St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-15

has to the largest extent measured
the heat of the sun, inventing for
the purpose the bolOmeter, by means
of which the temperature of sun
beam can be tested to the millionth
of a degree. He has given US our
best idea of the wonderful spots on
the suns surface, and has best shown
how this great body may practically
affect the earth and eventually be
better used to its advantage. Mr..
Langley, who originated the system
attic time service by which the clocks
of our cities are now regulated from
the observatories of the country and
bv which the railroads still run their
trains without danger of accidents
through varying time. 1t is he who
has made some of the greatest ad-
vances in the study of the problems
of the air, and of the physical prin-
ciples upon which aerial navigation,
if it is ever realized, must rest.
The most of these experiments and
observations were made by Mr..
Langley while he was the head OF
the observatory at Pittsburg, though
he was then constantly supplement-
ing them by others which he carried
on at high attitudes all over the
world. In the plains of Spain, on
the edge of the crater Of Mount Act
ma. in Sicily, upon Pixies Peak, in
Colorado, and on the snowy sum-
mits of the Sierra Nevadas, in Cali
fornia, he has been, not as tourist
for an hour, but spending long days
and nights studying the heavens,
catching the changes on the sun
surface, and trying to learn their
practical applications for the use
of mankind. He is in a minor degree
carrying on observation and expert
ment today, though his time and en-
ergies are necessarily almost wholly
devoted to the administration of the
great institution of which he is the
head.
A CHAT WITH LANGLEY.
This man is now sixty-one years
young. His life has been packed
with the hardest of work, but his
eye is bright, his step is firm, and
he has today as much vitality as
any of the younger officers of the
institution. He is, 1 believe, the
busiest man in Washington, for he
carries on his scientific experiments
only in the intervals of his admin
istrative work, and it requires a spe-
cial appointment made some time in
advance for me to secure q chat with
him. I found him charming talk
er, full of good nature and overflow
ing with apt quotations and fun.
There is nothing pedantic about him.
He dropped for the time all technical
language, and in everyday words, at
my request, tried to convey to me
some idea of his wonderful work.
asked him a number of questions
about himself. He did not like to
answer these. He wanted to put him
self in the background, but I feel
that the people will be interested in
his personality, and in the story of
how an ambitious boy "hitched his
wagon to the stars" and got there.
Upon my asking him when he was
first attracted to the study Of the
heavens, he replied:
"I cannot remember when I was
not interested in astronomy. I re-
member reading books upon the sub
ject as early as at nine, and when
was quite a boy 1 learned how to
make little telescopes, and studied
the stars through them. Later I
made some larger ones, and, though
they were, Of course, nothing like
those we have here, I think myself
they were very good for boy. One
of the most wonderful things to me
was the sun, and as to how it heated
the earth. used to hold my hands
up to it and wonder how its rays
made them warm, and where and
how the heat came from. asked
Taany Questions, but I could get no
satisfactory replies. and some of