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U. S. Will Set Up 2 Floating Weather Stations in Atlantic Cutters Set to Sail In Move for More Accurate Forecasts By HAROLD B. ROGERS. More accurate weather fore casts not only for benefit of trans Atlantic flyers but also for the en tire Eastern seaboard, including Washington, will be possible as a result of the establishment soon of two new floating Weather Bureau stations in the Atlantic Ocean, it was learned last night. This promising prospect grows out of a program authorized by Presi dent Roosevelt to supply weather in formation no longer available from ships at sea because of the European war. Plans have been completed, two Coast Guard cutters are ready, novel scientific equipment has been assem bled. and personnel of both the Coast Guard and Weather Bureau today made ready to put to sea. From New York City one of the cutters, the Duane, wTas to sail today for Norfolk. From there the Duane and another cutter, the Bibb, will leave to take up stations at two points, about one-third and two thirds of the distance between Ber muda and the Azores. Each of these vessels is a 2,000-ton craft, 327 feet long. Information to Be Relayed. From these spots In the ocean a mass of valuable information will be relayed to the Weather Bureau here and to ships at sea. to give a far more accurate factual picture of conditions over the Atlantic than are now available. Later additional reports will be available also from Coast Guard cutters on ice patrol in the North Atlantic. Without doubt the increased in formation will make possible more accurate forecasts, officials said, be cause little recently has been avail able from the ocean. As one official explained it, “weather does not stop at the shore” but is influenced heavily by what is happening over the ocean. The greater knowledge of temperatures, humidity, wind velocity and direc tion, together with the boundaries of “air masses.” will be of great value to the weather forecaster in pre dicting what will happen along the Eastern seaboard as well as at sea, officials emphasized. Regarding the forecasts here for January, a check of the predictions against the weather itself showed, officials said, that the forecasts, in cluding temperature, winds and all factors on which reports were made, reached an accuracy of between 85 and 88 per cent. This is said to be a fair average. Concerning the minimum tem perature forecasts, an analysis of the month of January showed the aver age forecast came within 3.5 degrees of the actual temperature. Miniature Broadcast Station. One of the most curious scientific Instruments on board the ships is a miniature broadcasting station, weighing less than 2 pounds, which each day at 3 a m. will be sent aloft by a free balloon to rise so high Into the stratosphere that the bal loon will burst and drop the instru ment into the sea. From this little broadcasting station will be sent out radio signals to the ship below giving automatic reports on temperature, air pressure and humidity at all heights reached. Among the things used in the construction of these little radio stations are bamboo, sulphuric acid and human hair. The instrument is known as a radiosonde. At Norfolk, the Duane will turn over to the Bibb her part of the scientific equipment, and the Duane then will set sail, probably tomorrow, for its post. The Bibb will follow later. Other Coast Guard cutters will assist in the ocean observation service later. They are the Hamil ton. Ingham, Spencer and Campbell. Each cutter will carry' its usual com plement of about 125 officers and men, plus three Weather Bureau experts. Each ship will be relieved by another cutter at the end of four weeks. Every’ six hours of the 24-hour day, beginning about 3:30 a.m„ the experts will radio information to the Coast Guard station at Fort Hunt, Va. From there it will come by teletype to the Weather Bureau of flee here. The information will be based on weather observations taken first from the radiosonde, from cer tain data taken every three hours on shipboard and also from readings made every hour by the Coast Guard cutters. Wind direction and velocity will be determined by free •‘pilot’’ balloons. Weather Informa tion also is to be collected from whatever ships at sea are willing to give it. At the Weather Bureau here the information from the two floating stations is expected to be of great value in making four daily weather "maps.” Since last fall, when the European war began and ships of nearly every European nation ceased sending weather information, the bureau has been seriously handi capped. Idea Is Not New. The idea of floating ocean weather stations is not new. Nearly two years ago the French established a ship, the Carimare, west of the Azores at approximately the point where one of the Coast Guard cut ters will be stationed. France with drew this vessel when war started. In starting the new service in mid Atlantic, the United States has ex perience developed out of the in ternational ice patrol off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Last year, two Coast Guard cutters on this patrol made dally radiosonde ob servations and reported them to the Weather Bureau. The radiosonde, a curious but strangely reliable broadcasting sta tion, has been tried out success fully on land for some time. It was formerly known as a radiometeoro graph. It can go higher than an airplane, 10 to 20 miles above the earth, which is well up into the stratosphere. It can take off in weather that grounds planes, thus supplying observations at critical times in weather history. It reports its findings automatically by radio. The signals, in code, are picked up by a receiver on board ship, where a pen poised over a constantly mov ing chart writes its own scientific record of weather conditions miles in the air. The pen writes two series of lines, from which observers ! ' readily calculate the temperature, pressure and humidity of the at mosphere. Made with a frame of bamboo, for light weight, the radiosonde in cludes among its weather-sensitive elements, several strands of human hair. These strands tighten or loosen as the air around them be comes drier or more moist. A small glass tube filled with sulphuric acid responds to changes in tempera ture. Instruments Returned. When sent up over land weather stations, the radiosonde instruments are marked officially with notices to return them to the Weather Bureau, which will pay a reward. About 9 out of 10 of the instruments sent into the air are returned to weather stations on land, 7 of which are suit able to be used again. The other 3 of the 10 usually are damaged so much by the fall that they are be yond repair. Each is equipped with a small silk parachute which brings it slowly down to earth after Its balloon bursts. The ships do not expect to recover radiosondes sent up at sea. The first Weather Bureau expert crews will be headed by two meteor ologists, C. J. MacGregor, from the Elmira (N. Y.) station, and Herbert W. Rahmlow, from the station at Sault. Ste. Marie, Mich. Mr. Mac Gregor is well known as head of a Weather expedition to Greenland in 1937-8. Mr. Rahmlow spent last year at Swan Island between Cuba and Yucatan, the birthplace of trop ical hurricanes, where he warned of approaching storms. Other weath ermen on the first trip will include Harlan Richards of Nashville, renn.; William B. Chappel of Miami, Fla.; Lewis B. Law of Elkins, West Va„ and Philip Reiter of La Guardia Field, N. Y. The cutter Duane is in charge of Comdr. John H. Cornell, with Lt. Comdr. O. E. Gulsness as executive officer. The Bibb is commanded by Comdr. Henry Coyle, with Lt. Comdr. C. W. Harwood as executive officer. Among the other Coast Guard ship captains who will take up posts in the Atlantic later on are Comdr. S. S. Yeandle, formerly well-known aide to the commandant of the Coast Guard here, who now is In charge of the cutter Hamilton. Rio Parley Scores Discrimination in . Paroling Interned Detaining Seamen While Officers Have Freedom Held Undemocratic hr the Associated Press. The Inter-American Neutrality Committee, meeting in Rio de Ja neiro, has condemned as undemo cratic the granting of paroles by neutral nations to interned officers of belligerent ships while withhold ing the privilege from ordinary sea men. The committee recalled the tra ditional practice of paroling the officers on their word of honor not to take part in hostilities and to remain within the country of their internment. Ordinary seamen, meanwhile, are placed in detention camps. “Such a principle, besides being opposed to the duties of military men toward their own countries, is repugnant for the discrimination it implies to the dignity and sense oi responsibility of ell men to the fundamental democratic principles of the American nations,” the com mittee •said. Text of the committee's reso lutions seeking uniform rules by all the neutral Western Hemisphere governments on the Internment of belligerent ships and sailors was dis closed yesterday for the first time. It was received from Dr. Afranio Mello Franco, Brazilian delegate and chairman of the Neutrality Committee, and distributed by the Pan-American Union Friday night to the diplomatic representatives In Washington of the 21 American nations. The committee proposed each neu tral government allow interned bel ligerents to earn their own living, "especially In public works and serv ices.” NEW FLOATING WEATHER STATION—Here is the United States Coast Guard cutter Duane, and (inset) officer in charge, Comdr. John H. Cornell, sailing today from New York. One of the strange instruments to be used, a miniature broadcasting station known as "radiosonde,” is shown being launched into its stratosphere flight by balloon, to send back automatic reports on weather conditions, until the balloon bursts. wTPTfTWflfTOTTfnyfm^l’PIM I No Money Down Termi mi Low as $1 WEEKLY liberal Allowance on your present waeher f Sacrificing Floor Models and Used ★ Westing* ★ General ★Apex ★Thor house Eleetrie ★ Easy ★ Othars ★ Maytag ★ Norge ★ ABC WASHINGTON'S LARGEST APPLIANCE HOUSE -JkTILJIB 921GS1.N.W. /— !■ IMMWi Phone Dbtrlot PH APPLIANCE CO. Open Eves. Until 9 F. M. r . I HERE'S WHY SO MANY THINK PONTIAC HIGHER PRICED THAN IT ACTUALLY P E 9 OUT or to H A recent national surrey shows 9 out of 10 people think a Pontiac costs an average of SI00 more than it actually does in relation to lower-priced cars. Don't let this mistaken idea keep you from investigating Pontiac. Don't kuy any low-priced ear until you compare Its price with a Pontiac. 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