The evening times., 1900-06-09

BALTIMORE. June 9.-The Johns Hop |
kins eclipse party has proved the success
of its observations at Pinehurst, N. C,
and the results of the Photographic ex
posures and observations at Pinehurst
and other places as made known yesterday
give substantial evidence of valuable addi-
tions TO the physical knowledge OF the
sun.
These results contradict positively a re-
cent statement of Prof. Henry Crew, of
the Northwestern University. who was
quoted as saying that the observations Of
the eclipse were total failures; that the
development of the plates has been a Sc
ries of disappointments. and the great
question of the composition of the sun,
which it was hoped TO answer more def
nitely, will be little nearer solution.
According to Prof Crews alleged state
ment, the instruments used were too pow
erful, and instead of giving valuable re-
suits left blank records Prof. Crew is a
leading scientist of this country, formerly
connected with the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, and the report was credited by many
learned men.
Prof Joseph S. Ames. director OF the
Johns Hopkins party, said yesterday that
DR.. Crews statement must have been in
correctly reported, and that he had spoken
only for his own party at Griffin, Ca. He,
! OF course, knew nothing of the results at
| other places, as they were yet undevelop-
| ed The failure of the Griffin Photographic
| results was not due to the instruments,
but to an unfortunate negligence of an as
| sistant. the conditions for fine pictures be-
! ing otherwise perfect As a matter of
fact, however. L. z. Jewell. assistant in
spectroscopy and photography at the Johns
| Hopkins University who was with Prof
| Crew, obtained entirely satisfactory visual
observations. including phenomena not
seen at other places.
The plates which bear the precious rec
orcs of the Johns Hopkins party were de-
| Veioped at the university by Mr.. Jewell.
They are slips Of glass an inch wide. 12
| inches long. coated with the usual gelatine
| hlm. showing the spectrum OF the atmOs-
| phere surrounding the sun at the period OF
| totality. as obtained with a Rowland spec
! troseopic grating. The grating breaks ID
| the light coming from the region of the
sun into bright or dark lines. and from
these lines the presence and position Of
| gases in the suns atmosphere are deter
mined The images appear as long series
| OF circles and arcs. with here and there
| little dots showing the prominenceS.
The COrOnaI Lines.
An important point established by one
picture is 10 disprove beyond doubt a
statement made by Prof. H. K Lord, Of
the Ohio State University. to the effect
that substances giving the green coronaI
line We're intimately connected with the
prominences. The picture shows that there
! Is n 10
continuous spectrum of the corOnal stream
ers and the bright lines Of the corona and
the same is true Of other cOronal lines, six
or seven OF which are shown on the plates.
-Four strong ultraviolet coronal lines
appear which have never been seen before
one Of which seems to come from a sub
| stance having the same distribution as ne
green line. The other three ultraviolet
lines have different distribution. and are
: probably due to some other substance than
that which produces the green.
: The most valuable plate was obtained by
a remarkable exposure which was stopped
. Just one second before the totality was
over. 1t shows bright-line spectrum all
the way from yellow, including the we'll
known helium line far into ultraviolet
J This plate was obtained on the Rowland
grating with quartz lens. which decides
conc. lsively the superior brilliancy Of the
grating over prism in many parts Of the
! | spectrum This result is especially note
: worthy as most Of the observers along the
! central line Of totality found the spect -uu
reversing layer either faint or not visible
! at all.
: The continuous spectrum OF the inner
! corona perhaps also me streamers. seem.
] 20 have been unusually strong during thi:
! | eclipse. This is fully shown both BY the
! photographs taken at Pinehurst and aIsc
/ by the higher visual observations at Grif-
] fin, Ga. where the continuous spectrum
! seemed to be particularly strong
: Excellent visual, results were obtained
I by Dr. Nicholas E. Dorsey of the Pine
hurst party, in the polarization of the Iight
] Of the corona, and important photograph,
! results secured by him in conjunction
with l. A Parsons have been an.
uounced. The visual observations prove
conclu5ively that a certain proportion o.
the Light from the middle and outer por-
tions Of the corona is light reflected from
small particles in the corona, possibly me,
teOric matter.
In the photographs the same thing Is
found true of the bright inner corona even
up 10 where it was obscured by the moon
These results were directly opposed 10
those found in the case of the promi-
nences. the light of which IS not poIarfzed
1t is proved, therefore, by the pictures that
the continuous spectrum. due TO reflected
the bright line spectra due to gases in the
prominences. are wholly polarized; In 9th
er words. the light from the prominence
is their own and not reflected sunlight.
A polariscope is used with a direct Wis
ion spectroscope for obtaining spectrum
photographs with pOlarized light The
spectrum photographs, with the exccp Z On
OF one taken with the polariscope, we-a CO.
tanned with one Roland refraction gral.ng
! The photographs obtained with the pris-
matte camera are yet undeveloped.
Parts Of the spectrum which had good
focus gave results never obtained before
In bright III and * calcium lines the
pictures show so or more little promi-
nences, and also a line due to HYDROGEN
which happened to be very close to the
calcium H is seen very distinctly sepa.
rated from il. the variation In the appear
alce Of the prominences in these lines he
/ ing very wide. In another pate the car
| bon bands. due to cynanOgen, are bright
and appear distinctly reversed.
Mr. Jewell, at Griffin. Ca. was the ONLY
| one to obtain view of the ''F'' line re.
1 | versing spectrum At Griffin one of N,
1 blue hydrogen lines was seen nearly three
4 minutes before second contact. and oust,
L a number of other bright lines were ser
later on. a gradual change was seer ir
the Fraunhofer spectrum as the sun
. crescent narrowed and shortened. and ,
; beautiful view was obtained of the bright