MR CLEMENT WRAGGE'S . FORECASTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 23

MR CLEMENT WRAGGE'S . FORECASTS.

MR CLEMENT WKAGGE EXPLAINS. DISQUIETING PROPHECIES. (Fjtoat Ottr Own Cojibestondent.) AUCKLAND, January 5. One of, the pas&snegra on, board the Aparima from Calcutta was Mr Clement Wragge, the eminent meteorologist. Interviewed this morning with regard to the i caus-3 of the terrible earthquake at Mes- , sina, Mr Wragge said: — "We have j come through the most remarkable period !of solar activity on record. The sun, as I have stated many times previously in my lectures, has maximum and minimum moods, and during the former the great cyclones which form the sun spots are more pronounced than at any other times. On thiu occasion the maximum period has unduly prolonged, and ought to have come to an end, according to all former observations, in the early part of 1907. As a matter of fact, ever since then the storms have been getting somewhat less, j although there have been abnormal solar i cyclones noticeable on several occasions. [ Everything in the universe, from the ; mighty sun down to theV.insignifi- ; can mosquito, .exists in an > ocean of ether. - Ether i» an. ocean- of electrons or corpuscules, or, to be more ex-,, piicit still, » great ocean of electricity, in which everythiHg is- plunged. When, in .any way this «fcher is- disturbed you set in motion vibrations in jast the same "way as Marconi messages are transmitted from one continent to another to .and from instruments in harmony one with another. But the vibrations in this case are only tapped when ane instrument responds, and is able to grasp them. Tlu's can only be received by an instrument in harmony with that from which the vibrations were set up, or, in the alternative, an instrument in such a condition as will respond. Now, this earth of ours and all the planets are in harmony with the sun, because they once formed part and parcel of the sun. When you come to think of this ifc is not in the least surprising. Just as children should be in harmony with their parents, so should the planets of the solar system ba the same towards the sun, from which they came. To explain the position, any abnormal disturbance in the sun sets up an acceleration of electrons. Whenever an electron is accelerated with positive forces on the one side and negative forces on the other (and positive and negative rule the universe), a like disturbance is set up in the ether, which, as I have said, links together everything, and therefore the sun with the earth. But with the huge rate of 186,060 miles per second, at which electricity travels through ether (analogous to the speed of light), the distance of 93,000,000 miles from the sun to the earth is as nothing, and eight minutes suffice for this disturbance oa* vibration of ether to be transmitted from the sun to this planet. Marconi's instrument is the merest toy compared with this colossal apparatus — flames forked like a tree rising like antennae to a- height of 300,000 miles from the sun. The sun's condition' thus acts as a controlling force, and there is as intimate a connection between the inherent forces of the sun and the inherent forces of the earth as there is on the telegraph between Auckland and Wellington. Although the minimum mood of the sun is gradually coming, yet this abnormal maximum p&ri:)d is very stubborn, and is, as it were, trying ito hold its own. As evidence there is this rising solar outburst, and under its influence these vibrations have been flung off by two big storms now showing on the face of the sun, and which I am able to show you by means of the solar telescope, and the portions where the surface of the earth is weak, or such as are particularly responsible, at once respond. Thus wo have these feex ful outbursts whdch have recently occurred in South Italy, where the crust of the earth has responded only too readily to the vibrations set up by the two sun storms." Mr Wragge then brought out his solar telescope, and by pointing it ab the sun a circle of light was reflected on a sheet of paper placed at the eye-piece. On this were seen with startling distinctness two prominent spots, with a third and smaller one at the side. "Those two," said Mr Wragge, "were without doubt the cyclones that caused the big earthquake. 1 first noticed them appear on the edge of the .sun about six or seven days ago — just about the time of Che quake." Speaking of the Whakatane earthquakes, Mr Wragge pointed out that, with the conditions of the Northern Hemisphere under any one given mood of the sun, there were the very opposite prevailing in the Southern Hemisphere. " When I you have big earthquakes in the north," he said, * : you will have comparatively few here, and the same is the case with the weather. Earthquakes in the Southern Hemisphere generally happen during the sun's minimum mood, and in the Northern Hemisphere during the maximum. The minimum mooid is jurradually coming on, and the signs of this you may see in the earthquakes at Whakatane and in the South Island. The last quake jn Italy is, I am sure, the last effort of the maximum mood to make itself felt there. The time is coming when for some years earthquake action will in the main be transferred from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere. lam not saying this to frighten the people of New Zealand, but they must draw theix own conclusions. I think we may reasonably expect to hear of earthquakes in the Southern Hemisphere during the next few years. The time is also coming when we will b.e able to forecast the' earthquakes as well as the probable weather for two | or three years ahead."