The record-union., 1897-04-25


STUDY OF THE SUN.
The Largest Spectroscope in the
World Just Completed.
The largest spectroscope in the world
has just been completed by Professor
John A. Brashear, the famous instru-
ment maker of Allegheny, Pa. 1t has
been made especially for DR.. Hans
Hauswaldt, wealthy scientist of
Madgeburg, Germany, where it 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
power spectroscopes now in use are at
the Royal University, of Dublin, and
the McGill University, of Toronto, Can
ada. These instruments were also made
by Professor Brashear
The powerful concave grating inStru-
ment is twenty-one feet long and will
require room about twenty eight feet
square in which to operate it. 1t is to
be used for physical Investigations of a
very high character, and the design and
construction were settled upon by Pro-
fessor Brashear and DR.. H. Kayser, Of
the University of Bonn.
1t is also very probable that DR..
HausWaldt will have other powerful in
struments of research made by Profess
sor Brashear, as correspondence is now
going on in regard to great physical
and astronomical instruments that are
to be placed in the new labratory now
being equipped by him in Madgeburg.
DIR. Hauswaldt has gained consider
ioI1a g, ~ l., -
ments, 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 power
full spectroscope has a six inch aper-
ture, 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 power
full that where an ordinary spectre
scope would show from 100 to 200 lines
belonging to the spectrum of iron, it
will reveal more than 1000. 1t used to
be considered that a spectroscope that
could show the sodium lines double was
one of great power. The great instru-
ment to be sent to Germany not only
shows each of these lines double, but
with the sun low in the meridian as
many as fifteen lines may be seen be-
tween the sodium lines.
The new spectroscope has its greatest
power, however, in the way of photog
raphy The spectrum of the sun has
been photographed to a length of over
laI !, I;y,ac
from one end to the other. 1t is so ar
ranged that no matter what part of the
spectrum it is desired to photogl aph the
Photographic plate is always in focus
for every part of the spectrum.
This large instrument is also valua-
BILE in making comparisons of anything
that may be burning in the sum-" said
Professor Brashear, in speaking of 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 photograph in
the center of our plate the center of the
sun.
"a bar is now placed over this part of
the plate which has received the i'm
preston of the solar spectrum, and
now we turn on an electric light, in
which we have placed a small piece of
pure calcium. In very brief time the
spectrum of the calcium is photo
graphed above and below the spec
trum that came from the sun. The
plate is now developed, and here we
have a picture of the solar spectrum
~; = 40
photograph Of the metal we have taken.
We can see at once the coincidence of
the lines of the metal 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 in
creases 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 al
most as certain of the elements that
are burning in our great luminary as
those that burn in the furnaces of the
metallurgists. So it is with the gases
and, indeed, all the chemical elements.
Yet, strange to say, while we here on
earth recognize oxygen as the great
supporter of combustion, the most care
full researches with the spectroscope
have failed to show the existence of
oxygen in the sun. | have in my Ii
brary an elaborate little manual giving
Professor Diapers scientific reasons
and proofs that oxygen is burning in
the sun, but it 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 German physicists are the most
exacting scientists 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 as
ISOLATED with him in his work the best
German physicists Of the day. He in
tends, / understand, to devote his for
tue and the rest of his days in making
advanced researches. His laboratory
now far excels those in this country.
and the instruments he is talking of
adding to the equipment will make it
even more admirable. / look for impor-
] tant discoveries in physical science
from the famous little town The cir
cumstances and surroundings certainly
| favor it.
1T has been my great regret that I
have been unable to photograph the
| instrument just made. | have tried. but
it is so large that some part of it is al
ways placed out of focus in an exag-
gerated fashion. A camera would have
to be placed fifty feet away to get any
racultS at all and then they wouId no