194 



NATURE 



[July 17, 1919 



AMERICAN ASTRONOMY. 

 T N the year 1840 the Dana House Observatory of 

 ■■■ Harvard College was established by the aid of 

 public funds and private subscription, with William 

 Cranch Bond as director. It was not the first college 

 observatory in America, and other eminent American 

 astronomers had lived earlier in the century, but the 

 date may be taken as the beginning of systematic 

 astronomical observation in the Western continent. 

 The U.S. Naval Observatory was established in 1844, 

 and the present Harvard Observatory founded, largely 

 by generous help from private benefactors, in 1846. 

 Other institutions of the period might be named where 

 the science of astronomy of position was pursued, and 

 this, with the splendid work on planets, satellites, 

 comets, asteroids, nebulae, and the astronomy of the 

 solar system generally done at Harvard by W. C. Bond 

 and G. P. Bond, and afterwards by Winlock, is to 

 be considered representative of the astronomy of the 

 United States in the succeeding forty years. The 

 accession of the late Prof. E. C. Pickering to the 

 directorate of the Harvard Observatory in 1877 marks 

 the beginning of the astronomical era in which we 

 now live. Spectroscopy, stellar physics, and stellar 

 statistics are the principal features. Prof. Pickering's 

 work was stellar photometry on a wholesale scale. 

 Stellar spectroscopy and the determination of the 

 radial velocity of stars by its means had been begun 

 by Huggins in 1864; the photographic plate came into 

 general use as an adjunct to the astronomer's equip- 

 ment in the decade 1880-90, and these three items 

 have formed the basis of the work of the American 

 observatories of recent creation. The Lick Observa- 

 tory, with the 36-in. telescope, was completed in 1887 

 at the expense, as everyone knows, of an American 

 "business man. The Yerkes Observatory came into 

 ■existence in 1897, and the observatory at Mount 

 Wilson in 1904. These things are recalled at this 

 moment because, during the past week, English astro- 

 nomers have been gratified by, a visit from a delega- 

 tion of astronomers from across the Atlantic who 

 were on their way to take part in the establishment 

 of an International Astronomical Union at a con- 

 ference now being held in Brussels {July 18-28). 



At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on 

 July II, specially arranged for the purpose, the visitors 

 spoke in turn of the work on which they are each 

 engaged, and the contrast between the astronomy of 

 to-day and of sixty years ago is apparent. The abso- 

 lute magnitude of a star or its actual luminosity 

 independent of its distance is now a commonplace, 

 and forms the subject of many investigations. Cer- 

 tain peculiarities of spectrum have been correlated 

 with the absolute magnitude in cases in which the 

 latter is known, and, generalising from this, a method 

 lias been devised for finding from the spectrum the 

 absolute magnitude, and therefore the parallax, of stars. 

 Prof. W. S. Adams, to whom this conception is due, 

 was constrained to say that the data on which his 

 first list of parallaxes was based are capable of im- 

 provement, but this research is as yet in its early 

 stages. Dr. Seares, also of Mount Wilson, has 

 devised new photographic methods for determining the 

 colours of stars, and a correlation between colour, 

 spectral type, and absolute magnitude is being estab- 

 lished. Prof. Benjamin Boss, of the Dudley (Observa- 

 tory, whose name Is associated more with geometrical 

 astronomy than with physical, had some Interesting 

 facts to tell about the difference in direction of motion 

 of the classes of stars known as the Giant and Dwarf, 

 which is a distinction depending on luminosity. 



Dr. Schleslnger, of Allegheny, and Prof. Joel 

 Stebbing gave details of their work In determining the 

 variation of brightness of variable stars, the method 

 NO. 2594, VOL. 103] 



of the photo-electric cell used by the latter being a 

 very recent adaotation of physics to astronomy not 

 unknown in England ; whilst Prof. Campbell^ director 

 of the Lick Observatory and president of the delega- 

 tion, refrained from speaking of his well-known 

 observations of radial velocity, but told his audience 

 of the observations of the Lick Observatory party on 

 the occasion of the eclipse of June 8, 1918. An 

 attempt was made to detect the Einstein effect, or a 

 light-displacement effect from any cause, by compari- 

 son of a photograph of the stars round the sun with 

 a photograph of the same field in the night sky, but 

 the comparison failed to show any displacement of 

 this nature. It is regrettable that the Harvard Ob- 

 servatory was not represented owing to the recent 

 death of Prof. E. C. Pickering. 



This brief sketch of the proceedings at -this meeting 

 is sufficient to show the trend of modern astronomy. 

 It was impressing to see so many men, comparatively 

 young, who are devoting themselves to abstract 

 science. That there is similar progress on this side of 

 the Atlantic reference to recent volumes of the 

 Monthly Notices will show. Here, as counterpart to 

 the brilliant Invention of new methods of attack by 

 observation above recorded, we have development by 

 mathematical theory and the statistical discussion of 

 results. 



THE . MUSEUMS ASS O CI A TION. 

 'T^HE thirtieth annual conference of this associa- 

 ■■• tion, held at Oxford on July 7-10, under the 

 presidency of Sir Henry Howorth, showed the return 

 of peace conditions in a particularly large attendance. 

 An important discussion was opened by Mr. E. E. 

 Lowe on a recent recommendation bv the Adult 

 Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruc- 

 tion that the control of municipal museums (Including 

 art galleries) should be transferred to the local educa- 

 tion authority. While this recommendation was sup- 

 ported by two oflficials of the Board of Education, who 

 spoke in their private capacity, it was opposed by all 

 the museum curators and by several members of 

 museum committees, some of whom also served on 

 education committees. Though museum authorities 

 are, as they long have been, anxious to co-operate 

 fully and intimately with schools and other educa- 

 tional institutions, they feel that many of their Im- 

 portant functions cannot properly be described as 

 educational, and they deprecate any form of control 

 that would obscure this fact. On the other hand, 

 they would welcome assistance and inspection by a 

 separate museum department that should link up all 

 the museums of the country and be directed by men 

 familiar with museum work. A special committee 

 was appointed to draw up a statement on behalf of 

 the museums, and. If possible, to arrange conferences 

 with the Government Departments concerned. 



For some years the association has been trying to 

 induce British manufacturers to provide for museum 

 purposes glassware of a quality equal to that 

 previously procurable only from Germany. Under 

 wiar conditions no great success has attended its 

 efforts, but Messrs. Standley Belcher and Mason, 

 Ltd., of Birmingham, now submitted a small flat- 

 sided jar which appeared suitable. Trial orders were 

 solicited, and, to attain a reasonable price, it is im- 

 portant that museums and laboratories should support 

 the association In this matter. Communications may 

 be addressed to Mr. E. E. Lowe, Leicester Museum. 

 In this connection it was of Interest to learn from- 

 Mr. Renouf, of Rothesay, that when he wanted some 

 trimmed glass squares he was told that there was no 

 glass-planing machine In Great Britain. There are 



