White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1869-07-15
The Comm. ECLIPSE of the Sun.

The Coming Eclipse Of the Sum.
Demonstrated, next to Omnipo-
tence." once said the philosophical Alb
rsham Lincoln. "is the gres'est word in
our language" AMI the greatest truths
of the science Of astronomy are demon
strsted in the precision with which for
months and years ahsad erlipsss of the
sun and moon are predicted. ard the line
Of the moons shallow across the earth or
of the earth's shadow over the moon.
OF course these calculations all depend
upon the precision of the snblima clock
work or our solar system. whirh has been
demonstrated as abs -olntely infallible. No
human chronometer, for instance. has yet
been made to run within it's small com.
pass the circuit of the year with the pre-
cision with which this rolling globe We
inhabit completes its yearly circle of six
hundred millions of miles around the
ann. The delicate perfection Of such
stupenious machinery is simply incon
ceivable; but it is demonstrated. and WI
must work from that point. because VI
can go no further. ~
And so. on the 8:h Of August next. VI
are promised that sublime phenomenon
when the sun
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
| Or half the nations, and with fear Or chang
| Perplexes monarchs.
The eclipse will be a total one. begin
ming at sunrise of the 9Th in the Pac'fi'
Ocean. east Of Japan. in latitude thirty
six degrees and ffty-three minutes.s AM
the line of the total eclipse crossing int
Alaska, runs thence sou,heastwardly y
across the Continent, ending in the At
lantic Ocean off the North Csrolin'
coast from Beaufort at sunset. 1t vii
be the sunset Of the 7th on this coast
while it will be sunrise Of the Sth on tn
Pacific, near Japan. In this city tn
eclipse will begin at twelve minutes pas
five ?. NJ, and will end at sunset. Elk
tensive preparations sre in progress by
company OF government officers for al
expedition to lows under Professor vii
liam Harkness for the purpose of obser
wing the eclipse; for very interesting an
important demonstrations are made from
these sclipses. reaching even to the m ate
rials OF the sun itself. Professor Hsrk
ness will set up in his observatory nea
Des Moinss. and viii be provided wit
all the necessary Instruments. including
three telescopes for Photographic. spec
troscopic and meteorological observa
tions. Vsrious colleges and observa
tories of different States along the lin
will also take part in these scientific oh
servations. and we expect some savan
from Enrope to assist on the occasion
A general storm. however. may spoil a.
these arrangements between Iowa an
North Carolina. and so the governmer
should have an observer stationed we
back on the lofty dry plains of Dacotaf
where the sky is almost certain to b
clear. As for Alaska. "where it rain
and SHOWS always" the chance will b
verv slim.
| List year on the l7;h Of August. 'her
was a total eclipse of the sun in the E as'
ern hemisphere. crossing Alden. on th
Red Sea. and thence over the Continer
to Africa. Very gratifying results wer
obtained from the scientific observation
made at Alden, Bombay and other po 'nt'
I and from these experiments and the ne'
instruments employed therein still MOI
valuable and instructive facts. it is e,
pected. will be established from the mol
elaborate preparations for thu comm
eclipse. The government at Washingto
has the instruments and the astronomer
end in their behalf every possible precar
tion. with the surest localities for an ur
clouded sky and pure atmosphere o
the line of total observations, should /
adopted to insnre for the observations tn
fullest attsinable success.-N Y. Herals