794 SCIENCE. 
enables one clearly to distinguish the clock 
from the vocal records. To enable the 
angular distance between the clock record 
and any given vocal record to be read off, 
a graduated circle, with stationary index, is 
attached to the end of the phonographie 
cylinder. The instrument is also provided 
with a rotameter, which rests on the sur- 
face of the cylinder and indicates the linear, 
instead of the angular, distance between 
records. 
With present chronographie appliances it 
is feasible to construct a phonochronograph 
that will run for ten minutes, and it seems 
mechanically possible to treble this at least, 
In observations of the meteors, where 
unexpected features occur, and particularly 
in solar eclipses, the phonochronograph 
seems to possess peculiar advantages. It 
i3 also suggested that the usual seconds- 
counting done by an assistant during 
totality can be done, without any special 
sacrifice or nervousness, by a phonographic 
cylinder previously prepared. 
G. W. HoveH: Actinism of Moonlight in a 
Total Eclipse. 
Near the middle of the total eclipse of 
the moon, on December 27, 1898, two nega- 
tives were made with the finder telescope, 
on a Seed 27 plate, with an exposure of five 
minutes each. 
The resulting negatives gave good print- 
ing density. 
Near the end of totality it clouded, but 
on the following night a number of nega- 
tives were made with the same telescope 
with reduced apertures. 
It was found that an aperture of 0.16 
inch, and an exposure of ten seconds gave 
a negative similar to that made during the 
eclipse. 
From these experiments the actinism or 
photographic power of the eclipsed moon 
was found to be z7jy7 that of the un- 
eclipsed moon. The eclipsed moon was 
[N. S. Von. K. No. 257- 
not equally luminous, and the photographic 
power might range between ;,},, and 
30000" 
Young’s General Astronomy gives the 
photographic power of the eclipsed moon 
of January 28, 1888, as determined by Pro- 
fessor Pickering, as ;,,,) that of the un- 
1 400 
eclipsed moon. 
I had intended to determine definitely, 
with my sensitometer, the total actinism 
of the eclipsed moon, but the exposures 
which were made for me by a student in 
astronomy were all too short to be of use. 
In 1892 I published a table giving the 
relative sensitiveness of a considerable 
number of commercial dry plates for sun- 
light, candle light, and through red glass. 
For the rapid plates it was found that the 
color-sensitized plates were twice as sensi- 
tive in the yellow and eight times as sensi- 
tive in the red as the ordinary plates. 
As the light of the eclipsed moon is al- 
ways colored, it is obvious that its actinism 
or photographic power will depend on the 
kind of plate employed ; and possibly on 
its manipulation previous to development, 
owing to the effect of preliminary or sup- 
plementary exposure. 
GrorGE E. Haute: Carbon in the Chromo- 
sphere. 
The level at which carbon vapor exists in 
the atmosphere of the sun was definitely 
ascertained in 1897 with the 40-inch Yerkes 
telescope, when the green carbon (or hydro- 
carbon) fluting was found in the spectrum 
of the chromosphere. The layer of carbon 
vapor to which the fluting is due is not 
more than a second of are in thickness, and 
lies in immediate contact with the photo- 
sphere. For this reason it can be observed 
only with the most powerful telescopes, used 
under the most perfect atmospheric condi- 
tions. The fluting has been repeatedly seen 
at the Yerkes Observatory during the past 
summer, and its individual lines identified 
