November 22, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



805 



ets. A region about 20° x24° was covered 

 in the vicinity of the sun, and the expos- 

 ures were duplicated in order to check all 

 suspected objects. 



The spectroscopic work was under the 

 general direction of Mr. Jewell. He him- 

 self used a 21-foot concave grating, used 

 without slit as an objective grating. Mr. 

 Dinwiddle employed a 6-inch prismatic 

 camera, and Professor Littell a flat grating 

 with slit, in order, if possible, to detect the 

 rotation of the corona. Professor R. W. 

 Wood's apparatus was used by Dr. Gilbert, 

 and several small cameras by Mr. Curtis. 



At Fort de Koch were two instruments, 

 the 40-foot photoheliograph and the spec- 

 troscope in charge of Mr. Peters and Dr. 

 Humphreys, respectively. The latter was 

 a direct concave grating used without slit, 

 and had a ruled surface of 8 x 5 inches. 

 It was one of the last gratings ruled by 

 Schneider under the direction of Professor 

 Rowland, and was the largest grating ever 

 made. Unfortunately, the diamond broke 

 down in the middle of the ruling, and it was 

 found necessary in Sumatra to cover up 

 half of the grating; but notwithstanding 

 this fact, spectra of remarkable brilliancy 

 and definition were obtained. 



At Sawah Loento were placed two instru- 

 ments under the direction of the writer. 

 The spectroscope was a 6-inch flat grating 

 of 15,000 lines, used without a slit in con- 

 nection with a quartz lens of 72-inch focus. 

 The camera had a focal length of 104 

 inches and an aperture of 6 inches, which, 

 however, was stopped down to 4|^ inches. 



This was the instrumental outfit of the 

 governmental parties. 



At Sawah Loento were also situated the 

 Massachusetts Institute party, and Mr. and 

 Mrs. Newall, of Cambridge, England, the 

 work of the former embracing a general 

 photographic program, together with inves- 

 tigations of the magnetic disturbance during 

 the eclipse. Our English cousins had some 



very important spectroscopic problems to 

 carry out. 



The three stations situated within fifty 

 miles of the equator had difficulties to con- 

 tend with that could not be shouldered on to 

 the backs of the Malays. The hot tropical 

 country requires a great amount of rain, 

 and from our experience it seems to get all 

 it needs. At Padang, according to the 

 meteorological reports, there is an annual 

 rainfall of 187 inches, an average of half 

 an inch each day. In fact there is seldom 

 a day without rainfall. Up to the first of 

 May, the sun had hardly been seen by us 

 in Sumatra. The result was that great dif- 

 ficulty was experienced in getting enough 

 clear weather to adjust the instruments, the 

 nights being as cloudy as the days. Profess- 

 or Barnard carried with him some portrait 

 lenses in order to continue his photographic 

 work on the Milky "Way, and carry his in- 

 vestigations into the southern heavens. 

 Those who know Professor Barnard will 

 acknowledge that he tried hard enough to 

 make the exposures, but he failed, owing to 

 continued cloudy weather, to get a single 

 fully exposed plate. 



As the time approached closer and closer 

 to the day of the eclipse, great concern was 

 felt as to the probability of a clear sky for 

 the all-important six minutes shortly after 

 noon, on the day of May 18, 1901. 



At Sawah Loento it dawned clearer than 

 it had been for a week, but about eight 

 o'clock it clouded up and dashed the hopes 

 of everybody to the ground. About ten 

 it cleared beautifully, and our hopes soared 

 again. First contact was observed with a 

 perfectly clear sky, but soon clouds began 

 to gather, and half an hour before totality 

 the sky was completely overcast. 



A direct-vision spectroscope was em- 

 ployed to watch the 'flash,' but so cloudy 

 was it that the first 'flash' passed unnoticed 

 and the total phase had begun before we 

 were hardly aware of it. It remained 



