The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-04-04
THE sun.
Largest SpectrOscOpe Has Not Re-
veaIed Oxygen i'm the Burning Orb.
New York Herald.

New York Herald.
The largest spectroscope in the world has
}nst oeen t fbomfPalmeuoeo1 s ;D Dy men 1 maker Of
Allegheny, Pa. 1t has been made especially
for DR.. Hans Hauswaldt, a wealthy scient-
list of Magdeburg. where 1t Will
be used in physical research, and it is ex-
pected that many important discoveries
will be made with it's aid. The two most
the Royal University, of Dublin, and the
McGill University, of Toronto. Canada
These instruments were also made by Prof.
Brashear.
The powerful concave grating instrument
is twenty-one feet long. and will require a
room about twenty-eight feet square in
physical Investigations of a very high
character, and the design and construction
were settled upon by Professor Brashear
and DR.. H.. Kayser, of the University of
Bonn.
1t is also very probable that DR.. Haus-
waldt will have other powerful instruments
of research made by Professor Brashear,
as correspondence is now going on in re-
gard TO great physical and astronomical
new laboratory now being equipped by him
in Magdeburg. DR.. Hauswaldt has gained
considerable fame in Germany by his ex-
periments, and he is sparing nothing in
the equipment of his laboratory, which,
when complete, will be one of the finest in
Europe. and will far excel any in this
country.
The grating to be used on the powerful
spectroscope has a six-inch aperture, and
Is ruled with 10000 lines. So accurately are
these lines ruled that there is no difference
any greater than three-millionths of an
inch between any of them. This instrument
is so powerful that where an ordinary spec
troscope would show from 100 to 200 lines
belonging to the spectrum Of iron, it will
reveal more than 1000. 1t used to be con-
sidered that a spectroscope that could show
the sodium lines double was one of great
power. The great instrument TO be sent
to not only shows each of these
lines double, but with the sun low in the
meridian as mlnV as fifteen limos ma ho
seen between the sodium lines.
The new spectroScope has it's greatest
power, however, in the way of photography.
The spectrum of the sun has been photo
gr3phed to a length of over sixty feet. lit
orally crowded with lines from one end TO
the other. 1t is so arranged that no matter
what part Of the spectrum it is desired to
photograph the Photographic plate is al
ways in focus for every part of the spec
trum.
This large instrument is also valuable in
making comparisons of anything that NAV
be burning in the sun" said Prof. Brashear,
In speaking or his great work. Suppose,
for instance. we wish to determine If the
metal calcium is in a state of gas in the
light that is coming from the sun. We have
only TO turn the sunlight into the
slit of this great spectroscope and photo
graph in the center Of our plate the center
of the sun.
"A bar is nov placed over this part of the
plate which has received the impression of
the solar spectrum, and now We turn on an
electric light, in which We have placed a
small piece of pure calcium. In a very
brief time the spectrum of the calcium is
photographed above and below the spec
trum hat came from the sun. The plate
is now developed, and here we have a pic
ture OF the solar spectrum, running as a
narrow strip between the photograph OF
the metal we have taken. We can see at
once the coincidence OF the lines of the met
al with any lines that may be in the sun.
If the lines are in absolute coincidence we
may infer from the law of probabilities.
which increases as the lines increase. that
the metal We have burned in our electric
arc is burning in the great fire of the sun.
Many hundreds of these photographs
have been taken and we are now almost
as certain of the elements that are burning
in our great luminary as those that We
burn in, the furnaces Of the metallurgists.
So it is. with the gases and. indeed, ali the
m elements. Yet. strange to say.
while we here or earth recognize oxygen as
the great supporter OF combustion. the most
careful researches with the spectroscope
have failed TO show the existence OF oxy-
gen in the sun. i have I'm my library an
elaborate little manual giving Professor
Diapers scientific reasons and proofs that
oxygen Is burning In the sun. but IL has
been strongly proved the opposite.
Extraordinary care has been taken TO
make the instrument as absolutely perfect
as is possible for human hands. The Ger
man physicists are the most exacting scien-
fists In the world. and their tests of the
great spectroscope will be most rigorous.
DR.. Hauswaldt has established one of the
| finest laboratories Of its kind in the world.
and he has associated with him in his work
the best German physicists of the day. He
intends, / understand. TO devote his fortune
and the rest of his days in making adj
vanced researches His laboratory now far
excels these in this country and the instru-
| ments he is talking OF adding TO the equip
ment will make IL even more admirable.
look for important discoveries in physical
science from the famous little town. The
circumstances and surroundings certainly
1T has been my great regret that I ave
| been unable to photograph the instrument
: just made. / have tried. but It Is so large