January 19, 191 i] 



NATURE 



377 



and the collection of observations from all stations round 

 the earth was the next step, and South Kensington became 

 the headquarters for this collective work, the results of 

 which have already began to bear the most interesting 

 fruits. 



Although this short resume has only touched upon the 

 most striking pieces of work, it must, however, show 

 beyond doubt that the institution directed by Lockyer at 

 South Kensington has played a universally stimulatiog and 

 leading part in the scientific world. 



Solar physics, and also astrophysics, are in England 

 closely connected with South Kensington Observatory — as 

 in France with Meudon, in America with Mount Wilson, 

 nnd in Germany with Potsdam. It forms for the scientific 

 '•^■putation of England an essential part, and if during 

 recent years it has not been able to keep pace in many 

 things with the largest institutions of other countries, it 

 was owing to the abnormally unfavourable position in the 

 smoke of the metropolis London and the relatively small 

 funds which have inconceivably been placed at its disposal. 



(Signed) Dr. Max Wolf. 



Heidelberg, October, 1910. 



{translation^ 



Vienna, 



November 1, 19 10. 

 My Dear Sir, — 



I have learned with the greatest regret that the activity 

 of the Solar Physics Observatory will be interrupted, and 

 that, generally speaking, by the removal of the observa- 

 tory to an unsuitable place, with unfavourable atmospheric 

 conditions, there is danger of the continuance of the work 

 being hampered, the success of which, so far, has been 

 acknowledged in the widest circles. 



Just at the present time, when all the larger countries 

 are about to take up the solar investigation inaugurated 

 ■n England through them specially, or are thinking of 

 Joing so, when, especially in America, large sums are 

 •expended upon it, it seems inconceivable that injury- 

 should be contemplated to an observatory devoted to this 

 investigation, which can look back upon thirty-eight years 

 of such successful work, notwithstanding the small funds 

 at its disposal. Should England wish to put itself even 

 partially out of action in the cooperation in such a 

 promising field of inquiry? .An Empire w-hich extends 

 over the whole earth should at least support a work that 

 has done so much that is surprising and practically 

 important in the discovery of intimate relations between 

 atmospheric conditions of the remotest parts of the earth. 



Your very numerous works and publications in the 

 domain of stellar and solar physics, which have long since 

 received the appreciation of distinguished astronomers, 

 have also placed investigators of terrestrial magnetism and 

 meteorologists under the greatest obligation. They have 

 shown us new methods and new aims. Especially is this 

 so in the indication of a short period in the solar and 

 meteorological variations on the earth ; the extension of 

 the Bombay-Cordoba " see-saw " of the variations of 

 atmospheric pressure over the whole earth ; the variations 

 in temperature and rainfall with solar changes in the 

 neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean (pulses in Indian rain- 

 fall at spot maximum and minimum) ; solar activity, 1833 

 to 1900, and the discovery of a period of about thirty-five 

 years in the same, with which magnetic and meteorological 

 periods (Bruckner's cycle) correspond ; the relations 

 between solar protuberances and the manifestations of 

 terrestrial magnetism, &c. 



Meteorologists and investigators of terrestrial magnetism 

 must therefore express the most earnest desire that the 

 activity of the Solar Physics Observatory heretofore may 

 not suffer retrenchment in any direction, but, on the other 

 hand, that it may be extended. 



With great respect, &c., 



(Signed) J. Hasn. 



Bonn, 



Humboldstrasse 2, 



October 25, 1910. 

 Dear Sir Norman, — 



I am sure that to everyone who knows something of 

 spectroscopy and astrophysics the name of yourself and 

 of the South Kensington Observatory are most familiar. 



NO. 2 151, VOL. 85] 



These names are so intimately connected with the progress 

 we have made in the last forty years, that even the 

 beginner must know them. I think it is impossible to 

 overestimate the services you have rendered to astro- 

 physics and astronomy. 



When I first had the opportunity of seeing your observa- 

 tory — it is a long time ago, I think twenty years — I 

 admired that you have been able to do all this work in 

 such a place and under such poor conditions. Some years 

 ago, when I first heard that the place of your observatory 

 was needed for other purposes and that you should get a 

 new observatory, I was very glad, because I was sure that 

 the English Government would be happy of the opportunity 

 to give you the best available place and good buildings, 

 and so promote the most needed continuation of your work 

 in a better site. I was sure that the English Government 

 is aware of the high importance of astrophysics for human 

 knowledge and culture, and full of gratitude to you who 

 has speit a successful life to the promotion of this science 

 under such difficult conditions. 



You can imagine how astonished I am to hear that 

 your Government will give you a site quite unfit for the 

 purposes of astrophysics. I can- only suppose that such a 

 plan has been taken into consideration -without, full know- 

 ledge of the importance and the needs of astrophysical 

 work. So I hope surely that the Government, when 

 better instructed, will change its mind and give you the 

 site you need. 



In the last meeting of the International Union for Solar 

 Research, held this year in California, the L'nion resolved 

 to send messages to the Governments of Japan and 

 -Australia asking the erection of astrophysical observa- 

 tories. I am sure that every member of the Union would 

 second your claim for a well-situated new observatory. 

 I hope the English Government will hear the wish of all 

 the civilised nations not to interrupt, but to promote, the 

 work of yourself and of your observatory. 



Please make any use you like of this letter. 

 I am, dear Sir Norman, 



Yours most truly, 



(Signed) H. Kavser. 

 Director of the Physical Institute of the University. 



Det Norske Meteorologiske Institut, 



Kristiania, 

 October 29, 1910. 

 Dear Sir, — 



I am much obliged to you for the good opinion shown 

 by the value which you attach to a declaration from me 

 concerning the work of the Solar Physics Observatory. 



After my return from Cambridge and London in 1904 

 I wrote an article in the Norwegian newspaper Aften- 

 posien expressing my admiration of your celebrated 

 observatory, and my opinion of the importance of its 

 splendid work for the future of meteorology. I venture 

 to give here subjoined a translation of that part of the 

 article which concerns the subject in hand. 



" The man who has taken the initiative in the first 

 organisation of the new lines in meteorology is, as alreadv 

 mentioned, Sir Norman Lockyer, one of England's most 

 eminent men of science. He was born in 1836, and from 

 his earliest j-outh has worked at the study of what takes 

 place in the sun. In 1868 he discovered in the sun's 

 chromosphere a then unknown substance, helium, which 

 is now thought to be a gaseous modification of the now 

 famous radium. Lockyer has been an observer of almost 

 all the total eclipses of the sun during the last forty vears, 

 and in 1868 he found — simultaneously with, but independ- 

 ently of, the French astronomer, Janssen — a method of 

 observing the sun's prominences at any time by the aid of 

 the spectroscope — a very great step in advance, as formerly 

 this phenomenon could only be observed during the rare, 

 brief moments of a total eclipse. 



" It was mainly due to Lockyer's perseverance that as 

 early as the 'seventies of last century an observatory, 

 exclusively for solar observation, was erected in India, 

 whose tropical position is especially favourable to that kind 

 of observations. At the same time a small phvsical- 

 chemical laboratory in South Kensington was given up to 

 him, and turned into the now so celebrated Solar Phvsics 

 Observatory, which, under Sir Norman's management, has 

 gradually risen to be a first-class scientific institution. 



