86 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



In the meantime Dr. Abbot has prepared text for vohime 6 of the 

 Annals of the Observatory as far as could be done until these revised 

 results were available for discussion. It is believed that when the 

 tables are ready the manuscript can be put in press within 2 months 

 thereafter. Funds for its publication have already been generously 

 furnished by John A. Roebling. The text will explain and illustrate 

 with painstaking fullness the details of the research, and the results 

 will be given with greater completeness than ever before. It may be 

 partially understood what this involves when it is said that the table 

 of daily values of the solar constant is estimated to occupy 144 quarto 

 pages, with three groups of 14 columns each, on every page. 



Increasing interest among scientists in these solar-constant studies 

 is apparent. In last year's report attention was called to critical 

 studies of the work published in England. Dr. Abbot's reply, also 

 published there, led to mathematical investigations undertaken at 

 Harvard College Observatory and at the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. Two of these statistical studies have been published by 

 Dr. Theodore E. Sterne, of Harvard. They tend to confirm the 

 reality of periodicities in solar variation, and yield periods for the 

 most part agreeing in length, within the limits of error, with those 

 found by Dr. Abbot and published by him several years ago.' 



The interest thus aroused led Dr. Shapley, Director of Harvard 

 College Observatory, to invite Dr. Abbot to give six lectures there 

 in ISIay 1940, on the following subjects : 



1. Exact measurements of solar radiation. 



2. Solar radiaticm and the atmosphere. 



3. The variation of the snn. 



4. Weather governed by solar variation. 

 6. Utilizing solar radiation. 



6. Radiation and plant growth. 



Serious and sympathetic attention was given to these lectures by the 

 staff of Harvard Observatory and by representatives from the Mas- 

 sachusetts Institute of Technology, the Blue Hill Meteorological 

 Observatory, and elsewhere. After the fourth lecture Dr. Abbot was 

 invited by Dr. Brooks, Director of the Blue Hill Observatory, to 

 publish a summary of the first four lectures relating to meteorology 

 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. This pub- 

 lication is going forward. 



In September 1939 there was held in Washington a Congress of the 

 International Geophysical Union. Among the delegates was the 

 eminent meteorologist. Dr. H. Arctowski, of Poland. His country 

 was conquered and his property lost while the Congress was in ses- 

 sion. Later, John A. Roebling provided funds for retaining Dr. 



» Abbot, C. G., Solar radiation and weather studies. Smithsonian Misc. CoU., vol. 94, 

 No. 10, 1036. 



