182 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



which has involved the estabhshment by the State Department of 

 the new position of scientific attache in our embassies at London, 

 Paris, and Rome, the needs of war are the first but not the sole con- 

 sideration. The step thus taken toward more effective international 

 cooperation in research should be quite as useful to the future of 

 science as in the present prosecution of the war. In this country the 

 close cooperation between governmental, educational, and industrial 

 research agencies, recently effected for the solution of war problems, 

 should not altogether cease after the conclusion of peace. In short, 

 the stimulus derived from a great national awakening, and the mo- 

 mentum acquired under the pressure of war conditions, should be 

 conserved as a means of offsetting the serious losses, both of men and 

 of revenue, which the war is sure to entail. An expression of the 

 broader purpose of the National Research Council may be found in 

 the Executive Order providing for its perpetuation, which was issued 

 by President Wilson on May 11 of the present year. 



One of the endeavors of this Observatory since its inception has 

 been to develop instrumental methods permitting the daily observa- 

 tion of phenomena previously recorded only at total eclipses of the 

 sun. The forms of the prominences can now be studied more effectively 

 in full sunlight than at eclipses, because they can be repeatedly photo- 

 graphed in plan on the sun's surface as well as in elevation at the 

 limb. The spectrum of the lower chromosphere can also be dealt 

 with more successfully in sunlight, at least so far as the precise deter- 

 mination of the positions of the lines is concerned. But to record 

 the faintest lines of the flash spectrum, and its changes in character 

 at different levels, we must still have recourse to eclipses. As for the 

 corona, all attempts to observe it in full sunlight have hitherto met 

 with no success. 



For such reasons, the Assistant Director organized a well-equipped 

 expedition to observe the total eclipse of June 8 at Green River, 

 Wyoming. In spite of clouds, which wholly prevented visual observa- 

 tions of the corona, some valuable results were obtained. These 

 include sharply defined photographs of the prominences and of certain 

 portions of the inner corona, and an admirable long-exposure photo- 

 graph of the corona, showing no trace of interference by clouds. The 

 wave-length of the coronal line at one limb of the sun was photo- 

 graphically determined with high precision, and the brighter lines of 

 the flash spectrum, as well as the corona in ultra-violet light, were 

 also successfully photographed. 



The sun-spot maximum has certainly been passed, yet the magnetic 

 polarities of the spots continue to follow the rule that has governed 

 them since the minimum. Exceptions to this rule are very few in 

 number (about 3 per cent), but the direction of whirl in the secondary 

 vortices photographed in the hydrogen atmosphere above sun-spots 



