2.r 



NATURE 



[October 29, 1914 



(2) The Amherst Eclipse Expedition to Russia. 

 Although the Imperial Academy of Science 

 at the instance of Dr. Backlund, tog-ether with 

 the Government railways, had offered every 

 facility in transportation of observers and instru- 

 ments, the necessity of immediate mobilisation 

 had made it impossible to deliver my cases in 

 Kieff at the expected time. Many days of 

 patient waiting- there had convinced me that it 

 was best to prepare if possible an entirelv new 

 set. \\\W\ the help of Mr. Day, a 6 in.' Dall- 

 meyer portrait lens was found in a photog-rapher's 

 atelier in the Krestchatik ; at the University shop, 

 Prof. De Metz had a long- tube and shutter made, 

 which, with a new Dresden camera and plate- 

 holders, provided an adequate outfit — everything- 

 except clockwork motion. It was necessary, 



Fig. I. Prof. David Todd with the camera contrived for the photo- 

 graphy of the solar corona during the eclipse on August 21, 1914. 



therefore, to use the tube as a stationary camera, 

 and plates as sensitive as possible so that the 

 diurnal motion should not blur the coronal fila- 

 ments. Fortunately we put the apparatus to- 

 g-ether in time and in working- order at Kieff, 

 and with the help of Prof. Sleusarefsky found the 

 exact focus, so that little remained to do at the 

 station but set the camera rigidly in exact align- 

 ment towards the sun at mid-totality and make 

 the necessary practice drill. 



By invitation of Count Bobrinsky, whose 

 estates are in Smala, about loo miles south-east 

 of Kieff, I was several days his guest, and had 

 abundant opportunity, while enjoying the hos- 

 pitality also of Prince Trubetskoy, to mount the 

 camera very satisfactorily. ' The illustration 

 (Fig. i) shows the instrument in position on the 

 portico of Count Bobrinsky 's residence. 



Smala proved to be exactly in the line of central 



NO. 2348; VOL. 94] 



eclipse, and certainly no one could have had a 

 better position than in the midst of this superb 

 estate. During totality the sky was shrouded in 

 thinner clouds than elsewhere in Central Russia; 

 so that of the six exposures on Moscow plates, 

 from a half-second to two seconds in length, four 

 of them turned out better than I had expected 

 from the drifting clouds which had in no instance 

 permitted the corona to be seen entire. Two of 

 the four will afford detailed estimates of the light 

 of the inner corona. Star-trails on the plates 

 were made by a Ophiuchi on two nights after the 

 eclipse. As the camera had remained unmoved 

 since totality, the direction of the "parallel" 

 gives exact location of the prominences and 

 coronal details. Both corona and star trail were, 

 of course, developed together on the same plate. 

 I have pleasure in acknowledging much assis- 

 tance from Mr. Gubtschefsky, president of the 

 Society of Photographers in Kieff. 



David Todd. 



THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN 

 AUSTRALIA. 



MANY of those who made up the "Overseas 

 Party " of the British Association at the 

 recent Australian meeting have now returned 

 home. In a former article it has been stated that 

 some members found it necessary, after the Orient 

 liner Orvieto was requisitioned by the Common- 

 wealth Government, to return a week earlier by 

 the P. and O. vessel Malwa, which they were 

 only able to catch at Adelaide by leaving Sydney 

 the day before the conclusion of the meeting 

 there ; the number of those who did this was 

 twenty-six. The steamer Demosthenes, leaving 

 Australia earlier still, vid South Africa, carried a 

 few members. The following P. and O. ship, the 

 Morea, a fortnight later than the Malwa, carried 

 a party of more than sixty, who were in England 

 by October i6 after a voyage favoured by beauti- 

 ful weather^ — as, it may be added, the meeting 

 had been. 



Some forty members proceeded northward from 

 Brisbane after the conclusion of the meeting by 

 the Burns, Philp steamer Montoro for Singapore ; 

 she was reported to have arrived there safely on 

 September 26, so that her passengers may now 

 be nearing home. Of a number who left from 

 Sydney to follow the Trans-American route, some 

 are home already. Others, however, intended to 

 visit New Zealand, in spite of the cancellation 

 of the arrangements which had been made in 

 that Dominion to hold a scientific meeting there. 

 Those who had it in mind to make a stay in 

 New Zealand if possible, either immediately after 

 the Australian meeting or later, numbered not 

 fewer than fifty. The official excursion to Tasmania 

 after the meeting attracted a dozen members 

 or more. A large number whose plans were un- 

 affected by the European situation were carrying 

 out their programmes for a prolonged stay in 

 Australia or elsewhere. The next P. and O. 



