Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-05-27

IN tnlS country along LIE todl linc, a.
follows:
Louisiana-Houma, Poydras, New Or
leans, Pa~incourtville, Napoleonville, Cen
~treville, Franklin.
Observation-Disclosures Bay st. Louis.
Biloxi. Ocean Springs, Americas, Leakes-
vile.
Vernon, Mobile, Bay Minette. Castleber-
ry, Pin Apple, Greenville, Fort Deposit.
Highland Home. Union Springs. Mat.
thews. Montgomery, Tallassee,. Port
Mitchell, L~oachapoka, Auburn, Smiths
Georgia-West Point, Columbus, Talbot
ton, Macon, Griffin, Covington. Athens,
Charlottesville, Carnak, Leyerett, Elber-
ton.
South Carolina-Mount Carmel. Troy,
Watts, Saluda, Hodges, Greenwood, Cross
Hill, Chapels, Prosperity, Trenton, Little
Mountain, Santuck, Lewis. Lancaster,
Cheraw.
North Carolina-Monroe, wadesboro,
Rockingham. ~Laurinsburg, Fayetteville.
Moncure. Peterborough, Raleigh, Auburn,
Selma, Lewisburg, Spring Hope, Nash
Vile, Wilson, Rocky Mountain, Tarboro,
Scotland Neck, Weldon, Winton, Gates,
vile. Willeyton.
Observation-Disclosures, Norfolk, Cape
Henry, Hampton Institute.
These stations are equipped with tel
escapes, photograph apparatus, spec
%tographs, and various other instru-
ments, and experts will observe the
corona of the Sun, and others watch
for the supposed inter-Mercurial plan
ct, Vulcan, claimed to have been seen
by Lescarbot in 1859 and by Watson
and Swift in 1878. Others still will
| foEo n~hntn0ronhc for fltfrrO cffthy
make magnetic observations, catch the
! s~pectograph lines of the corona, and
make a dozen other observations of a
very technical description. This work
is generally divided among the sta
tons, which work in unison and after
a carefully prepared programme, but
at a few of the larger stations, like
that established by the Lick observ-
atory at Thomaston, Ga. or the Naval
observatory at Pinehurst, N. c., all
branches of the work will be prose-
cuted by a large staff. Of this work
the most important is the study of the
corona of the sun, the search for Vul-
can and the spectoscopic examina-
lions of the light bands. OF the coro-
ma, or so-called atmosphere of the sun,
Rev. Martin S. Brennan, of st. Louis,
an eminent astronomer, says:
Astronomical Instruments. including
the wonderful speetroscope, have deter
mined to a certainty the constituent parts
of the sum-" says Father Brennan. 1t
used to be necessary to await an eclipse
to makei Investigations of the sun, but the
spectroscope has enabled men to tell ex-
actly the elements that enter into the
composition of the great solar mass. The
only possible results expected are from
Photographic and telescope observations
of the corona, that mysterious star-like
halo which spreads out from the sun just
before, during and just after the totality
of an eclipse, and at no other time. Moth
ing definite has vet been learned about
this corona. The spectroscope shows from
1t a single bright green line, which corre-
spends to no known element upon this
earth.
This corona is a beautiful thing. 1t is
enormous in size, spreading out to a dis
lance of from SOC, 900 to IA, 900, 900 miles from
the suns surface. The maximum circum-
ference of it is approximately fifteen
times the circumference of the sun. Its
color ranges from a pearly white to a
deep red. 1t is of almost infinite tenuity
ana has no counterpart in the material
composition of our planet.
" nix Il Dtti IOllllUS dClllltlt
learned of the composition of this corona,
there has been a vast amount of specula-
ton concerning it. Professor Hastings
thinks II is produced by attraction on the
moons edge. This phenomenon of diff
traction may be seen in the early morn
ing when the rising sun fringes with a
line of light objects on the horizon. 1t is
known that the corona is not a solar at
moSphere. 1t is, however, a solar appen-
dage, and may be the resultant of the ac-
tlOn OF electrical repulsiOn in one direc-
ton and of gravity in the other, upon
some very a~ttenuated substance. 1t does
not gfaV1tate upon the suns surface nor
snare IN Its rotation. The spectroScope
would seem to make it a compound, part
" of a self-luminous gas, principally n.y.
drogen, and the unknown substance of
the green line, and partly of solid or
liquid particles rejecting sunlight.
-Ihe corona does not present the ap-
pearance of an even rim around the sun.
IL has rather the appearance of a start
mas been called a starry halo. Some theo-
RES are that IL is composed of debris from
comets and meteorS, but this theory does
not lind any particular number of uphold
ers. 1t is possible that il is COMPOSED OF
some entirely new substance much light
er than hydrogen"
Be sure to be up with the lark to-
morrow morning, provide yourself
with smoked or colored glass. and see
the great event. As said, while not
total in Wheeling, it will be very near
ly so. In London they have not seen
a total eclipse since 100, and will not
see one until 250O