IQQ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



Table 2.— The Fe Multiplet a'F-yW" 



RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF ELEMENTS 

 THE LOWER CHROMOSPHERE 



IN 



By combining the lioiti;lits to which tlic various Unes in a multiplet 

 are observed in the flash spectrum with the multiplet intensity for- 

 mulae, it has been possible to derive for many elements the density 

 distribution in the lower chromosphere. This seems to indicate that 

 turbulence and not selective radiation pressure is responsible for 

 keeping the elements so well mixed. From the flash spectrum the 

 relative abundance of various elements was determined and the 

 results from the chromosphere were compared with those from the 

 reversing layer, stellar atmospheres, earth's crust, and stony meteor- 

 ites. It is inferred that within errors of observation the compositions 

 of all samples are alike, with the exception that hydrogen is conspicu- 

 ously deficient in the earth's crust and in meteorites and is probably 

 more abundant in the chromosphere than in the reversing layer. 

 It seems also safe to conclude that there is a marked deficiency of the 

 heavier elements in the chromosphere. 



RELATIVITY SHIFT OF STAR IMAGES 



At the 1929 eclipse, the Potsdam party using two different cameras 

 found the Einstein deflection reduced to the sun's edge to be 2''24± 

 0''10, a result which differed radically from the Lick deflection l''75db 

 0';09 at the 1922 eclipse, or from the theoretical value of ir72. Un- 

 fortunately, at the 1929 eclipse, the bright stars photographed on the 

 eclipse plates were extremely unsymmetrically placed. A straight 

 line passed through the center of the sun found 17 stars on one side 



