idea of Investigations now lead the scientists to believe that the conditions that prevail jn the upper air are but little changed in the space included in the dis- tance beginning at six miles from the earth to the outmost limits of the gaseous envelope. Up there they say it is just a vast expanse of attenuated gas, thin almost to nothingness, cold as the space be- tween the stars and dazzlingly bright with the uninterrupted rays of the sun. There can be no live thing there in that void of chill. Into this forbidden bourne the weather balloon can penetrate for one glimpse around and then the long, swift plunge back to the warm living world below. Fort Omaha, chosen because pf its position in the “storm track,” is the center of the series of experiments which the weather bureau is conducting in exploring the upper air. C S. Woods and W. R. Gregg, research observers from the Mount Weather station, are here daily turning loose balloons to sound the depths of the sky. Similar investigations were conducted by them here last year These men have been detailed to make an effort to pry into the secrets of the comet, too. When Halley's comet came swinging by on May 18 balloons were liberated to make their way up into the region beyond the clouds. It may be that the recording instruments will have a tale to tell when they come back, but there is nothing certain about it. If the passage of the earth through the tail of the comet effects the temprature, th barometric pressure or the hu midity of the upper air the instruments will tell. To other influ ences they are insensate. Omaha has proven, perhaps, the best location in the country for the investigation of the upper air. Out here in the broad basin of the Missourl river country the vast sea of the air is little influenced by mountains and the great bodies of water. It is across this terri tory that the storm sweeps with the most frequency, and here the most often are the investigators able to send their inquiring ap ' paratus up to the centers of the atmospheric disturbances which they are studying. The operation of the weather bureau’s sounding balloons, too, requires a well populated country that the instruments ®/may be recovered again when they come down from the skyward journey. The search for the little basket of instruments in a great wild stretch of country would be a hopeless task, while in the fields of Nebraska and Iowa they are certain to be found by someone in the course of a few weeks, or months at most, and then returned to Mount Weather. The investigations made with the sounding balloons have given the weather observers an grray of facts which, pleced together, have caused them to arrive at the conclusion that the air is divided into three layers. The first of these, that which lies next to the earth, known as the storm region, lies about two miles deep over the face ‘n! the world, The second layer, called the Intermediate region, vargg'h from two to six miles in thickness, while from above this on h space the third as far as the exploration has extepded, and probably as far beyond as the air extends. This third region is technical®¥ called the “permanent inversion,” because so far investi- gations show that the temperature tends to increase with altitude, which is the reverse of conditions in the lower two stratas of the atmosphere. In the first strata the phenomena which constitutes the weather of the earth occur. However, the other strata are believed to have an influence, but one which is far from compietely understood. In this layer, as every casual observer of the weather knows, changes in temperature are frequent and irregular, while the air is much dis- turbed by shifting currents. In the second layer of air, above two miles, the air is of a more uniform temperature, diminishing rather regularly with altitude. The “permanent inversion,” or third layer, has sometimes been called the "isothermal layer;" in that tempera~ ture changes are relatively small. “In the investigations made at Omaha last y: ing balloons reached the third layer,” sald Mr. Wood of the weathe: service. “'The lowest altitude at which it was reached was five and a half miles and the highest nine and a half. This makes the aver- age of the base of this region for the five days on which the sound- ings were made seven and a half miles. The average temperature at this point was 70 degrees, Fahrenheit, below zero. The increase of temperature with altitude is shown in the comparison of some of the records taken at that time. On October 12 of last year the tem- perature of 17 degrees below zero was registered at an altitude of fifteen miles, 61 degrees below at eleven miles on October 11 and 58 degrees below at ten and a half miles on September 28." While ascensions were being made last year at resentatives of the Mount Weather observatory were engaged in similar operations at Indianapolis. While the maximum height reached there was twelve miles, the Omaha record was fifteen miles. One of the Omaha balloons traveled the unusual distance of 400 miles, landing with its records safely at last at Palmyra, Mo. The lowest temperature reached by the Omaha balloons was 92 degrees below zero at an altitude of ten miles on October 6. Those sameé experiments are being repeated this month on a large scale. With kites the Mount Weather station is constantly in touch with condi- tions in the air at distances up to two miles, and on rare o« is able to put kites up to a distance of four miles. reached the permanent inversion. From the time that the sounding ballcon is cast adrift in the sky until it is far out of sight of the unaided eye it is kept under observa tion by the investigators through the use of a theodolite. For sev enty miles this little six-foot sphere can be followed on its travels in a clear sky Readings from the theodolite showing the direction of the beiloon with reference to both the horizomtal and vertical planes of motion are taken at intervals of one minute so long as it remaius visible. By the record of the theodolite and of the barometer on the balloon its travels can be traced accirately on the map. r five of the sound- Omaha other rep- casions Kites have never The prob lem becomes a comparatively simple process of triangulation Even before the balloon lands with its records calculations of its travels are possible through the knowledge of the angles which it has followed, and the average rate of rise which these instruments attain, an upward velocity of about eight feet a second. The return of the balloons depends on the chance that they will be found, and that the intelligent finder will read a card which the basket of instruments carries, offering to the Mount Weather observatory. 2 for its return by express TLCORD TAKEN BY AZRIAL MACHINL ALLOONING FOR WEATHER AT FORT OMAHA Interesting Experiments Intended to Afford Data for Determining Conditions That Prevail in the Upper Strata of the Atmosphere % The Recording Machiners STARTINGIOFF THE BALLOON Of the thirteen sent up at Omaha last season all save one were returned, while of the seven sent out from Indianapolis six were sent to Mount Weather in good shape. 1 found your thing all right, but 1 had to clean off part of the thing-a-maybob, it was all smudged up,” wag the note one farmer wrote in returning the basket of instruments he found in his field. He had obliterated the valuable record on the smoked cylinder. The instrument that brings back to earth the story of the travels of the balloon teils the tale in & cypher of three characters, denoting temperature, pressure and humidity. Each is written in tiny scratches on the cylinder. From the thermometer, the barometer and the hydrometer the readings are recorded on the slowly revolv- ing cylinder by sharp stylus points at the end of arms which respond to the slightest movement of the instrument with which it is con nected While the sounding balloon rises the three instruments are con- stantly responding to the changes of temperature, pressure and hu midity, and just as constantly is the record being inscribed on the soot-covered surface of the cylinder. This ¢ylinder is kept in rota tion at a low rate of speed for a period of two hours and a half by a clockwork motor wound just before the balloon is released. This motor thus feeds a fresh portion of the cylinder surface under the recording touch of the stylus arms. The record is written in turee curved lines, every point in which have a meaning to be expressed in figures after a series of caluculations made by the observers after the return of the balloon. The thermometer which the balloon instrument carries is but a pair of strips of metal sensitive alike to rise and fall of temperature by their expansion and contraction. These strips are directly con nected with an arm of the recording device. By their expansion and contraction in response to chapges in temperature the line in- scribed on the eylinder is changed in direction, producing an ascend ing or descending curve as the conditions may chance to be The hydrometer depends for its vital action on the stretching and shrinking of a strand of human hair from which all trace of oil has been removed by chemical process. With increase of the amount of moisture in the surrounding air the bair shrinking in length pulls on the recording lever, which in turn cuts the line on the cylinder record in a trifle different direction. Bhould the air become dryer the hair yields up the moisture which shortened its fiber and becomes longer, allowing the lever to respond to the action of the tension spring, which tends to restore the stylus point to its old position, By this tension spring the hair fllament is kept at a constant degree of tautness re rdless of changes in its length with reference to the changes in humidity. The spring is identical in its construction with that of the balance wheel of a watch Many fibers have been used in the construction of hydrometers, but none bave been found to equal in sensitiveness the human haft subjected to chemical treatment. The hair strand is soaked in an alkaline solution and washed again and again to remove the oils which lubricate the hair in its natural condition. With the fatty substances removed the hair ts made subject to changes of mofsture through the ready absorptiop into its structure. The is process Hydrogen Gas' 1 the finuer will kindly pack 1n & box this nd Basket (the Baskel contains a meteorological instrument and record), WITHOUT OPEN ING OR DISTURBING CONTENTS in any manner, and relurn by Express. Collect, to TWO DOLLARS invide this envelops, 8140 use the inclosed tag on the M RECOBDING DEVICES AS CARRIED.BY BALLOON : THE INSTRUMENT THAT TRACES BALLOON'S FLIGHT NOTICE Keep Away From Fire! Mount Weather Observatory, : Bluemont, Va. be paid for the sarvice. Please fill out and mail the ea¥d READYATOR! SHIPMENT parallel to that which takes place in a bit of woolen dipped in water, There is no sentiment in the mind of the scientist when he gravely declares that the hair of the blonde is the most desirable—that is, for the construction of hydrometers. The movements of the minute instruments which the ballpon carries are to be measured directly in but thousandths of an inch. Hence each of the recording devices are so constructed that the movement of the stylus on the record is equivalent to that of the instrument multipifed by several figures This {8 accomplished by a wonderfully simple arrangement. _The ends of the thermometer strips and the hydrometer fillament are: tached to the short end of the lever which operates the stylus. The slight movement on the short end results in a very much longer movement on the end of the long arm which makes the wave line on the sooted surface. Not the slightest motion of the instruments escapes the record of the delicate tracery of the aluminum cylinder. The record taken from the cylinder after the balloon has returned to earth is written in the three wave lines scratched through the layer of soot which covers the cylinder. These curves are measured from a base line cut about the lower part of the record by a fourth arm of the recording instrument. They tell the observer the helght of the balloon at any point in its travels, the temperature and the humidity at that point. The curves by being continuously inscribed about the cylinder during the two hours and a half of automatic ob- servation permit inquiry into the behavior of the ajr at any point from the start with a close degree of accuracy. The determination of the heighth is reached through the reading of the line which records the action of a barometer, giving the air pressure along the path of the balloon In the readings taken in the experiments at Fort Omaha the records of the Omaha office of the weather bureau are relied upon as a basis of comparison. As the barometric pressure means in gen- eral terms the weight of the air above, differences in the pressure as denoted by the curve indicate differences in elevation or the depth of the air column above the balloon The elevation which the balloon reached is readily computed by comparison with the pressures recorded during the flight of the bal- loon by a barometer at the starting point The failure of any of the three recording instruments to perform their functions would not mar the record of the remainder. The recording stylus of the defective ipstrument would instead of re- spouding to the changes in the conditions which come within fts functions would trace a string line around the cylinder. This straight line would mean, if taken literally, no change in the condi- tion which the instrument was sent out to record, This Is a well near impossible state of affairs, and hence the failure of the recorder to function would at once betray itself to the observer. However, with the barometer out of commigsion the record of the hydrometer and that of the thermometer would be of little value, as only through the barometer is the location of the balloon at the time of the taking of the other components of the record obtainable. Thus the air stratum in which the balloon was sailing at the time of any given temperature and degree of humidity would be left entirely a matter of confecture without the ald of the barometric record For the sake of the good name of the delicate tangle of mechan- however, it should be known that it has not yet failed to keep a continuous and accurate record The entire machine is constructed of aluminum, giving the max- imum of strength, with a minimum of weight. The whole is en- closed in a wicker basket, to which it is attached in such & manner that the recording parts are protected from vibratien and jars from sudden changes in the air currents The three measuring devices are subjected to an exacting series 1sm (Continued on Page Four,)