PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The 76th meeting of the Washington Academy of Sciences, a business 

 meeting, was held at the Cosmos Club, 7:45 p.m., February 13, 1912, 

 with President Coville in the chair. 



The following were elected resident members : 



R. V. Anderson C. N. McBryde 



E. S. Bastin H. D. McCaskey 



W. R. Calvert F. H. Moffitt 



R. L. Faris Chase Palmer 



N. C. Glover E. W. Shaw 



Karl F. Kellerman Daniel W. Shea 



Adolph Knopf Herman Stabler 



W. T. Lee G. W. Stose 



W. J. Humphreys, Recording Secretary. 



The 77th meeting was held on February 13, 1912. Dr. L. A. Bauer 

 gave an illustrated address on the Recent work of the Carnegie and the 

 total solar eclipse of April 28, 1911. The speaker, enroute to Colombo, 

 Ceylon, to join there the magnetic survey vessel, the Carnegie, under his 

 charge, while awaiting connections at Suva, Fiji, for New Zealand, suc- 

 ceeded in getting into the belt of totality for the total solar eclipse of 

 April 28, 1911. Since all the observing parties were to congregate at 

 various points in the Tonga Islands, he thought it desirable to make the 

 effort to reach some other point in order to multiply the chances of get- 

 ting results. At the time that his official duties permitted him to leave 

 Washington, viz., March 16, 1911, it could not be definitely ascertained 

 that the necessary connections would be made at Suva, hence only a 

 limited equipment was taken consisting of magnetic instruments to 

 determine a possible effect on the earth's magnetism during the eclipse, 

 and an improvised photographic apparatus. For the same reason it 

 was not warranted to incur the expense of taking with him specially 

 trained assistants, all the more so since every possible preparation had 

 been made by the many astronomers in the Tonga Islands. The photo- 

 graphic apparatus had to be hastily improvised by Mr. Abbot, Director 

 of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution; it 

 consisted of a double-barreled, hand-driven, equatori ally-mounted 

 camera of about ll^-foot focus. The camera tubes, for convenience in 

 packing, were made in three sections of stoVe pipe and the tripod in a 

 similar manner of gas pipe. The entire equipment was packed in water 

 tight cases to ensure against accidents, as landings on the islands chosen 

 cannot always be effected safely on account of breakers. 



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