SCIENCE-SUPPLEMENT 



WalUU on Ninety-Mile Beach in northwestern 

 Australia to GoondiM-indii and Stantliorpe in 

 Queensland all forms of eclipse observaitians ivere 

 made by a host of astronomers from majiy lands. 



Shadow-bands, flee.tiing lunar shadow, a never- 

 to-be-forgotten pearly coronal light, four, enor- 

 mous, equatorial streamers, petal-fomied and 

 arched, a million and more miles in length, five 

 brilliant planets and a star of first maguitude, 

 Spaca, near the sun, eclipse paraiphermalia of all 

 kinds and shapes nianipiulated by leading astron- 

 omers from many lands, even a governor in 

 attendance, were feaJtures of rfjiis eelipse. And 

 what more was to be desired to make a pejfect 

 success of a perfeot eelijpse day? 



The most important feature of the eclipse from 

 the astronomical point of view was the successful 

 exposure of many phoitogra5>liie plates -svitli astro- 

 gra,pliie telescopes at all points 'Of observaition in 

 Australia. These plates, it is hoped, may reveal 

 the slight displacements of the star-images from 

 their normal poslitions known as the Einstein 

 effect, due to the bending of light rays by the 

 sun's gravitational field, which as a vital test of 

 the Einstein theory. 



At Wallal, where observations were made by 

 Canadian astronomers, by an expedition from the 

 Iftck Observatory under Director W. W. Camp- 

 bell, and by observers from New Zealand and 

 various observatories in Auatraiia, pai-fcicular 

 attention was given to tJiis problem. Owing to 

 the great clouds of dnstt tlia/t arose after totality 

 was over it was impossible to develop the plates 

 at Wallal and they were sliijpiped to Broome, 

 wihere they were developed later. The sailing of 

 tih&ir sliip made it necessary for the Amerioan 

 astronomers to embark for home before these 

 plates were developed. It is onty recently that 

 these developed plates arrived in the United 

 States and the scientific world is now awaiting 

 with the liveliest interest the announcement of 

 the results of the measurements of these plates 

 ■nnliieh it is hoped irill be fortheomung before 

 man}' days have passed. 



Astronomei-s from observatories in eastern Aus- 

 tralia who made observations at G-oondi'windi and 

 Srtanthorpe, though enthusiastic about the eclipse 

 as a iseenic feature, deplore the fact that the 

 "seeing," as astronomers call that state of the 

 aitmosphere that is such a vital factor in deter- 

 nriiiing the value of observations, was particu- 

 larlj' bad. As a result they are pessimistic as to 

 tilie value of the measurements of the star-images 

 that will be made on plates taken ait these places. 

 The eclipse occurred at these points in the late 



afternoon .so the altitude of the sun was much 

 lower than at Wallal where the eclipse occurred 

 about 1:30 P.M. The effeats of atmospheric re- 

 fraction and other atmospheric disturbances were 

 consequently more pronounced in eastern Aus- 

 tralia than at Wallal. It is generally felt that 

 tihe most valuable results will be the ones ob- 

 tained from plates taken at Wallal, though Direc- 

 tor Dodwell, of the Government Observatory at 

 Adelaide, is said to have made some excellent 

 observations at Gordillo Downs in central Aus- 

 tralia. 



Instruments were transported to 'tlris point from 

 the railroad terminus by camel train, an arduous 

 undertaking which took six weeks time. It is re- 

 ported to have been attended with complete suc- 

 cess, tliough no results of the reductions of plates 

 in Australia are yet available. 



SCIENCE ITEMS 

 Science Service 



A FARM which raises diamond-back terrapin for 

 the mai-ket by thousands has been conducted for 

 many yeaa-s near Savannah, Georgia. 



Elevator screenings, which grain elevators 

 have been paying to get rid of, have been suc- 

 cessfully used to fatten sheep in Canada. 



Forty thousand separate and distinct species 

 of locusts, the historic pests which annually cost 

 the world about $100,000,000 have been identified 

 and collected hj American soientists. 



The reddisli color of Mars is supposed to be 

 due to great stretches of desert on that planet. 



The Zii-1, the airship now being built for the 

 U. S. Navy, will be 680 feet long, 78 feet in 

 diameter, and have frvventy gas bags with a total 

 capacity of 2,155,200 cubic feet. 



By making synithetie thymol, a drug that is 

 used extensively as an antiseptic and a specific 

 against the hookworm disease, Department of 

 Agriculture chemlists have again vanquished 

 Nature at her own g'ame. Thj-niol is now im- 

 ported from India, where it is found in the seed 

 of one of the plants growing there. The chemists 

 have found that artificial .thymol identical with 

 the natural product can be made from cymene, a 

 waste product in the paper industry. Thj'niol is 

 uoAv sold for $4.50 a pound, but it is estimated 

 that the synthetic product can be made for about 

 $2.50 a pound. As there are 2,000,000 gallons of 

 cymene wasted annually in tliis coimtry and 

 Canada, chemists expect that this country will 

 soon be able to produce all the thymol consumed 

 here. 



