568 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1138 



THE AURORAL DISPLAY OF AUGUST 26 



It may interest the readers of Science to 

 know that the " remarkable auroral display " 

 described by Professor Nutting in Science of 

 October 6, was visible also in the eastern states. 

 I watched it for many hours at my cottage on 

 Chebeague Island, Maine; and others, who 

 watched it there, declare that it lasted until 

 well after midnight. 



The display was of so unusual a character 

 that I could not believe it to be the " northern 

 lights." As Professor Nutting says, its great- 

 est intensity and brilliancy was in the zenith, 

 and to us the light seemed to radiate and 

 pulsate from east to west. This fact led me to 

 call the display the zodiacal light, which I had 

 never seen, and about which I knew only the 

 name. I should be glad to know if the phe- 

 nomenon was, without question, an aurora 

 borealis. L. M. Passano 



Massachusetts Institute or Technology 



I was much interested to read Professor 

 Nutting's description of the remarkable au- 

 roral display of August 26. I observed the 

 same phenomenon at Annisquam, Essex 

 County, Mass., which Professor Nutting so well 

 described. Auroras were of quite common oc- 

 currence this summer at Annisquam, I having 

 noted them on the evenings of June 22, 29, 30, 

 August 26, 27, 28, and September 2, 9 and 11, 

 but the display of August 26 far surpassed any 

 aurora I had ever seen. The Boston papers of 

 August 27 made a note of the aurora and 

 stated that the telegraph and telephone lines in 

 eastern Massachusetts had been greatly dis- 

 abled and in some cases put out of commission 

 during the previous evening. It would be in- 

 teresting to know if wireless telegraph oper- 

 ators noticed any unusual occurrence of 

 " static " at that time. Barry MacNutt 



Lehigh University 



The remarkable auroral display described by 

 Professor Nutting in a recent number of Sci- 

 ence was also observed on the same date, 

 August 26, at Bochester, N. Y., from the Cobb's 

 Hill reservoir. A member of my family called 

 our attention to what appeared to be vivid 

 flashes of sheet lightning. Close observation, 



however, showed that the apparent electrical 

 display was really an exhibition of the great 

 northern lights or aurora borealis. As de- 

 scribed by Professor Nutting, the lights 

 flickered, streamed in great sheets, danced in 

 long shafts, and shimmered in vast expanses of 

 rapidly changing light. 



The light was strongest and most remarkable 

 at the zenith where the play was the most in- 

 tense. The quickly changing forms of the 

 display followed each other with marvelous 

 rapidity as noted by Professor Nutting. In 

 Bochester the light resembled electricity, the 

 colors of the northern Michigan display being 

 absent or but feebly visible, owing probably to 

 the greater distance south of the observing 

 locality. The display was first seen about eight 

 o'clock in the evening and was under observa- 

 tion until after ten o'clock. How much longer 

 the display lasted I am unable to state. It 

 would be of interest to know in what other 

 places far removed from Michigan this auroral 

 display was observed. Frane C. Baker 



The New York State College 

 of Forestry, 

 Syracuse University 



C. C. Nutting has accurately described the 

 aurora borealis which spanned the northern 

 heavens up to the zenith on the evening of 

 August 26, 1916, at Lake Douglas in northern 

 Michigan. Identically the same aurora was 

 seen by me on the same evening between the 

 hours of nine and ten, at Oak Bluffs, on the 

 eastern shore of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., but 

 somewhat dimmer, owing perhaps to my sta- 

 tion on the seashore. The pulsations of light 

 in the form of huge bands changing constantly 

 in intensity and position, as well as the forma- 

 tion of the streamers which he has described, 

 were marked features of the phenomenon. 

 John W. Haeshberger 



University or Pennsylvania 



In the current issue of Science, Professor 

 Nutting describes an aurora seen by him on 

 the evening of August 26, remarkable for the 

 large expanse of the heavens which it occupied. 

 It may be of interest to know that the same 

 display was visible a thousand miles east of 



