The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-12-21
TIE SOLAR ECLIPSE.


have been arranged by board com
posed of Commodore John G. Wal
ker, Chief of the Bureau of Naviga-
ton; Captain Pythian, Superintend-
ent of the Naval Observatory; Prof.
Asaph Hall, of the Naval Observa-
tory, and Prof Simon Newcomb,
Superintendent of 1.-The National
Almanac" The expedition will be
divided into two divisions, one Of
which will be under the direction of
Prof. Joseph Russell, of Washington,
and the other under the supervision
of Prof. Todd, of Amherst. Prof.
Russell is an expert in solar photog-
raphy. He will have charge of the
corps detailed to obtain photographs
of the eclipse in it's various phases.
Professor Todd was formerly a
Lieutenant Commander in the United
States Navy. Permission has been I
granted by the Portuguese Govern
ment for the expedition to land at
coast of Africa Thence the party
will push on inland to Maxima on
the Quanza river. The two divisions
will separate and will establish diff
ferent stations near that point.
The Pensacola will possibly make
Madeira first, but she may go direct
to Cape Vincent, in the Cape de
Verde Islands. There she could
coal up and get the mails. To that
point it will probably take thirty
days, and a week more would bring
the ship to her destination. A de-
tail from her crew may be sent to
assist the scientists in their work.
The drudgery ashore, however, will
be done by the natives. The heat is
intense and the climate so unhealthy
that all manual labor is performed
by the hired natives on the coast.
The crew and officers of the Pensa-
cola number $685. Captain A. r.
Yates is her commander. The Off
GERS expect to be absent from New
York about four months.
David Peck Todd, of Amherst, who
will have control of one of the divis-
ions, is the son of Sereuo Edward
Todd, and was born at Lake Ridge,
New York, March 10, 1856. He was
in charge of the expedition sent
from the United States to Japan to
observe the eclipse of the sun in
1887.
Professor Todd, who has charge
of one branch of the African corps
of observation, was recently inter
viewed by reporter, to whom he
made the following statements: "a
great advance has been made in
astronomical photography in recent
1 years, and if the weather is fair we
: hope to get data which will enable
! us to learn a good deal more of the
. nature of the sun than is known at
: present We shall carry twenty
! cameras and the largest one will be
: forty feet long. All of the photo
graphic apparatus is worked auto
: matically by the electro-pneumatic
e system, and all have to do will
: be to get everything in readiness.
a Not single man will be needed to
E remove the plates or do anything
Q else afterward. It is expected that
the voyage to st. Paul de Loanda,
> where the party will land, will take
about forty-five days. Professor
> vice will have charge of the meteor
illogical branch of the expedition.
= He Will use an thermometer in get
S ting the velocity Of the wind, a neu-
r phoscope for observing the move
r ment of the clouds, and will send
out number of red toy balloons for
ascertalning the movements of the
wind at a higher altitude than the
!. ships masts. A naval officer will
t also be deputized to make soundings
, of the ocean as the vessel proceeds
5 Sir Wilton Thompson's method
a will be used in making the sound
: ings, which will be taken every
twenty four hours or so.
7 ''The total eclipse" said Professor
Todd, will be visible in narrow
path. This. path is about 5000
4 miles long, only 100 miles wide and
extends nearly its entire distance
a over the ocean. 1t begins in the
Caribbean Sea and skirts along the
northern coast of South America,
being visible at only one point
! there, French Guinea. It then
' moves eastward until it strikes
/ Africa, few hundred miles south
: of the Congo River. There are no
islands In the Atlantic from which it
con be viewed, and we selected
Africa as the best point for our
work. An expedition will go from
; the Lick Observatory in California
r to French Guinea and view the
: eclipse there. Though they will not
f have to go so far and be subjected to
$ as many dangers as we will, they
will labor under the disadvantage OF
not having quite as much time to
view the eclipse as we will have,
and also of seeing it in the morning
, before it has gotten high in the
5 heavens.
a The eclipse will be viewed from
t Maxima, on the Quanzo River, about
t 100 miles southeast of St. Paul de
Loanda. It is pretty bad place, [
should say. The country to the
i. south is inhabited by cannibals, the
i Quissamos, and the river is full OF
: crocodiles, so full, in fact, that the
D native women, who wash their
{ clothes in the river, have to have a
3 part of the water fenced off in order
f to keep the crocod1les from eating