KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[January, 1907. 



Italy to supply the dctkicncy. Enlistini,^ tlie poworlul 

 aid ol' a wealthy Spaniard residing in Paris, plans 

 were soon drawn up for the l)uildings to he erected on 

 the chosen site near Torlosa, on a small eminence in 

 the \allev of the llhro, inconveniently far frotn a town 

 for huildint; purposes, hut for that \ery reason tho hct- 

 ter suited for a maL;netic ohsorv atory. The interest 

 aroused in the Jesuits' "(ienera]." iollowini; on the rn- 



Photosrraph of the Corona at Vinaroz] 



thusiasm ol Senor Landerer, perhaps the best qualified 

 astronomer in -Spain, who assured the Superiors that if 

 they made haste their observatory would be the first of 

 its kind, in fact absolutely unique, caused them to 

 sanction the pursuance in its entirety of a scheme from 

 which, had they fully realised its financial magnitude, 

 they might well have shrunk. 



Imagine the delight of a director given Cdrte blanche 

 or nearly so, and how he would revel in the very latest 

 devices for each of his departments. It is not surprising 

 that his long sojourn at Paris encouraged him to en- 

 trust the orders for apparatus very largely in that 

 centre; but wherever other nations had specialised, the 

 advantages of Paris were at once foregone, so we find 

 the new observatory equipped with an English magneto- 

 meter, Italian seismic instruments, and certain electri- 

 cal and meteorological contrivances of German make. 

 The Rowland grating also is not of Paris origin. 



The new instruments were tested just where Father 

 Cirera thought the testing would be easiest or most 

 reliable, usually in the country of origin — the Dover 

 magnetometer at Kew, the dip instrument at Pots- 

 dam, the spectroscopic apparatus at Meudon, and so 

 on. Eschenhagen's dip apparatus found an ardent 

 admirer in Father Cirera, for whom it was difficult, if 

 not impossible, to understand why Greenwich feels 

 bound to adhere to the principle of continuity. 



Whenever resources ran short, Providence, in Father 

 Cirera's pious narrative, found new patrons both in the 

 Spanish colony at Paris and also in Barcelona; and 

 when apparatus began to arrive many distinguished 

 scientists of the Jesuit confraternity .seemed to be avail- 



at the new m- 

 n posts or just 



able to lend their valuable assistance 

 stallation — just returning from foreij 

 preparing to take up work abroad. 



^et, after all, things were not quite perkcl in time 

 foi tho eclipse. Many adjustments had to be post- 

 poned, as they would take too long, and the eclipse 

 must be considered lirst. I lie magnetic basement was 

 uncomfortably damp until time was found to isolate it 

 In means of a deep trench from ])ersistent infiltration on 

 one side. .\ second ccelostat was presented in time lor 

 the eclipse, but there was not time to alter the arrange- 

 ment by which the first one had to do duty for two 

 instruments. The spectroheliograph, again, was un- 

 satisfactory, and had to be returned to the makers, but 

 was meanwhile used for the eclipse. Other improve- 

 ments in lighting and re-arrangement of buildings have 

 taken place from time to time. There is a 4-horse 

 power Crossley dynamo-motor, and a set of accumula- 

 tors; also a large acetylene generating- station, so that 

 neither light nor power [e.g., for maintaining water 

 supply) is lacking in any part of the domain, about 

 which a few words of description are necessary. 

 Situated in N. latitude 40" 49' and slightly to the East 

 111 Greenwich, though less than two minutes from the 

 prime meridian, it lies about a mile from the right bank 

 of the Ebro and twelve from the sea, on the borders of 

 Catalonia and \'alencia, its local situation being on a 

 small elevation similar in height to Greenwich hill, but 

 not so steep. Communication is easy, for a few 

 minutes' walk brings one to the horse-tramway from 

 Roquetas to Tortosa, a station on the Barcelona Rail- 

 way, but there are no electric trams, no minerals, no 

 basalt formation, so that the place is very suitable for a 

 magnetic observatory. 



Pliotograph of the Corona at Vinaroz. 



Magnetism is, however, only a branch of the work, 

 which aims at the investigation of every effect of the 

 sun on the earth, and so includes, of necessity, not only 

 every branch of meteorology and atmospheric elec- 

 tricity, including even such special researches as the 

 ioni.sation of the atmosphere, but also an astrophysical 

 laboratory, in addition to the indis]>ensable astronomical 

 time service. 



