250 



NA TURE 



[July 13, 1905 



Numerous attempts, only very partially successful, 

 have been made to establish similar definite relations 

 between solar and terrestrial atmospheric variations. 

 The South Kensington observatory has done much 

 valuable work in this direction. It is, however, 

 doubtful whether the results obtained by any of the 

 investigators in this branch are generally accepted. 



The reasons for this very partial success are almost 

 self-evident, and are due to the complexity of the 

 problems presented by the movements of the atmo- 

 sphere, more especially as modified by the presence 

 of very varying amounts of aqueous vapour, the 

 result of the processes of evaporation and conden- 

 sation. The effects of the solar variation on the 

 earth's atmosphere are, in fact, distributed and mani- 

 fested in very varying proportion between the 

 different elements of observation, and the direct efifect 

 of a solar variation on one element may be followed 

 by an opposite effect due to variation of another 

 element, so that the final result may be opposite in 

 character to the initial effect. Thus an increase of 

 solar radiant energy would, if there were no increase 

 of aqueous vapour amount, cloud or air movement, 

 undoubtedly increase pressure and temperature. If 

 these changes, however, give rise to increased vertical 

 and horizontal movement, it is possible that as a 

 later result pressure probably, and temperature 

 possibly, might both be decreased below their original 

 or normal level, and hence that the observed change 

 might be the opposite to that of the direct effect of 

 the original variation. Also there is another source 

 of difficulty in this branch of the inquiry, due to the 

 fact that in the case of some of the elements of 

 observation a positive variation over a considerable 

 area of the earth's surface must necessarily be accom- 

 panied with a negative variation of corresponding 

 amount in some other region as part and parcel of 

 the total change. The changes in these elements, 

 taken over the earth's surface, must either be com- 

 pletely compensatory, as is probably the case for 

 pressure, or partially compensatory, as is un- 

 doubtedly the case for rainfall. 



It is also necessary to bear in mind that the instru- 

 mental appliances for magnetical and meteorological 

 observations are of very different orders of exact- 

 ness. Magnetic instruments, more especially those 

 for continuous autographic registration, are of great 

 delicacy. Meteorological instruments are, on the 

 other hand, much less delicate, and the most 

 important of all from certain points of view, viz. the 

 instruments for registering the direction and rate 

 of air movement, are especially coarse, and their 

 individual observations are necessarily affected with 

 large errors. 



The problem of the relations between solar and 

 terrestrial meteorological variations is hence com- 

 plicated and difficult. It evidently requires for its 

 complete solution the collection and coordination of 

 data for the whole of the earth's surface, and the 

 careful employment of statistical methods regulated 

 by thorough knowledge of the physics of the atmo- 

 sphere. 



The difficulties of the problem are great, and 

 explain the comparative want of success of investi- 

 gators hitherto. It is, however, certain from 

 theoretical considerations that there are definite re- 

 lations, and that their determination is of great 

 importance, equally from the scientific and the 

 utilitarian point of view. 



The observational data for a more systematic 

 investigation are now considered by many to be 

 sufficient, if collected, compared, and discussed as a 

 whole, to promise more satisfactory and valid con- 

 clusions than have hitherto been obtained, and 

 NO. 1863, VOL. 72] 



perhaps a first approximate solution. This opinion 

 found expression fully at the meeting of the British 

 Association at Southport in 1903. Sir Norman 

 Lockyer, director of the Solar Physics Observatory, 

 South Kensington, read a report giving a summary 

 of the results of previous investigations in " Simul- 

 taneous Solar and Terrestrial Changes " to Section A 

 of the British Association. The members of the 

 International Meteorological Committee present at the 

 meeting joined in the discussion, and it was decided 

 that the time had arrived for joint and concerted 

 action. .A commission to act as a subcommittee of the 

 International Meteorological Committee was formed 

 to discuss meteorological observations from the point 

 of view of their connection with magnetism and solar 

 physics. The commission held several meetings at 

 Cambridge in 1904 during the British Association 

 week. -Several additional members were added to the 

 commission, which now includes the names of the lead- 

 ing authorities in the three associated branches of 

 science. 



The chief work of the commission at Cambridge 

 was to lay down principles for the selection of the 

 data required for comparison, and to arrange for the 

 choice of stations and observatories from which it 

 would be desirable to obtain data prior to entering 

 into communication with the various organisations 

 that it would be necessary to ask for assistance in 

 the collection of data. 



It has been arranged that a meeting of the com- 

 mission shall be held in connection with the meeting 

 of the International Meteorological Committee at 

 Innsbruck in September. h number of important 

 matters will there be considered. Amongst these are 

 the final selection of magnetic and meteorological 

 observatories from which data are to be collected, the 

 mode of publication of the data received by the com- 

 mission, and probably, also, of the methods to be 

 employed in the work of comparison and discussion 

 of the data. Hofrath Prof. Julius Hann has 

 suggested for consideration a method of determining 

 the variation of temperature during a sun-spot period. 

 This will, it is hoped, lead to an interesting dis- 

 cussion on the methods of investigation most suited 

 and appropriate for the determination of the relations 

 between solar and terrestrial phenomena. 



THE PROPOSED COLLEGE OF APPLIED 

 SCIENCE. 



'F'HE appearance of the preliminary report of the 

 ^ Departmental Committee on the Royal College 

 of Science and Royal School of Mines, which was pub- 

 lished in our issue of last week, brings us an important 

 step nearer the realisation of an object after which 

 men of science have long striven; the provision, that 

 is, of a great metropolitan college — liberally endowed, 

 handsomely housed, adequately equipped, and gener- 

 ously^ staffed — designed amply to supply that higher 

 technical instruction for which there has been little 

 provision hitherto, but upon which our well-being as a 

 commercial and manufacturing nation ultimately 

 depends. 



The report shows that the committee has been en- 

 gaged wisely in determining what precisely the exist- 

 ing facilities for instruction in applied science are, and 

 in gathering the information necessary to decide what 

 the new college should supply in addition to these, 

 so as to place London, as the centre of the Empire, 

 in a condition to compare educationally with Berlin, 

 for example, or with many great .American cities. It 

 is unnecessary here to recapitulate the recommenda- 

 tions of the committee, but the special wisdom of 



