New-York tribune., 1901-04-20
THE NEW SPECTRUM.
PROFESSOR s. P. LANGLEY'S RE-
SEARCHES.
ABLE PAPER READ BEFORE THE MA
TIoNAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
fBY TELEGRAPH TO THE rRrBusEl

A.
TIoNAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
[BY TELEGRAPH TRIBusEI
washington, April 19--Before the National Acad-
emv Of Sciences the other day Professor s. p
-,eIey read paper of unusual interest and value
- 4Tbe New Spectrum embodying the results of
.,s study Of twenty years. Not the least striking
<..+,re Of the address the suggestion that IN
-.s+igation Of the unexplored part of the solar
ac+-ru may disclose secrets having an intimate
station TO the SUMS seasonal changes and their
ssect in stimulating diminishing the productive
orgv Of the earth. The members of the academy
"a, before them the wall an extended solar
,.ctrur, small portion Of the beginning of which
:, the left, about foot long, the visible
enactrum known to Sir Isaac Newton. Beyond
.to+ and beyond the red end on the right, the
.,,nense invisible region where nothing known
- exist until the year 1SO0 when Sir William
Irs-schel found heat there with the thermometer.
,ftsr that scarcely anything done until Mr..
ToneIev's researches in 1881, when this heat
.s found to be most unequally distributed, coming
a. matches here and there. Next it was inferred
.ber than proven that this was due to the exist
ce Of something like dark lines or bands re-
rbling those called Fraunhofer lines in the
,,er spectrum. No then knew how far this
aectrurn extended, but the academy's own dis
,tne1,ished member. DR.. John Draper, announced in
+her terms that the same scale on which the
,arg+h of the visible spectrum would be one, the
.a-v end Of the invisible and Of any spectrum at
al would be less than three
,fr langley about twenty years ago had proved
=. actual measurement with the thermope that
s enectrun extended beyond this and a French
hse,ver had guessed rather than shown that 1t
extended further for there was then no way OF
.oasuring the distance in wave lengths MI.
-,olex 10 accomplish this, invented the boom-
eter, an instrument which now indicates the one
tbousand-millionth Of a degree centgrade
THE FIRST DISCOVERY.
,,or- the early use Of this and about its first
discovery he asked permission of the academy 70
-ecan a personal reuliniscence One day in 1897
whom near the summit Of Mount Whitney, in the
cier,a Nevadads alone and at altitude OF l2c"o
4os+ he there with this newly invented instrument
..s working on this invisible spectrum MI.
1angey's previous experience had been that Oh
,ost scientific men, that very few discoveries coe
with a surprise; they usually the fruit OF lhe
work of years In this case, almost the only one
IN his experience, he had had the sensations OF
one who makes sudden discovery. He went down
the spectrum noting the evidences OF invisible neat
die out on the scale Of the instrument, until ne
came 20 the apparent end even OF the Invisible,
beyond which the most prolonged researches OF
Investigators had shown nothing up TO that time
There he watched the Indications grow fainter and
fainter until they, too, ceased at the point WheFe
the latest French investigators had found as they
deemed the very end OF the end. BY some happy
thought he pushed the indications of this delicate
instrument into the region still beyond In the
still air Of this lofty region the sunbeams passed
unimpeded, and the Of heat, which had fallen
10 nothing, began to rise again There was some
thing there. For he found, suddenly and unexpect-
edly a new spectrum of great extent, wholly un-
known to science, whose presence was revealed by
the new instrument the bolometer. 1t was after
ward proved that In this region was the principal
seat Of the changes which affect climates the
crops and agriculture.
He had been working for nearly fifteen years to
map out this region 1t was now before the acad-
emy. His auditors could by its extent on the
map that If the visible spectrum sometimes called
the Newtonian spectrum, was represented by
length of one foot, the new spectrum extended 10
a length OF nearly twenty feet on the same scale
and through the greater part of this immense ex-
tent the discoveries had been added solely by the
bolometer, an instrument which is so sensitive to
heat and IN such narrow portions tnat u Hnight
be called an eye which saw IN the dark what was
what was dark to the eye beirg cold to the bolom-
eter, that this infinitely delicate instru-
that which is invisible cropping its way in the dark,
wherever dark line was present II felt 1t as cold
not hundredth of inch apart. and in this way
were mapped before the academy more than haoy lUo
laid down by Kirchhoff and Bunsen in the visible
was sensitive. The first observers. like Sir John
Hersche, who succeeded his father in the research
OF heat or cold, and indicated them with possible
error of half degree or So
PROMISE OF FUTURE UTILITY.
In this case the hundreds of lines which had been
thus groped for had their places settled with
certainty corresponding 10 lne pIeCiSlo VI dSlio-
nomical measurement Of visible things the prob
able error of measurement Of each one Of these
being less than one second. Mr.. Langley said that
in the brief time he had to speak he could only
allude TO the most important feature of these re-
Searches which were not their dellcacy or pre-
cison but the promise they gave of future utility
Eve-y form of life on the earth, without exception
is maintained by the So much is known; but
studies such as these pointed TO some ultimate
knowledge of the way in which the sun maintains
life which has hitherto been hidden Charts drawn r1
distinctly the spectrum's progressive changes
through spring summer autumn and winter, ana
there is a probability Of discovering how future
and their effects upon the crops somewhat similar
to those recorded day by day by the Weather
Bureau, but infinitely more far reachlng, might De
predicted from the direct study OF the sun Joseph
was able to predict years OF plenty ana
years of famine. The scientists are sun lar
from being able to do this; but it is not too mucn
10 say that these more recent studies stroLsIy
point in the direction of some coming power OF
prediction. -.
Mr. Langley referred however. to the fact that
he describing the work OF twenty years, anu
hours Of the academy's meeting, and could not en-
large upon the future. He had the honor 10 pIte-
to the academy book, the first volume or tne
annals Of the Smithsonian Astrophyslcal CpseIF5,
atory which would give in detail the facts ne ild
now no time to give, and which he hoped Would
show that the observatory had fulfilled the lnten-
thing Of not only abstract scientific interest," nul
gave promise of rendering service 10 asrcuItuie:
and he dismissed this long part or the "orh t oL
his life with the hope that it would lead IN coming
years to great utilities the provision OF coming
harvests, founded relations between me |a sHa
sons. the crops and their great prooucer' 'iie o
&--
THE GOLDSBOROUGH BREAKS DOWN.
Washington April ls-Like almost every one OF
sra- Il dad fn