July 9, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



57 



following quotations are taken, does not indi- 

 cate that it is supported by many distin^ished 

 men of science. It was testified that the 

 " Science Guild " of which Sir Norman 

 Lockyer is chairman, and which is composed 

 of " scientific people or people who take an 

 interest in science " feels " that it is a great 

 mistake to tamper with time." The bill was 

 strongly opposed by Sir William H. M. 

 Christie, the astronomer royal, and Sir David 

 GiU, who was recently his majesty's astrono- 

 mer at the Cape of Good Hope. It was 

 through the influence and active work of the 

 latter that standard time was substituted for 

 local time in South Africa in 1903. The bill 

 was favored by Professor Eambaut, professor 

 of astronomy in the University of Dublin, 

 and Sir Robert S. Ball, formerly astronomer 

 royal of Ireland, but both of these gentlemen 

 strongly opposed the proposition to set the 

 clocks one hour ahead. They favored the 

 idea of making three changes of twenty 

 minutes for the summer, returning to Green- 

 wich mean time for the winter ; in other words, 

 the long-hour and short-hour plan. To this 

 the practical objections are very great and it 

 is understood that its advocacy before parlia- 

 ment has now been definitely abandoned. 



Sir William H. M. Christie called atten- 

 tion to the fact that neither Sir Robert Ball 

 nor Professor Rambaut, when in Ireland, had 

 " succeeded in persuading their countrymen 

 of the advantages of early rising which might 

 have been secured by substituting Greenwich 

 for Dublin time, the Irish clocks being thus 

 put twenty-five minutes forward," although 

 they tried to do so. 



The tenor of all the arguments in favor of 

 the bill was that many persons would be de- 

 ceived into getting up earlier by setting the 

 clocks ahead when they could not be persuaded 

 to do so otherwise. 



It is reported in the daily papers that many 

 English employers have voluntarily arranged 

 to have the day's work of their employes com- 

 mence a half hour or an hour earlier in the 

 summer, thus securing honestly the advantage 

 it is claimed people would gain by changing 

 the clocks and without " juggling with the 



uniform measurement of time " as Sir Wil- • 

 Ham Christie properly terms it. 



When the mass of the English people come 

 to fully realize that by shifting the clocks an 

 hour ahead they will be adopting a time made 

 in Germany, perhaps their patriotic impulses 

 will induce them to come to the assistance of 

 common-sense people and make any attempt 

 to pass the so-called " Daylight Saving Bill " 

 absolutely hopeless. W. F. A. 



New Yoek City 



a remarkable aurora borealis 

 One of the brightest auroras seen in recent 

 years at Blue Hill Observatory was visible for 

 several hours on the evening of May 15 last. 

 When first observed, at 8:58 p.m., it formed 

 three detached luminous patches, the two 

 brightest having been near the zenith. At 

 9:10 P.M. the latter two merged to form one 

 large bluish-gray mass, of unusual brightness. 

 After that, the luminosity changed rapidly 

 from moment to moment, while the form was 

 altered but slightly, the whole mass moving 

 slowly to the south and west. For about three 

 quarters of an hour the main mass took the 

 shape of a long-handled dipper, the bowl ap- 

 pearing like the head, and the handle like the 

 tail of a huge comet, which many people 

 thought the phenomenon to be. At 10:36 p.m. 

 it was seen as five detached areas of light, 

 which, after about ten minutes, joined to form 

 an unbroken arch which reached from west to 

 east almost entirely across the sky, the highest 

 point passing slightly to the south of the 

 zenith. After 11 o'clock the arch broke up 

 into separate masses which changed in bril- 

 liancy from time to time, but gradually faded 

 until all had disappeared by 11 :30 p.m. In 

 the two hours from 8:59 p.m. to 10:59 p.m. the 

 mass moved as a whole about 25° toward the 

 south and about 50° toward the west, as meas- 

 ured from a point near the center of the main 

 mass which was originally about 5° to the 

 north of the zenith. After 10 o'clock we had 

 the unusual condition of the " northern lights " 

 entirely to the south of a west-to-east line 

 through the zenith. It is also worthy of note 

 that the southern border was at all times a 



