Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-03-22
NEBULE EXPLAINED.
Instructive Information for Stu.
dents OF Astronomy.
According TO Late Researches Nebule Are
Neither Very Distant Clusters Of Stars
Nor Masses Of Gas, But Merely
Cluster II Mcteorites.

he gave five on his map, writes ]. Norman
Lockyer in Harper's Magazine; and Tychf
Brahe, whose work was done before the in.
venton Of the telescope, although he did
not notice any bodies which we low class
as nebule, was firmly convinced that that
nebulous luminosity which we call the
Milky-Wsy was something entirely differ
ent in It's nature from the stars. He
imagined it to be what he called an ethereal
essence, a sort Of fre-n1ist, so that when IN
his time, In the year 1872, new star ap-
peared. be supposed it to be considerable
agglomeration Of this ethereal fluid.
Calico was able to show that the Milky
Way, the ethereal substance of Tycho,
was only an appearance due to enormous
numbers ct stars lying in the same VISUAL
ray; the stars of which it is composed can
indeed be seen with very small optical
power.
II was not till 1912, few years after the
introduction Of the telescope, that we got
the first real definition of body which we
now call a uebula. The first observation
we owe to SIMON Marius, who stated that
some Of the bodies visible in his telescope
exactly resem bled the appearance produced
by the fame of candle seen through horn.
1t was not till 1855 that the aebula in Orion
was discovered, although now to the trained
eye it is very easily visible, SO that it seems
| rather wonderful that il was not discov-
cred before. In TIA, in England, attention
began to be paid to these bodies, but It was
not until the time of Sir William Herschel
that the most magnificent revelations were
! made. He was the first to construct very
large telescopes, by means of which objects
/ which appear to the eye as excessively dim,
/ or objects entirely invisible to the naked
! eye, may be brought il TO full visibility. In
this way Sir William Herschei convinced
/ himself OF the existence of Q true nebulous
/ fluid differing from stars.
! After not only Sir William Herschel but
/ his son, Sir John Herschel, had ac-
cumulated vast stores Of facts, Lord
Rose took up the story, and made
a telescope very much more powerful
than any which had been employed by the
Herschels. His telescope has hight grasp
ing power compared with the eye of $50, 900.
The chief result Of Lord Rosse's work to
which we need here refer is the idea that in
o great many bodies which had been classed
as nebulR this enormous increase OF optical
power suggested that we were only dealing
with very distant clusters Of stars.
Lord Rose was able to get the suggeS-
ton Of "reso ,vability" II so many bodies
which had be-, classed as nebula by Sir
William Herschel and others that gradually
the idea came to be held that the most neb-
ulous nebula, if we could get sufficient op-
tical power to bear upon it, would be broken
up into stars just as certainly as the Milky
Way had been by Calico.
This would mean that the nebula were
simply clusters of stars 50 infinitely remote
from our ken that even with the power Of
Lord Rosse's instrument they retained the
appearance of an ethereal essence
This was the general opinion in 1864, in
the early days of spectrum analysis, when DR..
Huggins turned his spectroscope one night
to one of the planetary nebulae. At first
he thought that something had gone wrong
in the apparatus, because he could only see
bright line instead Of the usual sort Of
spectrum obtained from star Further
work on other nebule showed him, how
ever, that the spectroscope was doing
its level best, and that the cause, the anon
ally, was really that the nebula gave out
monochromatic light, while stars gave out
light Of all colors.
In some cases another line was seen, easily
proved to be due to hydrogen, and in another
planetary nnebula other observers have
since shown that there is another hydrogen
line visible.
It became Dr. Higgins duty to find out
the origin of the first line observed, and he
came to the conclusion, after considerable
labor, that this line was very nearly, if not
exactly, in the position Of the chief line
seen in the spectrum of nitrogen, and the
suggestion was therefore made that these
nebula were masses of nitrogen and hydro
gen gasses mixed, or if not nitrogen, some
constituent Of nitrogen mixed with hydro
gen. That result made the idea of Lord
Rose concerning the possibility Of the re-
solvability of nebula into stars untenable.
We had to consider from that time that the
light Of the nebul8 came from gas or
vapor, and hencei il was held that the nebula
were masses of gas.
Another explanation of the origin Of the
green line has already been given. II we
study the spectrum OF magnesium, we find
very bright fiuting with its less refrangi-
bic edge absolutely in the position Of the
green line; in the nebulR and in comets the
same line appears, not nearly as in the case
Of the line of nitrogen, but absolutely. But
not only so. We find another line of mag
nesium also visible in the planetary nebulae.
Again, in the spectrum Of magnesium burn
ing In the Bunsen burner can be photo
graphed a line having the exact wave-length
of line also seen in the nebula of Orion,
so that there is a considerable amount of
cumulative evidence that magnesium is the
true origin of this spectrum, the luminosity
being produced by meteorites, the chief con-
stituent of which is a compound of mag
nesium with oxygen, silicon and iron.
We are therefore justified, until some
better explanation has been given, in hold /
ing the view that nebula, like comets, con-
sists Of meteorites. and that they are Meth |
err very distant clusters Of stars nor masses I
of gas
ACCORDING to Prof Beekman roIt was in
vented before weaving. The middle and 4
northern regions Of Asia are occupied by
Tartars and other nations, whose manners
and customs appear to have continued un-
changed from the most remote antiquity,
and to whose simple and uniform mode of .
existence this article seems to be as neces-
sary as food. Felt is the principal sub
stance both Of their clothing and Of their
hsoitations
AN induction col is in reality two coils "a
one. A wire is wound over an iron core to
about half the thickness of the spool or coil;
this wire forms what is called the primary
circuit A second finer wire Is wound over
the first, and is called the secondary circuit
A continuously interrupted current pass
ing over the primary circuit induces re-
verse stronger current in the outside
Or secondary current. The whole IS Ike
q spool wound half-fuII OF moderately coarse
thread. and the rest Of the spool wound with
s finer thread.