POPULAR SCIENCE I^EWS. 



[January, 1888. 



observation of the bright lines which appear in the 

 spectrum of the lowest region of the solar atmos- 

 phere at the moment when the last remnant of the 

 sun's disk is covered by the obscuring moon, and 

 to make the observation in such a way as to decide 

 between two opposing theories. One of the theories 

 is the older one, that all the so-called Fraunhofer 

 lines of the solar spectrum have their origin chiefly 

 in a comparatively thin stratum of the solar atmos- 

 phere low down and near the surface of the sun, — 

 a stratum known as the "reversing layer." The 

 other theory, proposed later by Mr. Lockycr, con- 

 tends that only a few of the Fraunhofer lines origi- 

 nate in that region, while most of them are due to 

 cooler gases and vapors at a much greater elevation. 

 Mr. Lockyer is even cruel enough to deny altogether 

 the existence of any " reversing layer; " and as the 

 formerly accepted belief in its existence and im- 

 portance was based largely upon an observation of 

 my own, made at the Spanish eclipse of 1870, it 

 was only natural that I should feel rather bound to 

 make the best fight possible to protect its reputa- 

 tion. The apparatus to be used in the special 

 observations bearing upon this point consisted of a 

 five-inch telescope, equatorially mounted, and carry- 

 ing a powerful diffraction spectroscope. In the 

 field of view of the eyepiece was set, as a scale, a 

 photograph of a small portion of the spectrum, — a 

 portion containing certain lines the behavior of 

 which at the moment of totality would be nearly 

 if not quite conclusive as to the question in debate, 

 as had been pointed out by Mr. Lockyer. The 

 photographed scale would render easy the imme- 

 diate and certain identification of the lines in the 

 few seconds during which the reversal of the lines 

 would last, just at the beginning and end of total- 

 ity. I had planned to occupy the remaining two 

 minutes of the totality in a search for new lines in 

 the spectrum of the corona; and my attention was 

 directed specially to certain regions where new lines 

 might be expected, by the curious and important 

 paper of Grunewald upon the dissociation of hydro- 

 gen, of which an advanced copy was put into my 

 hands on reaching Pulkowa. 



Professor McNeill was provided witli a rather 

 peculiar instrument for the general study of the 

 coronal spectrum. It consisted of the great star 

 spectroscope of the Halsted observatory, — an in- 

 strument nearly five feet long; and similar to that 

 in use at the Greenwich observatory, but consider- 

 ably larger The slit is about an inch in length, 

 and the image of the sun and corona was to be 

 formed upon it by a lens of only twelve inches 

 focus, so that the observer would have before him 

 the spectrum of a region extending more then two 

 degrees on each side of the sun, and could study 

 simultaneously the spectra of the upper and lower 

 portions of the corona, and any changes that might 

 occur during the progress of the eclipse, — with 

 reference, of course, to the phenomena reported 

 by Professor Hastings during the Caroline Island 

 eclipse of 1883. 



Our plan did not at first include photography, 

 which we thought might be left to the European 

 observers. But when my colleague. Professor Lib- 

 bey, generously offered to go with us at his own 

 charges, and look after this line of work, applica- 

 tion was made to the Secretary of the Navy for the 

 use of one of the two six-inch Dallmeyer photo- 

 graphic telescopes which had been provided for 

 the Naval Observatory parties on occasion of the 

 eclipse of 1878 ; and our request was granted. ,\n 

 equatorial stand with clockwork was built in the 

 college machine-shop, and the government tele- 

 scope and various cameras of different abilities 

 were mounted upon it for the purpose of securing 

 a large number of diifereut pictures of the corona 

 itself and the region around the sun. Professor 



W. H. Pickering of Cambridge also sent us a six- 

 inch telescope, to be used without mounting or 

 clockwork, for the purpose of making a special set 

 of pictures to be compared with those which were 

 expected to be made in the -same way and with a 

 similar instrument by Professor Todd in Japan. 

 (But that observer was no more fortunate than 

 we). 



Our instruments were packed in six substantial 

 boxes, and sent off by Wells, Fargo, & Co.'s express 

 on June 11; and we never saw them again until we 

 found them safe and in good order at our station, 

 awaiting our arrival. Vt'e ourselves sailed on " The 

 Etruria " on June 25, — seven of us: Professor 

 Libbey, his wife and two of her young friends. 

 Professor McNeill, Mr. Fisher (our university ma- 

 chinist), and myself. A deliglitful seven days' 

 voyage brought us to Liverpool, where we parted 

 temporarily, agreeing to rendezvous in Berlin on 

 the 1st of August. Professor jNlcNeill remained 

 with me ; and we took together a roundabout route 

 through London, Paris, Strassburg, Munich, Vienna, 

 and Prague, visiting the observatories and the as- 

 tronomers in these different cities. 



Space does not permit any detailed account of 

 what we saw and learned, but it is pleasant to re- 

 call the kindly courtesy and hearty welcomes we 

 everywhere received. Specially interesting were 

 our visits at Greenwich, at Meudon (near Paris), 

 at Vienna, and to the queer old observatory at 

 Prague, where are still standing some of the ancient 

 quadrants with which Tycho and Kepler used to 

 make their observations. After our party came 

 together at Berlin, we also visited the old observa- 

 tory there, and the wonderful new astro-physical 

 establishment at Potsdam. 



We left Berlin, all seven together, in the highest 

 health and spirits, on Aug. 5, and the next even 

 ing were in St. Petersburg. Our passage of the 

 Russian frontier was made without the slightest 

 difficulty; and we were treated by all the officials of 

 the custom-house and the railway train with marked 

 courtesy, which we afterwards learned was due, in 

 part at least, to orders received from headquarters 

 in consequence of a letter which Baron Struve (the 

 Russian Minister to Washington, and brother of 

 the astronomer) had written announcing the com- 

 ing of our party. Our instruments were admitted 

 duty-free and without detention, and every thing 

 possible was done to assist us. Dr. Struve of Pul- 

 kowa arranged every thing relating to stations and 

 transportation of instruments in such a way that 

 all care and anxiety on our part was entirely pre- 

 cluded. 



We were met at the station in St. Petersburg by 

 his son. Dr. 11. Struve; and during the week that 

 followed we were continually the recipients of his 

 kind attentions. Of course, we saw and enjoyed 

 all the interesting sights of the Northern capital; 

 but to me, at least, the most enjoyable of all the 

 days were those I spent at Pulkowa, in, the home 

 and family of the great astronomer. It was a real 

 wrench to say farewell to some of our kind-hearted 

 new-found friends of only a week's acquaintance. 

 Of course, the city was full of eclipse people, and 

 they all went to Pulkowa. One day at lunch there 

 were fourteen astronomers at table (not counting 

 three ladies), speaking six different languages. 



Our party left St. Petersburg on Monday evening, 

 Aug. 15, having Struve himself with us; and the 

 next day we were at our station, having dropped 

 him on the way at Torjok. The place he had 

 selected for us was at a country seat about eight 

 miles from Rsehew or Rjeff, a city of some twenty 

 thousand inhabitants on the upper Volga, about a 

 hundred and fifty miles west and a little north of 

 Moscow. The estate belongs to two wealthy young 

 married ladies, who no longer make their home 



there, and had put the place at Struve's disposal for 

 our use. To these ladies, Mme. Olga Nieskovsky 

 of Warsaw, and Mme. Vera Tchernicheff of Torjok, 

 and to their agent, M. Nieskovsky of Rsehew, we 

 owe more than can be well expressed ; and, if possi- 

 ble, still more to Capt. Witkovski of the Russian 

 Engineer Corps, who had been sent by his depart- 

 ment to our station to determine its geographical 

 position, to make certain time-observations we had 

 not specially provided for, and with special orders 

 to do all in his power to aid us and make things 

 agreeable ; orders which he carried out with such 

 heartiness and tact, that he will always be remem- 

 bered by every one of the party with something 

 warmer than mere regard. Our quarters were in 

 a huge brick mansion, some of the rooms in which 

 were very large and handsomely furnished, while 

 others were small and comparatively plain. The 

 steward and the servants who had charge of the 

 house took excellent care of us, and, excepting as 

 to weather, we have the pleasantest memories of 

 our five days' entertainment there. We had had 

 the finest of weather all the way from New York 

 until we reached St. Petersburg, when it began to 

 be showery and uncertain. It was not encour- 

 aging during our journey from St. Petersburg to 

 the station ; and there, bad became worse. 



On Tuesday p.m. and Wednesday we set up 

 our instruments in the intervals between drizzling 

 showers; on Tliursday morning it was clear for a 

 time, but in the afternoon it rained hard. In the 

 evening it cleared up again about ten o'clock for an 

 hour or two, and our hopes were raised to the high- 

 est pitch of expectation. The ladies went through 

 their drill with the photographic apparatus they 

 were to operate, until they had it perfectly; and we 

 were exultantly making our last pi'eparations when 

 the captain, who had been trying to observe some 

 stars, came in and announced that it had clouded 

 again, and sent us to bed disconsolate. 



In the morning we were astir at four o'clock, 

 for the sun rises early there in Augu.^t, and the 

 first contact was to occur at half-past five. It 

 was a gray, dull, misty morning, raining a little, 

 but not so heavily as to preclude all hope of 

 clearing. We put every thing in readiness, and 

 waited for a glimpse of sunlight — which never 

 came; it only rained a little faster. The time of 

 first contact passed, and that of totality drew 

 near. The obscuration was to last from 6.32 to 

 6.84. Gradually the morning brightness gave 

 way to gloom, which grew denser about 6 30, 

 but not with any such suddenness as made it pos- 

 sible to fix the moment of beginning with any 

 certainty. On the other hand, when the totality 

 ended, there was a sudden — in fact, almost instan- 

 taneous — lighting up. The gloom was by no means 

 so intense as that at either of the three other total 

 eclipses I have seen. I could easily read my watch- 

 face, and I noticed that the sash-bars in the window 

 of a building some six hundred feet away continued 

 visible through it all. A few pigeons and some 

 cattle and poultry that were within the range of 

 observation appeared to be rather puzzled and 

 annoyed by the sudden twilight; and a little group 

 of the peasants of the estate, wlio stood near us, 

 began to cross themselves and say their prayers 

 when the darkness was greatest. Some thirty 

 minutes later the half obscured disk of the sun 

 showed itself for a few moments, through drifting 

 clouds, and then the rain began again. At half- 

 past seven every thing was over, and we sat down 

 defeated and heavy-hearted. We immediately went 

 to work to dismount and repack our instruments, 

 and by night the task was nearly done. The next 

 day at noon we started them off, intrusting them 

 to the care of Capt. Witkovsky, who kindly looked 

 after their shipment for ns; and in the afternoon 



