■Mat 6, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



443 



late in the afternoon of October 23, 1920. 

 The balloons which departed from Birming- 

 ham within half an hour landed at various 

 points along a general line from Mason City, 

 111., to ISTorth Hero Island, in Lake Cham- 

 plain. Why did the Belgian DeMuyter land 

 his " glorious Belgica " (as he proudly and 

 affectionately calls it)i in Lake Champlain, 

 while the American, French and Italian en- 

 tries were struggling with adverse weather far 

 to the west? It was because DeMuyter found 

 the level where the " winds blew fresh." 



Mr. Ealph Upson, the pilot who brought 

 the cup from Europe to America in 1913, has 

 this to say relative to the role of meteorology 

 in balloon-racing^: 



The history of baJloon racing up to the present 

 time shows conclusively that it is taking on more 

 and more of a meteorological character. In the 

 past, races have been occasionially won by mere 

 practical skill in opera/tion of the balloon, but the 

 time when this is possdble is rapidly passing, if 

 indeed it has not already passed. In the future, 

 meteorological knowledge instead of being a sec- 

 ondary factor in the assets of a team, will be abso- 

 lutely the controlling factor. 



But the success of DeMuyter did not lie 

 alone in the fact that he is a meteorologist, 

 and that, as he says, he made a careful and 

 critical study of the prevailing types of 

 weather in the United States during the 

 months of October and November: it was 

 also, and largely, because he was able to take 

 advantage of the splendid analyses of the 

 conditions in the upper-air that were made by 

 the United States Weather Bureau observer, 

 Mr. C. G. Andrus, who was detailed to Bir- 

 mingham to make upper-air soundings for the 

 race. Mr. Andrus has written an article in 

 the Monthly Weather Beview for January, 

 1921,^ in which he discusses the nature of the 



1 DeMuyter, E., ' ' Comment j 'ai gagne la coupe 

 Gordon-Bennett," L'Aerophile, December 1-15, 

 1920, pp. 366-367. 



2 Upson, Ealph H., ' ' Balloon Racing — a Game 

 of Practical Meteorology," Monthly Weather Be- 

 view, January, 1921, pp. 6-7. 



3 ' ' Meteorological Aspects of the International 

 Balloon Race of 1920," pp. 8-10. 



service rendered to the aeronauts and the 

 weather conditions occurring before and at 

 the time of the race. One of the most strik- 

 ing points in Mr. Andrus' discussion is the 

 agreement between the predicted path of the 

 balloons and the actual paths they followed. 

 A figure is given showing the landing points 

 of the balloons with respect to the predicted 

 path, and it appears that a smooth curve 

 drawn through these points would agree 

 almost exactly with the predicted course. 

 This is remarkable when it is considered that 

 to forecast the probable route of the balloon, 

 it was not only necessary to forecast about 

 two days in advance, but also to take into 

 consideration the probable behavior of the 

 upper winds at all levels during that time. 

 Concerning the flights in general, Mr. Andrus 

 says: 



The balloonists took off from Birmingham just 

 before sunset of the 23d, and floated north-north- 

 westward the fiiist night at elevations averaging 1 

 kilometer. During the following day they made 

 only moderate speed, mostly toward the north, at 

 various elevations. The following night was the 

 crux; at that time those baUoonists who had made 

 the least distance westward had entered the fresh- 

 ening winds of the southeast quadrant of a low- 

 pressure area and rapidly spread away from those 

 pOoits who had not gained this advantage. The 

 flying during the last 20 hours was for the most 

 part made in clouds and occasionally in rain, these 

 conditions finally requiring the baUoonists to de- 

 scend. 



Upon what data were the conclusions of Mr. 

 Andrus based ? In part upon the observations 

 of the Weather Bureau stations, both aero- 

 logical and surface, these data being tele- 

 graphed to Birmingham. He was equipped 

 with apparatus for making pilot balloon ob- 

 servations, also. But what is quite as inter- 

 esting is that he interpreted these observa- 

 tions in the light of the studies of the Nor- 

 wegian meteorologist, Bjerknes. The charm 

 of the Bjerknesian interpretation is that it 

 enables one to get a more satisfactory three- 

 dimensional picture of the processes taking 

 place in highs and lows than has been usual. 



