Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-07

| Is. Probably most OF them agree that II
is an envelope CT very thin matter sur
| rounding the sun, and shining either by
reflected Eight or electrically. But it is
| hard to find out anything about thing
| that can be seen clearly only once in two
| or three years. and then for but few
| seconds. Now, however. the corona and its
changes can BE- observed from day to day
and probably Mr.. Packer has seen more
| OF 1t in the past few months than have al
! the other astronomers of the world since
| the dawn of time.
Packers first photographs were taken
| with camera, Of four-inch aperture
| through screens of tin and lead foil and
! sheet copper. Later he substituted a pin
| mole Tor the camera lens, with great ad
| vantage. He made three or four pictures
| at time, some with the lens, and some
| with the pin hole, and the close agreement
| or detail showed that the pictures were
! real. not the result of some reflection o,
| relraction in his Instrument. This was an
| er astronomers. would be sure to suggest
| that such remarkable results We're prob
| ably Unreliable
The photographs thus taken show that
ire streamers of the corona are very close
| ~ connected with sun spots Every sur,
| spot has its own ray; wherever a promi-
hent ray shoots out in the corona, Il big
sun srot IS sure to be found at the bot
ion OF It. The corona changes, too, with
the number of san spots. This accounts
Tor the conflicting accounts of observers 1T
echpses, no two of whom ever saw the
corona OF the same shape and size. The
reason is now seen to be that its shape
ana size depend Oh the sun srot from which
It's rays sl'rinS. Many of the most promi-
nent rays are twisted spiral-a surpris-
ing fact, lever before noted, and at pres
cnt ineXplicable.
Electrical in It's Nature,
But the most interesting part of the new
discovery is the announcement that it def
nitely proves the corora to be electrical in
It's nature. If this is so, every sun spot
must be vast center of electrical dis
turbance. sending out visible rays into
space The similarity of IN Sc to the much
taiksd-of cathode rays will at once attract
attention. and the announcement of the
discovery, omng as it does close Upon
frof- Roentgens, is something of a coinc-
dence.
Many astronomers have long believed
the coronal streamers to be electric and
nave compared them to those of the au-
rora' but while the aurora is more like the
glow OF partially exhausted tube the
corona is like the cathode rays of a highly
exhausted CrookeS tuhe. Prof Eige!ow of
the weather bureau has often ro;nted out
the likeness between the curves of the cor
onal rays and those of electric or mag
netic lines of force, such as those in which
iiEngs arrange themselves when sprinkled
over magnet. He thinks that they ulti-
mately reach the earth. where they pre-
ioCndly Affect the weather, originating cy-
clonic storms, cold and warm waves etc
The discovery CT Mr.. Packer may thus pu.
/ at our disposal the machinery for studying
the causes that lie at the root of all our
changes Of weather. We can already pre-
Dict pretty well the progress of storm
when it has once started; we may now be
able, by studying series of corona photo
graphs, to tell when and where 1t will
start.
Ihese experiments are strking1y Illus
trated by some performed recently by DR..
Pupin of Columbia, who obtained an arti-
iicial electrical discharge. strongly resem-
bling the corona, from an electrified brass
sphere lnclosed in an exhausted glass
globe.