Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-06-04
ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.
Technical Description of the
Spectacle's Magnihcence.
HOW IT WAS SEEN AT NORFOLK.


Weather Contradictory Cur
The black disk surrounded by a gilt
tering halo of siIvery light, with a
broad, two horned, famelike wing of
lpearly luster, stretching off to the
ray with bright edges reaching to the
| southeast in a slate blue empyacon,
supported on the tawny orange bands
of the still Illuminated horizon, made
up the total solar eclipse of 1900, says
Harvey Maitland Watts, q correspond
] ent of the Philadelphia Press. Near
i the northern edge of totality the OBJ
\ servers at Norfolk could not count on
the depth of the shadow, possibly only
at the central lines of totality, but the
spectacle was none the less magnifi-
cent, none the less thrilling, none the
less fraught with a sense of the stu
pendous, as the richly yellow light
from the rapidly decreasing crescent
took the form of n golden star of IN
| eXampled magnitude and, with a rush
of an evanescent, but pall-like, blue,
black shadow from the southwest, to-
tally began.
Before this the partial phases had
possessed a special interest, but with
the advent of totality all was forgotten
in the glorious novelty of the climac-
| teric phenomena. The very air seemed
to tremble in apprehensive shudders.
| The sky, a steely blue, hard and
| threatening while the partial phases
were just concluding, took on a deeper
tinge as the shadow moved through the
air with a seemingly curious pulsation,
as if hesitating to hide the brilliant
orb, still radiant, though but a speck
of its former glory remained. This
hesitation was in the mind, not in ma
ture, for a second more and the last
starlike CLEAN from the edge of the
sun was gone, and, instead of the IA
miliar orb about the yet black disk of
the moon, the cOrOnal halo was seen
In extreme brilliancy with the great
wing stretching 10 the southeast and
northwest along the equatorial dame
ter, and the rayed glory, spreading
from the two poles in tufts of pearly
light, alternating with short streamers
of snow white incandescence. The
general circular halo was of unusual
brilliance, while the coronal wings,
reaching at least four diameters each
way from the moons black disk, which
means Il stretch of some four million
miles into space, were like the eclipse
Of 1878, in part; but, to the triumph of
the prophesying astronomers, such as
Hansky and such physicists as Bige-
low, were very like the type predicted
for 1900.
The wings, however, differed mark
eddy in character, that stretching to-
ward the northwest being broad with
bright edges and interlacing streamers
that made two very marked horns on
its upper and lower extremity. Its
center faded away sooner than the
edges. there being all gradations in 1t,
from the brilliant, glittering inner coro-
nal hue to the pale, milk white lustar,
barely separated from the blue black
sky The lower or southeastern wing
or ray was rather narrower than its
upper equatorial extension and con-
verged at point about four diameterS
from the moons disk. Its edges We're
bright and certain inequalities of light
gave it a beautiful streaming effect.
These two great extensions with the
radiating polar rays made the eclipse
all that the mind could conceive of in
the way of magnificence, even If the
thin, crimson atmosphere was not Wis
ible to the naked eye.
The central fact about the immediate
effect of the eclipse on the weather
was that it was largely psychological.
not physical, the actual change of the
thermometer being about two degrees
for the change in the temperature OF
the air during totality, falling from CD
TO ca degrees, while the barometer was
only affected in the thousandth part of
an inch, ranging from 50.101 inches be-
fore TO 30.10S at the moment of total
ity, falling again to 30.10o at SIS. The
thermometer at totality was, however.
about 4 degrees below what it should
have been had the sun not been OBJ
scured. and its weakened rays affected
the diurnal rise in temperature, which
at the time of totality, S:53, would
have reached II degrees.
The mere fact. however, that the
burning light Of the sun was removed
from ones face made the physical chill
seem much greater than the actual
chill of the air. and since, by the usual
association of ideas, the absence of the
suns rays. the fall of twilight inevita-
bly, suggests GOODNESS. To many the
chill was very decided and added to
the general subjective thrill that every
one felt as this splendid spectacle was
unfolded TO his eyes and, as it were,
palpably felt by the very body itself as !,
ones physical and aerial surroundings
were enveloped in the steely blue gloom /,
that came SO swiftly and so swiftly /,
departed
If the belief in 4 decided change in !,
the weather conditions were largely
lima gined, so fer as a point so near the ,
edge of totality as Norfolk is concern |
ed, there is contradictory evidence as
to whether shadow bands also belong
to the limbs of the fancies that are
bred in the minds eye. That they are
illusionary has been suggested by no