The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-04
TRAYS UP IN THE SKIES.
e,RRET p. SERVIsS TELLS OF
THEIR MANY WONDERS.

! c,p We Gulf the Heavenss-Amaz-
ing Possibilities in which May
ENABLE Is to FathOm the Solar
system.
From the Post Dispatch.
r. is but a few years since the Henry
| ,-,-r-rs OF the Paris observatory made
photograph of the beautiful group of
..rs called the Pleiades. which was start
--r fin its revelation Of things which no
amman eye had ever seen before. This
-.aoeraph showed that among those
s-s there was a wonderful intermingling
+ luminous nebulae-some shaped Ike
.--lsl clouds. some looped in festoons of
MYSTERIOUS light. and some running in
Straight lines, thousands of millions Of
niles in length, with stars strung along
---fr course like beaded diamonds on a
silver cord. The great star Alcyone,
which was once thought to be the center
55ut which our sun revolved, appeared
ia the photograph surrounded with vast
d-speries of glowing haze; the star Maia
seemed TO be decorated with nebulous
banners waved by enigmatical winds Of
SPACE and its sister Plead Merope, was
tss center of an immense harp-shaped
mass of stringed and twisted nebulae.
10 telescope had been able to show these
cn9sty companions of the PleiadeS, but
ileir images were plainly imprinted on
Tie Photographic plates which had been
exposed, ia place Of the eye, at the focus
Of the telescope.
Tais was one of the first steps in the
sudden and swift development of astrOn-
0nical photography, which, within ten
years has revealed a new universe, and
10 whose future achievements no astrono-
m-r can venture to set a limit.
These revelations of photography ap-
piled 20 The heavens are important to our
present purpose, in that they indicate one
Ut lhe ways in which the invisible may
i- rendered visible, which SO astOunded
him by what it showed to his eyes when
turned upon The sky, would, within three
centuries, reveal far more wonderful
,hiugs TO the new eyes of superhuman SEN
stNeuess which science was about TO APP
ply 10 it. For the Photographic plate is. in
reality. a kind OF retina which records
Impressions of light too faint to affect the
1eln1 OF our organs OF vision, SO Ihat
when the astronomer places such plate
I'D The eye-end of his telescope what he
really does is to set an eye of more than
mortal power looking through the inStru-
meut This Photographic eye, unlike our
eyes fixes upon itself the image of what
+. sees. and in fixing Ii renders ii visible to
as. Thus nebulae too faint and stars too
eFdHescent ever to impress. human vision
directly, are rendered visible through
their Photographic images.
But 10 is certain that the restless and
cJa4uerlng spirit of man will not remain
satisfied with this achievement. The pho
tographic plate sees what he canont see
partly because it accumulates and fixes
tne effect of the light falling upon it, and
partly because it is peculiarly sensitive TO
radlatiOns of light which we call the aC-
unlc rays. But the actinlc rays and the
rays by means of which we see are, all
told only a small part of the sum of
radiation that a body like the sun or a
star gives forth. The eye perceiVes as
lient only those vibrations of the ether
Whcl vary in length between about one
thirty thOusandth and the one seventy
i've thOusandth of an inch. But we know,
by Variety Of evidence, that the vibra-
Tons extend both ways far beyond the linn
JUS of vision. We canot see the longer BIZ
0rauons nor the shorter ones. If we could
see them things would become visible to
us which are now hidden, and of whose
existence even, We are totally unaware. Is
there any way in which these invisible Vi
grauons, whose origin is really the same
as mat of the visible ones, can be made to
impress our eyes2
Photography has already given us par
uat answer by showing its ability TO form
nNed images of objects too family lum-
nous to affect the retina of the eye. The
discovery of the X rays by Prof Roengen
furnishes, as far as it goes, another ar
hrmatiVe answer by proving that form
OF vibration which Is not visible and which
passes readily through objects that alb
soutely stop all visible light, can never
tneless be turned to visibility in its eff
fects with the aid of either a photo
graphic plate or of contriVance like Mr.
EIison's horoscope.
Now, is this the end? Nobody will be-
ieVe il. On the contrary, il is but the be-
ginning. We shall find other ways, more
or less direct, in which the invisible VI
brauonS that are continually emanating
from every body in the universe will be
caused to affect our senses and convey
their message Of knowledge to the mind
A star, sending its light across uncOunteQ
billions of miles of space sends US some-
thlng else also. 1t sends the impulses that
We call electricity, and its sends all thar
multitude of yet mysterious vibrations. of
whose existence the X rays give a partial
indication. The X rays themselves are
probably included in the radiation that
n0WS to US from the stars We have he
gun to deal with these RAYS in their won
qertul manifestations when they arise
from interStellar space. 1t will be the
story or the spectroscope over again. BY
means OF That instrument we have been
able using only that small fraction of the
lOlal amount of ethereal vibration whicn
Constitutes visible light, to discover what
s lr5 sun , ana the stars are made of; to
ma iron and calcium and sodium ana
A!urogen ana score of other familiar
substances in them. With the same
means, and stin combining ourselves to
Ine messages that light brings US, we have
measured the direction and the velocity of
the motion of the stars situated on the
ooIders OF the universe; have found thar
S oGtls are approaching US while
olhers are rushing away, that some are
IeFoiVlng in gigantic orbits around one
a4otner and others are constrained to
Whirl with terrible velocity about dark
eau unseen companiens-living and dead
SL9As linked by graVitation. Yet again.
through the light that comes from them
We nave penetrated in part the secret of
~ age OF the stars, and are able to say of
Dt4s star that it is in the glowing and ex-
uoerant youth of it's existence; of that
s.ar mat it is middle-aged like the sun:
Slu OF yet another that it is decrepit and
IeIshing, smothered with absorbing va
P s.1S and struck through with the chill Of
stellar death
III so many wonderful facts have been
TT%1lueq through the analysis of light alone
~ ""al snail We not learn when we are able
an perceive and analyze the multitude of
fer ethereal vibrations raining upon US
mn mn all sides, like unread and uninter-
n 80 messages, but to a consciousness
N N, " nose presence and Importance our hui
" M senses are just awakng?
e, w IN the telescope we have enabled the
f65sto penetrate space. By applying pho
al tophy TO the telescope we have extend
l., ,ue conquest into further realm. Now
Min Us nave new kind of telescope which
nm NM ueaI with other forms of radiation as
bet present instruments have dealt with
CO. CO. nut Is such an instrument possible
bo9.5T,t.v able even? We shall see Already,
ma eyet, comes the news that in Califor-
6aa az electric telescope" has even now
~ invented. I do not know the inventor
an ms name is DR.. Frank NJ Close-and 1