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and their manufacture is restricted when a small demand is likely as a result of low temperatures. Dealers in vegetables and fruits are in a le position to order in supplies from farmers and truck growers in advance

of storms and freezes. Railroads and shippers determine whether to light, or to extinguish, heaters in carload shipments. Freight claim agents determine whether the shipper used the necessary precaution for the protection of his perishable goods.

Nearly every evening during the cold season the Weather Bureau office is called by the local tramway company and asked about the weather that may be expected during the night. If snow is indicated before morning, arrangements are made to have men and equipment in readiness to keep the tracks clear. The local office of the American Railway Express Company is greatly interested in winter forecasts of precipitation. If rain or snow is likely to be followed by much colder weather, arrangements are made to have sharp shod the great number of horses used in making city deliveries and collections.

One of the largest department stores in Denver has the weather forecast printed regularly at the top of its advertisements in the local papers, because of the advertising value of the predictions and also for the convenience of its suburban and country patrons who might expect to visit the city on the following day.-J. M. Sherier, Denver, Col.

The tents in which they live, summer and winter, are very well adapted both to their nomadic life and to the climatic conditions. Their most striking feature is that they are double, one being inside another. The outer tent is large and almost conical, with a cover of reindeer skin. But if such a tent in cold weather were to be heated to a comfortable temperature, it would require a great quantity of wood. The Chukchi spend, however, only three or four months of the cold season in the forests, where wood is abundant; the rest of the year they live on the barren tundra, where they find willows to furnish sufficient fuel for cooking, but not for heating. Inside the large tent, therefore, they place a smaller one, used for living and sleeping. This inner tent is made of heavy deerskin, and has the form of a square case hanging down to the ground. It is lighted and heated by a flat lamp of the Eskimo type, but most of the heat is produced by the many people who gather in the small space. The temperature may rise to 80° F., even on a day when a blizzard is raging and the temperature outdoors is -20° F., because the inner tent is protected from the wind by the outer one, and because the reindeer-skins of which it is made are highly insulating. But at night, when the natives are sleeping on the ground, covered with deerskins, the temperature is liable to fall. Accordingly, before going to sleep, the natives adjust all the sides of the inner tent so that no holes are left through which cold air might enter. The natural consequence is, that in the morning the air inside is frightful beyond description.

The Chukchi dress in deerskin only; they use one suit with the hairy side in and one with the hairy side out. The clothing of the men does not differ essentially from the clothing of the Eskimos, but the women's dress is entirely different. The Chukchi women wear high and very wide deerskin boots, and what may be called a union dress reaching to the knees. Ornaments on the dress are almost unknown; the only way in which the deer Chukchi try to give their dresses a more attractive ap* Excerpts from H. U. Sverdrup, Customs of the Chukchi Natives of Northeastern Siberia, Jour. Wash. Acad. Sciences, April 19, 1922, vol. 12, pp. 208-212.

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pearance is by using white-spotted deerskins and matching them so that the white spots appear symmetrical.

The reindeer supply practically all the natives' food. A few roots are dug up in the spring and eaten, and the boiled contents of the reindeer's paunch is regarded as delicious, but with these exceptions, the diet is a pure meat diet. The Chukchi obtain the necessary variety in their food by eating almost every part of deer, from the meat to the marrow.

FRANCE LEADS U. S. IN FORECASTING AT SEA

France is leading the United States and the world in weather forecasting on the sea. According to the annual report of the Chief of the U. S. Weather Bureau, French meteorologists and forecasters have been making regular trips across the Atlantic on their naval training vessel Jacques Cartier, have been collecting weather reports by radio from all parts of the North Atlantic and have been using them as the basis for forecasts sent out daily for the benefit of mariners.

But this vessel makes only about three voyages a year and so the U. S. Weather Bureau has prepared plans for a service similar but continuous which may be given from vessels operated by the U. S. Shipping Board. That organization has approved the plans and has offered cooperation in the way of providing facilities on Shipping Board vessels on the northern transatlantic routes. Three vessels would be needed for continuous service. The need for such a service was demonstrated last winter, the report states, since storms on the Atlantic were unusually frequent. Its value would be,

"to keep vessel masters informed at all times as to weather conditions which might cause danger or retard progress; enable them to avoid such storms as far as possible; to lay out ship work en voyage and take advantage of smooth seas and fair weather for outside work; and to give information as to weather conditions to be expected on their arrival in port. The bureau is alert to the inauguration of service of this character at the first opportune occasion."-Science Service.

CENTRAL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY AT TOKYO

BURNED

American friends of Japanese meteorologists will be interested in a recent letter from Dr. S. Fujiwhara, of the Central Meteorological Observatory at Tokyo. Dr. Fujiwhara reports that in the great fire which followed the recent severely destructive earthquake in Japan, the main building of the Central Observatory was destroyed. Many instruments and books were lost, and the official residences of the staff were burned. Fortunately, the Tokyo meteorological records covering a period of 40 years were saved.

Dr. Fujiwhara reports the interesting fact that hourly observations were continued throughout the fire, and that at midnight, when the main building was burned, the temperature in a shelter about 200 feet distant rose to 46.4° C. (115° F.) This effort to keep a continuous record in spite of the great difficulties under which the observers were working evidently is characteristic of the efforts that are being made to restore normal conditions as rapidly as possible-C. L. M.

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Some Recent Mexican Contributions to Meteorology

The publication, "Memorias y Revista de la Sociedad Cientifica 'Antonio Alzate'," which is published at Mexico City about 4 times a year, contains a number of meteorological articles:

Breves apuntes sobre la climatologia del Valle de Tulancingo, Estado de Hidalgo, by D. M. Uribe.. July-Sept., 1922, vol. 40, pp. 485-496, 5 tables.

The station is on the Mexican plateau not far north of Mexico City. It is at latitude 20° 5' N. and 3' E. of the Mexican prime meridian (about 99° W. long.). Its altitude is 2180 m. The author cites some notable rainfalls, snows, and frosts. The most intense rainfall mentioned was 20 mm. (about 0.8 in.) in 15 min. The heaviest snowfall was 2 inches Jan. 20, 1910, the earliest frost October 2, 1918, and the latest, May 28, 1913. The annual rainfall averages (9 yrs.) 537.2 mm. (about 21 in.). 1917 was the driest (327.6 mm.) and 1919 the wettest (749 in mm.). The highest temperature observed was 30.0° C. (86° F.) May 12, 1918, and the lowest, -8° C. (17.6° F.) Jan. 11, 1919. The greatest daily range was 25 degrees C. The average vapor pressure is 11.2 mm., wind direction NE., wind velocity 3.6_m./s. for the years 1919-1921.

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Estudio sobre "Nortes," by Prof. E. López. Nov.-Dec., 1922, vol. 41, pp. 91-108, 8 maps.

The maps show pressure distribution and temperature departures. The most severe Norther shown was that of Nov. 14, 1916, when the temperatures were more than 16° C. below normal in northeastern Mexico. The isobars show a Low over Yucatan (under 50.0 cm.) and a High (over 75.0 cm.) in Texas. The pressure corresponding to a barometer indication of 60 cm. is shown as normal. This pressure is the average at about 2130 m. altitude.

Determinacion de la constante psicrométrica en el Valle de México. By Prof. E. López, ibid., pp. 151-158.

Experimental determination of the psychrometric constant yields exactly the same result found by Ferrel, Marvin and Hazen, namely 0.00066. The use of the old Angot constant and Regnault's tables as is (?) the practice in the Mexican meteorological service, leads to errors in vapor pressure exceeding 1 mm. and occasionally gives negative values.

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GODDARD'S ROCKET FOR EXPLORING UPPER AIR

A rocket that will travel from the earth to the moon in less than eleven hours may soon be a reality. Only one more step and such a rocket will invade the abysses of space and will make possible invaluable scientific data from the almost unknown region of the upper atmosphere. Prof. R. H. Goddard of Clark University, who has been carrying on investigations aimed at this result for the past 14 years, announced to the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that he was now near his goal.

In his earlier experiments under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, Professor Goddard used smokeless powder as a propelling force, but he has recently solved the problem of utilizing liquid fuel, burning it continuously and gradually in pure oxygen without overheating the combustion chamber. By this means it is possible to give the rocket a speed of 6.6 miles a second. This is all that is necessary to carry it out of range of the force of the earth's gravitation, once free of which the rocket would proceed on indefinitely until it struck some heavenly body.

The average distance of the moon from the earth is close to 240,000 miles. A rocket traveling at a rate of six and six-tenths miles a second would traverse this distance in about ten hours and five minutes or about the time it takes mail planes to go from New York to Chicago.

A Roumanian professor, H. Oberth, in a paper published recently, suggests the possibility of some such over-night limited service to the

moon; but Professor Goddard has only in mind the more modest and practicable plan of obtaining records of the intensity of the sun's radiation, and of the composition, electrical conditions, and temperature of the atmosphere at heights hitherto entirely inaccessible to man.

Dr. W. J. Humphreys, professor of meteorological physics in the U. S. Weather Bureau, and an authority on the earth's atmosphere, said in commenting to Science Service on Professor Goddard's scheme:

"It would be a great advantage to the meteorologist to know the composition and temperature of the upper atmosphere at heights above those already explored by sounding balloons. On both these points observations and theories based upon meteors and auroras are in radical conflict with each other and both differ entirely from the hitherto recognized orthodox theories. The Goddard rocket gives promise of definitely settling the question of conditions at such high altitudes. It would be possible to construct apparatus that would bring down samples of the air at any desired height and at the same time register temperature and pressure without using the delicate and expensive recording instruments now employed."

Knowledge of the upper atmosphere has come mostly in recent years from the use of sounding balloons. These are about three feet in diameter and carry up a set of recording instruments which come down fastened to a parachute after the balloon bursts. None of these balloons has reached a height much greater than 20 miles, while the Goddard rocket can easily go three or four times as high or even be driven off into space. Its location at a given point in its flight can be made known by an explosion of flashlight powder.

There is great diversity of scientific opinion as to conditions existing in the upper atmosphere. Some think it contains frozen crystals of nitrogen floating in a temperature of 513 below zero Fahrenheit or lower, while others believe that the temperature is not lower than about 60 below zero.

The velocity of the Goddard rocket, which is propelled on the same principle as the familiar Fourth-of-July firework, depends on the velocity of the gases expelled, and on its altitude. It starts slowly and increases in speed as long as the fuel lasts for several reasons. It encounters less resistence in the thin upper atmosphere or the near vacuum of interstellar space, it carries less weight as its fuel is used, and it becomes less and less affected by the force of the earth's attraction which decreases in proportion to the square of the distance from its center of gravity.Science Service, Dec. 31, 1923.

A mossy fire alarm

The heavy gray moss which grows on trees in the Douglas fir regions of the Northwest is being used by U. S. Forest Service experts to indicate the danger of an outbreak of forest fires. The amount of moisture in this moss promptly changes with the slightest change in the amount of moisture in the air. By placing a quantity of the moss on a balance with a pen arm attached, changes in relative humidity are recorded satisfactorily. By close observations in this way, the approach of such exceptional dryness and possible fire losses can be detected.

Rev. Paul D. Twinem, much loved, former U. S. Signal Corps Meteorologist, of the College Station, Texas, school, died, after an operation for peritonitis, September, 1923, at Nanking, China, where he was teaching the Bible, and Astronomy in the University of Nanking. He had been married but little more than a year.