The ancient pseudo-science of astrology, which attempts to predict the future by the motions of the planets, may have a bit of science in it, after all. This week Radio Corporation of America, no easy prey to superstition, announced in the RCA Review that it is successfully predicting radio reception by a study of planetary motions.
RCA got started on the project in an effort to anticipate "magnetic storms" that hamper short-wave radio reception from across the Atlantic. To keep the messages flowing during such a storm, the company has to call extra men to operate emergency equipment. So it wants to know well in advance when to expect trouble. Since magnetic storms are believed to have some connection with sunspots, RCA assigned Engineer J. H. Nelson, who is also an amateur astronomer, to dig into the research job, and built him a small observatory on a roof in downtown Manhattan.
Sunspots & Planets. For several years Nelson studied sunspots with his telescope, but failed to find any practical way of using them to forecast magnetic storms. About three years ago, inspired by suggestions of Yale's late Climatologist Ellsworth Huntington, he turned to the planets. His theory: the planets disturb the sun, and the sun disturbs electrical conditions in the earth's atmosphere.
Nelson studied the records of RCA's receiving station at Riverhead, N.Y., looking for some correlation between the magnetic storms and the positions of the planets. He found that most of the storms took place when two or more planets were in what he calls a "configuration": i.e., with angles of 0°, 90°, or 180° between the lines connecting them with the sun. The more planets involved in a configuration, the more serious the storm is likely to be. During the great magnetic storm of July 1946, for instance, three planets (the earth, Jupiter and Saturn) were in a configuration, and three others (Mercury, Venus and Mars) were also in a "critical relationship."
Mars & Mercury. Not all configurations coincide with storms. But the Riverhead records, begun in 1932, show that radio disturbances have occurred about ten times more frequently on the days of planetary configurations than on ordinary days. Nelson can also predict, in a general way, the periods that will probably be free from serious magnetic disturbances. They are most likely to occur when Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are spaced equally about the sun. In 1934, when the planets were spaced in that pattern, short-wave stations had less trouble than in any other year between 1930 and 1949. The next period of similar promising conditions: 1954.
Nelson does not know how the planets affect the sun; he merely invites astronomers to build a theory upon his observations. Meanwhile, RCA is using the Nelson prediction system with practical success. Last week Nelson noted that Mars and Mercury were approaching a configuration. Warned of the coming magnetic storm, the RCA relay station at Tangier mobilized extra operators. When the storm arrived as scheduled, the emergency equipment was manned and ready, and the messages went through on schedule.