wet periods); climatological table, giving pressure, temperature extremes, relative humidity, wind, cloudiness, and rainfall, for 46 to 50 (58 different) stations (the table includes 5 more stations from which reports are missing); aerological synopsis from 8 of the 10 stations; agro-meteorological synopsis by states and four crops; and a full-page hachured pluviometric map of Brazil for April, 1924. An "Atlas Pluviometrico do Nordeste do Brasil," by C. M. Delgado de Carvalho, has recently appeared (Ministerio do Viacao e Obras Publicas Inspectoria Federal de Obras Contra as Seccas, Publ. n. 53, Rio de Janeiro, 1923). This contains a discussion of previous rainfall maps for the region, and presents a new average rainfall map based on observations 1912-1920. Two other pairs of maps show types of wet and dry years and months of maximum and minimum rainfall. The maps, which are large, detailed, and beautifully colored, show, as never before, the intricacies of the rainfall of that interesting, droughty region.-C. F. B. NOTES A number of important changes in forecasters of the U. S. Weather Bureau took place in June. Starting with the retirement of Mr. John W. Smith from the Boston Office, after half a century in the weather service, Mr. G. A. Loveland of Lincoln, Nebraska, was assigned to the Boston Office. Mr. T. A. Blair, for several years at Honolulu, filled the vacancy left by Mr. Loveland. Mr. E. A. Beals, District Forecaster for the Pacific Coast, went to Honolulu to succeed Mr. Blair. Mr. E. H. Bowie, Supervising Forecaster, Washington, D. C., succeeded Mr. Beals at San Francisco; and lastly Mr. R. H. Weightman, formerly a fore caster, but for a few years Chief Clerk of the Weather Bureau, again was assigned to forecasting in Washington to alternate with Mr. C. L. Mitchell. "Cloud Forms According to the International System of Classification," is the title of a new quarto booklet just issued by the U. S. Weather Bureau. It contains a brief introduction about cloud names, the In ternational definitions of cloud forms, and a discussion of two full-page charts showing for summer and winter separately the frequency with which the different cloud forms were observed at various heights by H. H. Clayton, at Blue Hill, Mass. The remainder consists of 36 cloud photographs with descriptive legends, designed to illustrate cloud forms in accordance with the international definitions. These pictures are the same as those on the Weather Bureau's new cloud wall chart, first issued three years ago. The Weather Bureau Cloud Committee, B. C. Kadel, Chairman, is to be congratulated on bringing out such a useful and handsome publication. Copies may be had from the Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., at 25 cents each. A History of Science Society has been formed, and Prof. L. J. Henderson of Cambridge, Mass., elected President. The membership dues are $5 a year, including the journal Isis, edited by Dr. George Sarton. The Secretary is Professor David Eugene Smith, 525 West 120th Street, New York City. Professor Alexander McAdie has been elected a member of the International Cloud Committee. Prof. McAdie recently took part in a Harvard symposium on "The Nature and Uses of Water." The address is published in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, June 12, 1924. Dr. T. C. Mendenhall, famous physicist, who died recently at the age of 82, devised the scheme of protecting the Washington Monument from lightning. This was done after the monument had been seriously in jured by lightning, in 1885. The meteorological session of the Pan-Pacific Food Conservation Conference, at Honolulu, is scheduled for the morning of August 12. The WE agenda suggested by Mr. T. A. Blair were published in the April Bulletin, p. 60. A paper on "Rainfall Characteristics of North Carolina" was preIsented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Academy of Science, May 2, by T. Saville and J. H. Wulbern. At a conference of geography teachers held at Terre Haute, Ind., in April, Mr. O. E. Moery, Meteorologist, U. S. Weather Bureau, and Instructor in Climatology, Indiana State Normal School, at Terre Haute, gave a talk on Principles of Weather Forecasting. CO-OPERATIVE OBSERVERS' DEPARTMENT Rain Gauge Readers Wanted In connection with the Rain Insurance business, which has already reached large proportions, many trained and competent rain gauge readers are required. Wherever possible, the U. S. Weather Bureau co-operates in obtaining a measurement of rainfall during the limited period covered by the policy. However, as the rain gauges used at cooperative stations are not automatic or self-recording, the co-operative stations can not always be used, as the observer may be absent during the term of policy. Moreover, the co-operative stations may be far distant from the site of the event insured. When no Weather Bureau station is available, the rain insurance company loans a standard rain gauge to its agent, who, after consultation with the insured, selects a competent disinterested third person to guard and read the gauge. In order that trained and experienced observers may be found readily the Rain Insurance Association, an association of the thirty companies writing rain insurance, is at present attempting to secure the names and addresses of such persons in every city and town in the United States. Several names are desired from every city and town. If interested please send name, address and a brief description of your qualifications to Rain Insurance Association, 55 John Street, New York City. The duty of a rain gauge reader is simply that of making a correct and trustworthy reading of the rainfall for the period covered by a rain insurance policy. This involves a knowledge of rainfall measurement on the part of the observer. The insurance company's agent will loan a standard rain gauge for the purpose if the observer has no gauge of his own. A fee will be paid the observer for his services. It is extremely important that the rain gauge readers shall be competent and trustworthy and have a knowledge of rainfall measurement with the aid of a standard rain gauge. It is evident that much depends on the character of the rain gauge reader, as thousands of dollars are sometimes at stake on a single rain insurance policy.-Andrew H. Palmer, Automobile Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The Milwaukee Journal Company recently collected $8000 on a rain insurance policy insuring a special real estate edition of its Sunday paper. Mr. Lloyd D. Vaughn, R. F. D. No. 6, Tiffin, Ohio, who for many years has been interested in the relation between weather and crops, has devised a detailed form for recording weather and other conditions of importance in any study of weather and crop correlations. Any members of the Society who would be interested in making comparative 24 108 Bulletin Am. Met. Soc. Vol. 5. observations of weather and crop growth, or periods of development may find some correspondence with Mr. Vaughn interesting and sug gestive. The "Illinois Section News Letter-1924," the second annual issue, is an interesting aggregation of 34 notes of 2 to 15 lines each. Half the notes are especially for co-operative observers of the Weather Bureau in Illinois. RADIO Weather and Fading Radio Signals Under the above title the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society for April, 1924, quotes the Heaviside layer theory of radio transmission in connection with excellent but admittedly limited and incomplete studies conducted by the Bureau of Standards in co-operation with QST and ARRL amateurs. The more recent experiments on short wave transmission lead to an important modification, viz., that reflection and absorption of radio impulses varies with the wave length. Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor, physicist, U. S. N., says:1 "Perhaps the most outstanding thing about high-frequency or short wave work today is the amazing ranges obtained at frequencies in the neighborhood of 3,000 kilocycles (100 meters). The intensity of sig nals received on these high frequencies is so great that I am forced to conclude that these waves do not follow at all the ordinary laws of transmission."-J. R. W. An investigation of radio reception is being conducted at Binghamton, N. Y. Some of the questions for which answers are being sought are: Is the dominant factor governing radio reception the weather; is far distant reception and 300 mile reception best under different weather conditions for each? is there a directional effect which varies with weather conditions? can forecasts of radio reception be based on weather maps of the same and previous days and if so what degree of accuracy is to be expected? Forecasts of radio reception have been appearing on the forecast cards issued by Mr. John R. Weeks, of the U. S. Weather Bureau, Binghampton, N. Y. On June 30, 1924, he said: "Good to very good radio reception, with diminished static, is probable for several days. Some long distance reception is possible." An insurance policy for $50,000, protecting a Revue against static or possible SOS calls silencing its broadcast has been taken out by the producer in Newark, N. J. Radio and the Weather Somebody, with more or less authority to speak, suggests that the unusual weather of this spring and summer may be attributed to the effects of radio broadcasting. The idea furnishes text for much conversation and varies the stereotyped comment about the weather. The suggestion is pertinent, however. We have always had a notion that agitation of the air, especially the upper strata, would produce rain. Many experiments have been made along this line but without definite conclusions. Our scientific adventurer this time does not offer us reasons why broadcasting agitation of the air should produce rain rather than drought, winds rather than calm. He does not take into consideration the records of the weather bureau that we have had seasons as rainy and stormy as this. 1 The Navy's Work on Short Waves. QST, May, 1924, vol. 7, 10, 1924, page 9. And later on in the year, if we should be afflicted by protracted dryness, would we still be justified in clinging to the faith that the rain and storms of May and June were created by too much radio talk and windjamming?-Illinois State Journal, June 26, 1924. TREASURER'S QUARTERLY REPORT Secretary's and Treasurer's expenses BULLETIN-1923 index BULLETIN-Printing and mailing Jan., Feb. and March issues Printing Society's mailing list BULLETIN Covers and legends on binders Authors' share from copy for "Tycos" Bank charges, foreign draft Arrangements for Stanford June meeting Balance in bank, April 30, 1924, $944.26. HITTING THE BALL $234 00 62 30 32 12 75 00 11 40 1 50 70 00 50 00 2.00 16 50 $554 82 $126 09 36 75 293 29 2.95 2.00 60 35 00 1 35 16 50 $514 53 Baseball players in the Pacific Coast League, a league comprising a number of Pacific Coast teams, and the Salt Lake City team, have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to play a better game of ball in Salt Lake City than in any of the coast diamonds. This may have something to do with the other fact that the number of baseball fans in Salt Lake City bears a very close relation to the total population figures. During the baseball season, as the weekly series of games are played on one field after another, the players have persistently and repeatedly done better work in Salt Lake City, so the claim has been made by league officials, newspaper men, and other observers. The batting especially has been conspicuously better, the balls being driven a much greater distance, and at much greater speed time after time if not every time; and a much livelier game has thus resulted, other things being equal. To the meteorologist the explanation is not far to seek; the fact that the balls are knocked much farther in Salt Lake City may be due in a small part to the sense of exhilaration felt at this altitude, though it is due chiefly to the diminished atmospheric pressure. As the meteor flies unhampered through space, but is slowed down on striking the earth's atmosphere, so must the flying baseball go farther in the rarer atmosphere when impelled by the same impact from the bat. The ratio of this difference, stated in terms of average atmospheric pressure, for San Francisco and Salt Lake City for instance, is as 29.9 is to 25.6; or in other words, all other things being equal, the ball would go about 17 per cent farther in Salt Lake City. It may be added that the number of hot balls fumbled on the infield from the bat, and the number of flies especially that are knocked outside of the ball grounds and lost, are very much greater in Salt Lake City than at any other place on the circuit, though the grounds have been officially measured and found amply large, or larger than certain other fields on the circuit. A measure of the better playing in Salt Lake City has been attrib uted to the exhilaration felt at this altitude by any one residing at sea level and sojourning at an elevation. The Salt Lake team trains in California, and spends most of its playing season at coast elevations; and while the Salt Lake City elevation is only 4300 feet above the sea, it is sufficient to produce a noticeable effect. However, while this peppy feeling is manifested plainly in batting, base running, and fielding in spurts, according to those who have seen the men in all fields, there is an abrupt loss of efficiency in base running scrambles and other fast and prolonged plays, because the players lose their wind or become tired much quicker in Salt Lake City.-J. Cecil Alter, Salt Lake City, Utah. PHYSIOLOGICAL METEOROLOGY The Minimum Mortality in Europe "The year 1921 was peculiar from a meteorologic standpoint. There was an extremely mild winter, and a very warm spring with the highest May temperatures known. An unusually hot summer and mild autumn followed. Except for a short spell in December, mild temperature continued to the end of the year. It is not surprising, therefore, that the effect on mortality of the mild temperature should be noted in a large part of Europe. The statistics for twenty European countries show that in all, except France, the mortality in 1921 was the lowest ever recorded. The minimum ranges from 21.5 for Spain to 11.1 for the Netherlands and Denmark, per thousand population. The infant mortality, also, in most European countries, in spite of a hot summer, decreased. "Jour. Am. Med. Assn., Feb. 23, 1924, vol. 82, p. 647. NOTE It is common in the United States to ascribe the decrease in deathrate to health education and the like and not give adequate weight to weather conditions.-J. R. W. The mildness of late 1923 in eastern North America resulted in a low deathrate. Low Death Rates in Early Part of 1924 If health conditions during the first quarter of this year throughout the general population of the United States and Canada have been as favorable as have those of the industrial populations of American and Canadian cities, the general health of the two countries was better in 1924 than ever before at that time of the year. This is indicated by the experience of the fifteen million Metropolitan Industrial policyholders. For the first quarter of 1924, their deathrate was 9.8 per 1,000 lives. Eliminating the cases which were under one year of age, in order to make the experience comparable with previous |