March 26, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



303 



decided to proceed to Cape Palmas, Liberia, 

 instead. 



4. Tiie station at Cape Palmas, Liberia, 

 was one of five principal stations at wiiich 

 magnetic and allied observations were carried 

 out by the Department of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netism of tbe Carnegie Institution of Wash- 

 ington in connection with the solar eclipse 

 of May 29, 1919. Two of these stations were 

 inside the belt of totality: Sobral, Brazil, in 

 charge of Mr. D. M. "Wise, assisted by Mr. A. 

 Thomson; and Cape Palmas, in charge of 

 the author, assisted by Mr. H. F. Johnson. 

 A third station, at Huayao, Peru, north of 

 the totality belt, was in charge of Dr. H. M. 

 W. Edmonds; the fourth station, south of the 

 belt of totality, at Puerto Deseado, Argentina, 

 was assigned to Mr. A. Sterling; and the 

 fifth, about 100 miles north of the belt of 

 totality, at Campo Cameroun, was assigned 

 to Mr. Frederick Brown. Observations were 

 also made at a secondary station, Washington,' 

 outside the zone of visibility, by Mr. C. E. 

 Duvall. In addition to these stations, special 

 magnetic observations were made at the De- 

 partment's magnetic observatory at Watheroo, 

 Western Australia, and at observatories all 

 over the globe, both inside and outside of the 

 region of visibility of the eclipse, according 

 to the department's program.^ The reports 

 already received from many of the foreign 

 observatories indicate that the magnetic con- 

 ditions were ideal for the detection of a pos- 

 sible magnetic effect. There were clear indi- 

 cations at Cape Palmas of a magnetic effect 



s The general scheime of work consisted in simul- 

 taneous magnetic observatdons of any or all of the 

 etements every minute from May 29, 1919, 9''58'" 

 A.M. unitil 4''32" p.m., GreenwicQi cdvil mean time, 

 thus for an interval of time from 35 minutes be- 

 fore the beginning until 48 mdnutes after the end 

 of the eclipse on the earth. Similar observations 

 for the same interval of time as on May 29 were 

 to be made, if possible, on May 28 and 30 to afford 

 the necessary means for determining the undis- 

 turbed course of the magnetic elements. Special 

 continuoais registrations were called for BJt mag- 

 netic observatories. Fuirthermore, special atmos- 

 pheric-electric and meteorological observationB 

 were included in the program. 



in accordance with the results attained during 

 •previous solar eclipses. Since Cape Palmas 

 was nearly on the magnetic equator, the effect 

 was especially noticeaile in the vertical com- 

 ponent of the earth's magnetic field intensity, 

 or upon the magnetic dip. 



5. Our observation program at Cape Palmas 

 (latitude, 4° 22' N".; longitude, 7° 43'.7 or 

 30™55^ West of Greenwich) included mag- 

 netic and electric observations, meteorological 

 observations, shadow-band observations, times 

 of contacts and photographs such as could be 

 obtained with a small kodak camera. This 

 comprehensive program was carried out suc- 

 cessfully, excepting the atmospheric-electric 

 work which, owing to the deterioration of the 

 dry-cell batteries purchased in England, had 

 to be abandoned. Sir Napier Shaw had 

 kindly loaned us a Benndorf electrograph. 

 Although I had stationed three observers, no 

 shadow-hands were ohserved this time, even 

 greater precautions having heen taken than 

 at Corona during the eclipse of June 8, 1918, 

 where they were ohserved. 



The full geophysical program, including 

 complete atmospheric-electric observations, was 

 carried out by our party in charge of Mr. 

 Wise at Sohral, where shadow-hands were 

 clearly ohserved by his assistant, Mr. Thom- 

 son. 



6. The eclipse of May 29 as ohserved at 

 Palmas, was not nearly as dark, in spite of 

 its long duration, as the much shorter one of 

 June 8, 1918, which I had observed at the 

 mountain station. Corona, Colorado. There 

 was a marked difference in light, both as seen 

 visually and as shown by the photographs, 

 between the inner corona and the outer exten- 

 sions. The intense brightness of the inner 

 corona may have been the cause of the fact 

 that the eclipse of May 29, 1919, was not as 

 dark as had been expected. Dr. A. C. D. 

 Crommelin, the British astronomer at Sobral, 

 Brazil says:^ "The darkness during totality 

 was not great; we estimated that the illimii- 

 nation was about the same as that 25 minutes 

 before sunrise. The corona was very brilliant, 



* The Oiservatory, London, October, 1919, pp. 

 370-371. 



