The Non-simultaneity and the generally Eastward Progression of Sudden Magnetic Storms

Abstract

UNDER the above heading, Dr. L. A. Bauer contributes to NATURE of March 2 a letter of five columns. Referring to his Table II., p. 10, he says:—“It will be noticed that Kew is not included, for the simple reason that although Dr. Chree scaled the required data some months ago, he has not yet published them nor forwarded them to me”; and later he adds:—“Dr. Chree could not have done better than immediately to have published his own data in the same open manner that Mr. Faris had done. Instead, he labours to discredit the Coast and Geodetic Survey observations, and withholds his own from public scrutiny. In half the interval of time between the first and second presentation of his paper, had Dr. Chree chosen, he could have had at his command data from Europe and Asia which, combined with his own, would have served admirably to have tested the main contentions”. The real facts are as follows. In July, 1910, I consulted the Kew curves for the dates of the fifteen disturbances treated by Mr. Faris and Dr. Bauer, and, as stated in the paper read before the Physical Society (Proc., vol. xxiii., part i.) on November 11, “I was able to identify ten of the fifteen disturbances with reasonable certainty”. The measurements I then took were confined to the times of commencement of these ten disturbances. Dr. Bauer's request for data, which reached me in January, included, not merely the times, but the amplitudes of all the movements. I supposed, mistakenly, as it proves, that before publishing anything Dr. Bauer would await the data from the more remote stations, which could not well reach him in less than two or three months. I thus gave precedence to official work of urgency. Also, to get the best results possible, I had an independent set of measurements made by my chief assistant, and took a fresh set myself, and considered carefully all cases in which the times obtained differed by more than one minute, the limit of accuracy I hoped to attain. In a good many cases I was doubtful which of several small movements was the one intended, so curves were drawn indicating the movements and times, and amplitudes were given for the various alternatives. The results of this very considerable labour were dispatched to Dr. Bauer on February 25, no hint having meantime been received from him that the data were urgently wanted.