HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



EARLY SUN-GLOWS. 



THE remarkable sun-glows of last and the 

 present year having attracted a considerable 

 amount of attention among scientists, and being 

 believed by many to be wholly unprecedented in the 

 history of the earth, it may be of interest and value to 

 give an account of the occasions on which similar 

 phenomena have been observed in North Europe, 

 according to the most reliable Scandinavian his- 

 torians. 



Such purple glows as we have recently admired 

 have been observed in the earliest times, when 

 people believed that they were warnings from heaven 

 of great coming disasters, as, for instance, war, 

 plague, or famine. There appears, however, to be 

 no reliable record of such a phenomenon until the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. Thus, in the 

 summer of 1553, such a glow, or, as it was then 

 called, fire-sign, was observed all over Denmark, 

 Norway, and Sweden, and, strangely enough, a 

 terrible plague visited these countries in the same 

 year. In Copenhagen its ravages were so great that 

 the academical lectures at the University had to be 

 adjourned for several months, and the students left 

 the capital. 



The next glow was seen in the year 1636, when 

 sailors, returning to Copenhagen from voyages in the 

 Baltic and the North Sea, reported that for weeks the 

 sky seemed on fire after sunset, and also in that year 

 a plague visited the shores of Sweden and Denmark. 

 By these coincidences popular superstition was fur- 

 ther strengthened, although it was subsequently 

 proved that the purple glow seen in 1636 was caused 

 by a terrible eruption of Hekla, the great Iceland 

 volcano. 



On the night of January 4, 1661, a frightful storm 

 broke over North Europe. One whirlwind after the 

 other unroofed houses and uprooted trees in hundreds, 

 while the tide rose so high on the coast of Jutland 

 that large districts were flooded. For several days 

 the sky seemed a bath of lurid fire, and a great terror 

 was caused amongst the population, most of whom 

 believed that the Day of Judgment had come. The 

 celebrated Danish historian, Bishop Jens Birkerod, 

 writes in his diary " that the sky was terrible to 

 behold ; it looked as if on fire ; " while his father, 

 Professor Jakob Birkerod, asserts that he felt shocks 

 of earthquake in the island of Funen. The same 

 authority records that evil prophets predicted the 

 last day, and, as the phenomenon passed without 

 disaster, they stated that it had only been postponed 

 for a period of three years to give sinners time for 

 repentance. When August 6, 1664, arrived, great 

 terror prevailed in Denmark, and all churches were 

 thronged to suffocation. 



The next phenomenon of this nature was seen 

 throughout Denmark, according to the first-named 

 authority, on May 22, 1680, at sunrise. Long before 



the sun rose the entire heavens were filled with a 

 blood-red light, and when the sunbeams shot forth 

 "liquid fire seemed to rain from the sky." Again 

 people became terribly alarmed, which was further 

 increased by the report of a great comet approaching 

 the earth'; when it finally became visible in the 

 following December, the popular mind was in a state 

 of perfect madness. 



Another aerial phenomenon occurred in Denmark 

 on Shrove Tuesday, 1707. At about seven o'clock two 

 enormous beams of light were seen running from 

 W.N.W. to N.N.E., which made night for several 

 hours as light as day. Some, however, refer this phe- 

 nomenon to the aurora borealis, but it is strange that 

 it should not have been more widely recognised^ as 

 such in that country. 



But the_most recent true sun-glow was observed 

 in 1783 — exactly a hundred years ago — throughout 

 Scandinavia. It first became visible in Copen- 

 hagen, on May 29th, and lasted until the end of 

 September. This glow is stated also to have been 

 seen in the whole of Europe, as well as Asia and 

 Africa, in that year. The sky was red as blood at 

 sunset and sunrise, but there was one great difference 

 between this phenomenon and the last one, viz., that 

 the sun's disk was semi-obscured during the day and 

 almost completely so when rising and setting. In 

 other respects, as, for instance, temperature, heat and 

 cold, moisture and drought, the phenomena of 1783 

 was identical with the last one witnessed. This 

 glow too caused great consternation in North 

 Europe the last day being believed to be at hand. 

 It should be mentioned as a point of weighty 

 importance that, in the spring of the same year (the 

 exact date is unknown), a frightful eruption of the 

 Skapta Jokul, in Iceland, took place. This glow 

 seemed in many respects to have resembled that of 

 1636, when Hekla was in terrific activity. 



It will thus be seen that, although English records 

 of sun-glows such as the recent ones are limited to one 

 or two instances, the phenomenon has been observed 

 in North Europe, more or less prominently, on 

 several occasions during the last three centuries. 



C. S. 



A 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 



By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S. 



CURIOUS statement is made in " The Journal 

 of Science," of last October, by a correspon- 

 dent who states that, " If a workman is allowed to 

 bring his dog into any manufactory where he is 

 employed, it is astonishing how quickly the animal 

 finds out ' who is who ' in the concern. His 

 profound respect for the head of the establishment, 

 and for the managers, foremen, and office-bearers in 

 general, forms an amusing contrast to his sauciness 

 to private workmen." This is an observation well 



