Volume 26 (1873) (431 pages)

March 1, 1873.] MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS. 137 = =— a The Probable Periodicity of Roeinfall. At the last meeting of the Californie Academy of Sciences, the President, Professor George i . . ) . . : Mh i I i i Hdl ey n4 f a . SS ——————— —E — ae 1 re . ae 5 a . : i . . t N Ha eh . ‘ ul fi . il FIG. 2-MONTHLY RAINFALL AT SAN FRANCISCO FROM 1849 TO 1872. illustrating tke average of rainfall in Califoruia for 23 years, and which. as itis a snhject of great interest, ws, publish with ths cuts. Pro-. fessor Davidson said: Many attempts have been . fall commensnrate with the elsven year period of the solar spots. In limited cases the law has appeared to prevail, but in cases as apparently reliable the results have been adverse. In an extended series of ohservatious of the raiufall in Eagland, stretching through 150 years (British Association Report for 1866) no such maxima and minima could he deduced; and in a series of observations, over various parts of the BU, gathered by G. J. Symons, in number 165 of Nature, the sams want of law is manifest; pected, we find miuima, and vice versa. These tahles are, however, too limitod to deduce a general law therefrom. Ths materials are at hand fora much more comprehensive treatment of the problem. But if there is a law in such cases isochronous with the exhibition of the sun spots, it must be qualified hy other variabte functious than rainfall; suchas the temperature and pres23.06 sure of the atmosphere, the amount of aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, the direction and force of the winds, and the climatology, not only of the adjacent ocean, but of the sonrces of the great currents that eross the ocean, For example: if the raiufall of the Western Coast of Europe is assumed dependent npon the same canses which oecasion the solsr spots, the epochs of the maxima and minima rainfall would not coincide with those of the solar spets, because the precipitation of rain and the temperature of the seaboards of Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Iceland, Spitzenbergen, etc., depend ing those shores; and the waters of the Guif of Mexico heated to a maximum ata given epoch would not reach the coast of Norway for possibly a year. The same istrue of this Coast; the heated waters of the great)Japan stream, at their point of departure at the Island of Formosa do not reach this Coast for more than a year. Thus whilst these superheated waters are delayed one year in reaching their destinations, the climatic conditions of the Coasts of Norway and of California, supposed to be governed by a regular law, have been changed and the problem is complicated and masked by these changes in the nearer effects of the climate of the adjacent continents; andio the Hnropean case, of the Polar Bssin. If there is a law of the rainfall, there will naturally be a similar law for the temperature and pressure of the air and for the winds; but it must he complicated and masked by the influence of great ocean currents, so that the problem instead of heing simple, as it first appears, is in reality very intricate. An attempt has been made to give an eleven year period to the cyclones in connection with the rainfall, but evidently upon insufficient data, for Mr. Meldrum only claims that a supposed periodicity has been made out. Lockyer (Nature, No. 163) in discussing Mr. Meldrnm's records and others at Madras and the Cape of Good Hope, sees in them indications of a periodicity, but his disenssion is merely tentative from insufficient materials and is not satisfactory. The same eleven-year period has been assigned to the seasone of great] freshets in California; bnt we need, what we cannot obDavidson, of ths U. 8. Coast Survey, read a ; tain, psper on ‘The Probable Periodicity of Rain-. arsas, and not mere reports to aid iu its estabfall," which was accompanied with diagrams) lishment. in faet, where maxima of rainfall shonld be ex. npon the temperature of the Gulf stream bath-. absolnts observations over extended The statement was common in the west that the greatest freshsts occur on the great rivers of the Western States about eset teu years. I have had pluced in graphical Sher the recently made to establish a periodicity of rain{rainfall at Ssn Francisco for 23 years, from Mr. Thomas Tennent’s observations and exhibit it to show that we cannot, from it alone, predicate any periodicity. Even the well marked short period of comparatively little rainfall and of clear weather during eaoh of our wet seasons is masked in the sverages of monthly rainfall in thsse ysars by its not oceuring at any well defined epoch. But its existence is well marked and sstoblished in the illustration of the monthly rainfall from 1849 . to the present. In the graphical illustration of the rainfall at Son Francisco, the vertical black lines shown in Fig. lindicate the inches of rainfall each year, Theaverage annual volume of rainfall throughout twenty-three years for each month from Juns to Joly is shown in Fig. 2. The short dry period of each wet season is there shown to be marked. In Fig. 3 the average monthly and annual volume of rainfall for every month to the present year is exhibited. 19.72 24.13 TE 5U.00 4850 185) 1853 1853 1854 1855 i856 1057 1858 7859 1960 1861 1862 1869 186% 1865 {86b 1867 1869 1069 1078 1971 1072 FIG. 1-YEARLY RAINFALL AT SAN FRANOISCO FOR 23 YEARS. This i onascale of inches one-half that of Fig. 2. In this the break in the wet season of most of the years is plainly marked, but it does not occur with any regularity as to time. To arrive ata law of periodicity in atmospherics] phenomena will demand a comprehensive schome of observations over a large extent of the earth and ocean; this scheme to involve all the conditions of atmospherical variations and the local relations of each stution to the whole, and be represented in graphical rather than in numerical order. I helieve in the law of periodicity of these phenoniena, bnt it will be found an intricate 3-6 TERAGE MONTHLY RAINL FOR YEARS. problem and is doubtless involved with such conditions as the lunar cycle of 19 years, etc. As stated in my paper Inst year npon ‘‘the Cosmical Origin of Physical Phenomena on the Surface of the Earth,” we must expect ahnormal exhibitions of these phenomena from the irregnlar exhibition of the materials burning npon the surface of the sun; hutin a prolonged series of spectroscopic observations of solar phenomena and observations of physical phenomena on the earth, we will eventoally arrive at the law of their recurrence. FIG. Senate Cosmmrrrer on Parents.—Tho Senate Committee on Patents have reported adversely on extending Goodyear’s patent ou hard rubher. The principal application of this is to plates for artificial teeth, and the extension was opposed by most of the dentists throughout the country. The bill to extend Jenkin’s patent for combining wrought and cast iron in ornamental railing, eornices, ete., wis reported favorably. The committee has declined to — ‘Patents & § NVENTIONS. Telegraphic List of U. S. Patents Issued to Pacific Coast Inventors. {Beroutep Orricuuttr ror Tar MINING AND SCIEN. TorIO Presse, DEWEY & OO.,, PUBLISHERS AND U. 8. asp Fonztan Parent AGENTS.) By Special wis Dated Washin; n D. C., Feb. 26th, 1873. a For WEEE eo Fesnvary 11th, 1873." Ratzoan Track.—Alexander D. Rook, Hamilton, Nev, Straw Fernino ATTACHMENT Foa FURNACES.— David Morey, Watsonville, Cal. Trane Mang. MenrcinaL Comrounp.—Ewil Frese, 8. F., Cal. -————*Ths patents sre not ready for delivery by ths peteou Office until soms 14 days after tha date of issne. oTe.—Copiles of U. 8. and Foreign Patents furnished we Dey & Co., in ths shortest time poseihle (hy telsgraph or otherwise) at tha lowest rates. All patent husiness for Pacific coast Inventors transacted with greater sscurity and in much lesstims than by any other agency. Cenraay Pactric Rartroap Co.—The aunual report of the Central Pacifle Railroad Company for 1872 shows that the receipts for transportation of passengers, freights, mails ete., exceeded the receipts of 1871 by $2,836,538. The cspital stock of the road is $100,000,000 of which the amount actually psid in is $54,283,190, Tho total amount expended for the purohase of lands is $906,100; for the construction of the road $131,609,304; for buildings $1,126,857; for engines $2,106,164; for cars $3,516,208. The amonnt received for transportation of passengers, mails eto., was $4,563,551 in U.S. curreney and $7,400,089 in gold coin. Freight transported 948,114 tons. The current rnnning expen-~ ses of the road for the year were $9,271,721. The number of engine houses and shops and of engines and cars, is as follows, to wit: 11 engine honses, 11 repair shops, 184 locomotive engines, 223 psssenger cars, 25 baggage cars, 15 mail and express cars, 3,194 freight cars, 110 dump cars, 222 hand cars, 179 section cars, 51 iron cars, 7 snow plows, 2 wrecking cars. Lectures FoR Worxmo Men.—The Wednesday evening lectures of Dr. E. 8. Carr in the Chemical Lecture room of the State University, Oakland, are highly appreciated by full and attentive audiences. We have never before noted so valnable a course of free lectures delivered by one lecturer, His practical and interesting lessons will prove of much benefit, and he long remembered by his intelligence-seeking anditors, Nargow Gauce.—In the Nevada Legislature, Senator McCoy, of Lauder Co. has introduced a hill providing for the eonstruction of a narrow gauge railroad from Palisades, near the line of the Central Pacific to Eureka, Lander Co., a distance of abont ninety miles. It anthorizes Lander County to issue bonds to the amonnt of $300,000 to aid the construction of the road. A Suauy Rartroan,—At the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, a small miniature locomotive engine is nsed to draw trucks carrying altogether about 20 tons of metal. The track has a gauge of only 18 inches. The railroad is intended to snpersede as far as possible the transit of heavy loads by contract horses and is of great convenience abont the works. A prosect is being disenssed of running a tunnel in Lsssen connty from Willow Creek valley to tap the waters of Eagle Lake, a disance of one mile, which operation will not only supply water for large agricultnral operations, hnt make available, valnable mineral lands now worthless. Tur guxrstion of a narrow gauge railroad from Santa Barbara to Soledsd Pass is being agitated by the Santa Barbara Press. The distance is only 70 miles, and the Press says one man, Colonel W. W. Hollister, for instsnce, conld build and own the road, withont seeking aid from ontside parties. Mexico's First RaruRoap was put in operatian on the 1st of January, 1873; it runs from the city of Mexico to Vera Crnz. On some portions of tho road the grades are very steep, but the peculiarly constructed engines and brakes allow the trains to make the ascents and descents without difficulty. France sent last year 52,000 tons of rails tu consider any further applications concerning , other countries notwithstanding the natural depatents at this session. } preesion of indnetry after the late war.

March 1, 1873.] MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS. 137 = =— a The Probable Periodicity of Roeinfall. At the last meeting of the Californie Academy of Sciences, the President, Professor George i . . ) . . : Mh i I i i Hdl ey n4 f a . SS ——————— —E — ae 1 re . ae 5 a . : i . . t N Ha eh . ‘ ul fi . il FIG. 2-MONTHLY RAINFALL AT SAN FRANCISCO FROM 1849 TO 1872. illustrating tke average of rainfall in Califoruia for 23 years, and which. as itis a snhject of great interest, ws, publish with ths cuts. Pro-. fessor Davidson said: Many attempts have been . fall commensnrate with the elsven year period of the solar spots. In limited cases the law has appeared to prevail, but in cases as apparently reliable the results have been adverse. In an extended series of ohservatious of the raiufall in Eagland, stretching through 150 years (British Association Report for 1866) no such maxima and minima could he deduced; and in a series of observations, over various parts of the BU, gathered by G. J. Symons, in number 165 of Nature, the sams want of law is manifest; pected, we find miuima, and vice versa. These tahles are, however, too limitod to deduce a general law therefrom. Ths materials are at hand fora much more comprehensive treatment of the problem. But if there is a law in such cases isochronous with the exhibition of the sun spots, it must be qualified hy other variabte functious than rainfall; suchas the temperature and pres23.06 sure of the atmosphere, the amount of aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, the direction and force of the winds, and the climatology, not only of the adjacent ocean, but of the sonrces of the great currents that eross the ocean, For example: if the raiufall of the Western Coast of Europe is assumed dependent npon the same canses which oecasion the solsr spots, the epochs of the maxima and minima rainfall would not coincide with those of the solar spets, because the precipitation of rain and the temperature of the seaboards of Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Iceland, Spitzenbergen, etc., depend ing those shores; and the waters of the Guif of Mexico heated to a maximum ata given epoch would not reach the coast of Norway for possibly a year. The same istrue of this Coast; the heated waters of the great)Japan stream, at their point of departure at the Island of Formosa do not reach this Coast for more than a year. Thus whilst these superheated waters are delayed one year in reaching their destinations, the climatic conditions of the Coasts of Norway and of California, supposed to be governed by a regular law, have been changed and the problem is complicated and masked by these changes in the nearer effects of the climate of the adjacent continents; andio the Hnropean case, of the Polar Bssin. If there is a law of the rainfall, there will naturally be a similar law for the temperature and pressure of the air and for the winds; but it must he complicated and masked by the influence of great ocean currents, so that the problem instead of heing simple, as it first appears, is in reality very intricate. An attempt has been made to give an eleven year period to the cyclones in connection with the rainfall, but evidently upon insufficient data, for Mr. Meldrum only claims that a supposed periodicity has been made out. Lockyer (Nature, No. 163) in discussing Mr. Meldrnm's records and others at Madras and the Cape of Good Hope, sees in them indications of a periodicity, but his disenssion is merely tentative from insufficient materials and is not satisfactory. The same eleven-year period has been assigned to the seasone of great] freshets in California; bnt we need, what we cannot obDavidson, of ths U. 8. Coast Survey, read a ; tain, psper on ‘The Probable Periodicity of Rain-. arsas, and not mere reports to aid iu its estabfall," which was accompanied with diagrams) lishment. in faet, where maxima of rainfall shonld be ex. npon the temperature of the Gulf stream bath-. absolnts observations over extended The statement was common in the west that the greatest freshsts occur on the great rivers of the Western States about eset teu years. I have had pluced in graphical Sher the recently made to establish a periodicity of rain{rainfall at Ssn Francisco for 23 years, from Mr. Thomas Tennent’s observations and exhibit it to show that we cannot, from it alone, predicate any periodicity. Even the well marked short period of comparatively little rainfall and of clear weather during eaoh of our wet seasons is masked in the sverages of monthly rainfall in thsse ysars by its not oceuring at any well defined epoch. But its existence is well marked and sstoblished in the illustration of the monthly rainfall from 1849 . to the present. In the graphical illustration of the rainfall at Son Francisco, the vertical black lines shown in Fig. lindicate the inches of rainfall each year, Theaverage annual volume of rainfall throughout twenty-three years for each month

from Juns to Joly is shown in Fig. 2. The short dry period of each wet season is there shown to be marked. In Fig. 3 the average monthly and annual volume of rainfall for every month to the present year is exhibited. 19.72 24.13 TE 5U.00 4850 185) 1853 1853 1854 1855 i856 1057 1858 7859 1960 1861 1862 1869 186% 1865 {86b 1867 1869 1069 1078 1971 1072 FIG. 1-YEARLY RAINFALL AT SAN FRANOISCO FOR 23 YEARS. This i onascale of inches one-half that of Fig. 2. In this the break in the wet season of most of the years is plainly marked, but it does not occur with any regularity as to time. To arrive ata law of periodicity in atmospherics] phenomena will demand a comprehensive schome of observations over a large extent of the earth and ocean; this scheme to involve all the conditions of atmospherical variations and the local relations of each stution to the whole, and be represented in graphical rather than in numerical order. I helieve in the law of periodicity of these phenoniena, bnt it will be found an intricate 3-6 TERAGE MONTHLY RAINL FOR YEARS. problem and is doubtless involved with such conditions as the lunar cycle of 19 years, etc. As stated in my paper Inst year npon ‘‘the Cosmical Origin of Physical Phenomena on the Surface of the Earth,” we must expect ahnormal exhibitions of these phenomena from the irregnlar exhibition of the materials burning npon the surface of the sun; hutin a prolonged series of spectroscopic observations of solar phenomena and observations of physical phenomena on the earth, we will eventoally arrive at the law of their recurrence. FIG. Senate Cosmmrrrer on Parents.—Tho Senate Committee on Patents have reported adversely on extending Goodyear’s patent ou hard rubher. The principal application of this is to plates for artificial teeth, and the extension was opposed by most of the dentists throughout the country. The bill to extend Jenkin’s patent for combining wrought and cast iron in ornamental railing, eornices, ete., wis reported favorably. The committee has declined to — ‘Patents & § NVENTIONS. Telegraphic List of U. S. Patents Issued to Pacific Coast Inventors. {Beroutep Orricuuttr ror Tar MINING AND SCIEN. TorIO Presse, DEWEY & OO.,, PUBLISHERS AND U. 8. asp Fonztan Parent AGENTS.) By Special wis Dated Washin; n D. C., Feb. 26th, 1873. a For WEEE eo Fesnvary 11th, 1873." Ratzoan Track.—Alexander D. Rook, Hamilton, Nev, Straw Fernino ATTACHMENT Foa FURNACES.— David Morey, Watsonville, Cal. Trane Mang. MenrcinaL Comrounp.—Ewil Frese, 8. F., Cal. -————*Ths patents sre not ready for delivery by ths peteou Office until soms 14 days after tha date of issne. oTe.—Copiles of U. 8. and Foreign Patents furnished we Dey & Co., in ths shortest time poseihle (hy telsgraph or otherwise) at tha lowest rates. All patent husiness for Pacific coast Inventors transacted with greater sscurity and in much lesstims than by any other agency. Cenraay Pactric Rartroap Co.—The aunual report of the Central Pacifle Railroad Company for 1872 shows that the receipts for transportation of passengers, freights, mails ete., exceeded the receipts of 1871 by $2,836,538. The cspital stock of the road is $100,000,000 of which the amount actually psid in is $54,283,190, Tho total amount expended for the purohase of lands is $906,100; for the construction of the road $131,609,304; for buildings $1,126,857; for engines $2,106,164; for cars $3,516,208. The amonnt received for transportation of passengers, mails eto., was $4,563,551 in U.S. curreney and $7,400,089 in gold coin. Freight transported 948,114 tons. The current rnnning expen-~ ses of the road for the year were $9,271,721. The number of engine houses and shops and of engines and cars, is as follows, to wit: 11 engine honses, 11 repair shops, 184 locomotive engines, 223 psssenger cars, 25 baggage cars, 15 mail and express cars, 3,194 freight cars, 110 dump cars, 222 hand cars, 179 section cars, 51 iron cars, 7 snow plows, 2 wrecking cars. Lectures FoR Worxmo Men.—The Wednesday evening lectures of Dr. E. 8. Carr in the Chemical Lecture room of the State University, Oakland, are highly appreciated by full and attentive audiences. We have never before noted so valnable a course of free lectures delivered by one lecturer, His practical and interesting lessons will prove of much benefit, and he long remembered by his intelligence-seeking anditors, Nargow Gauce.—In the Nevada Legislature, Senator McCoy, of Lauder Co. has introduced a hill providing for the eonstruction of a narrow gauge railroad from Palisades, near the line of the Central Pacific to Eureka, Lander Co., a distance of abont ninety miles. It anthorizes Lander County to issue bonds to the amonnt of $300,000 to aid the construction of the road. A Suauy Rartroan,—At the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, a small miniature locomotive engine is nsed to draw trucks carrying altogether about 20 tons of metal. The track has a gauge of only 18 inches. The railroad is intended to snpersede as far as possible the transit of heavy loads by contract horses and is of great convenience abont the works. A prosect is being disenssed of running a tunnel in Lsssen connty from Willow Creek valley to tap the waters of Eagle Lake, a disance of one mile, which operation will not only supply water for large agricultnral operations, hnt make available, valnable mineral lands now worthless. Tur guxrstion of a narrow gauge railroad from Santa Barbara to Soledsd Pass is being agitated by the Santa Barbara Press. The distance is only 70 miles, and the Press says one man, Colonel W. W. Hollister, for instsnce, conld build and own the road, withont seeking aid from ontside parties. Mexico's First RaruRoap was put in operatian on the 1st of January, 1873; it runs from the city of Mexico to Vera Crnz. On some portions of tho road the grades are very steep, but the peculiarly constructed engines and brakes allow the trains to make the ascents and descents without difficulty. France sent last year 52,000 tons of rails tu consider any further applications concerning , other countries notwithstanding the natural depatents at this session. } preesion of indnetry after the late war.