The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-01-06
AMERICAN WOMAN
FOUND THREE new
SUNS IN 1910
Mrs. Fleming, Who Does Her Work
At Home Has Found Ten Dazzling
Brothers of Our Sun in
Past Decade.
Other Women of United States Also
Make Important Sky
Discoveries.
BY w. G. SHEPHERD.

lam bnlDJE, mdSb., Jan. O.---Out
in space, hundreds Of years ago,
new sun was born. We don't knos
how a mass OF matter greater thar
our sun was set afiame. Its rays
flashed out into space at a rate o!
almost 100000 miles a minute. Yeai
after year they sped, while men on
this earth were born and lived and
died.
At last, one day last June. thess
rays completed their journey to tho
earth. They were very faint anf
weak, for they had travelled fast ans
far. But no one on earth saw then
come. No learned scientist welcome'
| them then.
In October OF last year, there wa
a gathering OF the worlds creates
astronomers in the United States. Oh
the morning OF the 18th of Octobei
1 they were the guests Of Prof. Edwars
S. Pickering, head of the Harvard OBJ
servaIory, and they came, wise, large
ly bewhiskered, and carrying, mani
OF them. just a little bit Of the polite
scorn which European scientists are
inclined to hold for the scientific
methods OF the new world.
| Across the street from the observa
tory Mrs. Wilhelmina Fleming arose
from the breakfast table, cleared the
table, swept the dining room, washed
the dishes, and when the grocery man
came, ordered the days supply of food
from him. She wrote her usual daily
letter to her 20-year-old son, in a
| Utah mining town, and then she went
across the street to the observatory
| where, day after day, for 25 years,
80. ~ In
plates Of the heavens.
She was at her desk with smiling
morning face when Prof. Pickering
and the great scientists passed
through the room, a mighty train OF
wisdom. Prof. Pickering stopped and
said in pleasantly: You haven't
found a new sun for many days. Can't
you find us one"
I'm see what can do" replied
Mrs. Fleming. Here are some boxes
OF plates from Peru that l haven't
opened. There may be new sun IN
them" u
The scientists were absent from
the room about 20 minutes. In the
meantime, following her daily routine,
Mrs. Fleming began to scan the new
plates. reading the ribbon-like marks.
each cne Of which means q star or q
sun, with an expert eye.
Suddenly in the mass OF lines on q
plate, her marvelously developed signt
caught a new queer-looking line. she
FASTENED 10 find other camera plates
which had been taken on previous
evenings There il was on them
the story of the new sun. told Dy the
weak faint rays that had Travelled
millions OF miles. But the plates
taken before June did not snow the
presence Of rays. That meant that
the sun, as new suns go, was almost
brand new to this earth.
When the scientists returned to the
room, Prof. Pickering, following out
his Joke. said smilingly, We'll, did
the boxes contain a new sun!
They did" said Mrs. Fleming.
AS the scientists gathered about the
woman, she showed them her discov-
cry on the plates.
And that night, when darkness had
fallen. the eye of the great Harvard
telescope n asturned to the heavens
where the new sun had been poIh'
and the leading astronmers OF the
world marveled as they saw uhe
, STRANGER which had been found by
woman.
OF the II new suns discovered dur
ing the past 25 years, Mrs. Fleming
found ten. During the year 1910 she
found two. one on Oct. l and one on
OCT -. third new sun was dis-
covered by another woman at tne
Harvard observatory, Miss E. J. Can
= non The date OF her discovery was
Nov. |.
I'u 10 within the last few days or
. the wear. il looked as II American
women held supreme honors for the
yrar in Christopher-Columb the
skies. but on the evening OF Dec. So,
Dr Espin OF England found new sun
He cabled the discovery TO the har-
ward observatory. The women there
there are ) OF them-hurried to the
camera plates. and within half an
lour they were able TO tell DR.. Espln.
hy cable. more about the new sun ne
had discovered than he could ever
find ont himself
We would have found II ourselves
in time said Mrs. Fleming.
Mss : lgaavitt, of Harvard has
also found one new sun in her life
fIme. and in a previous year Miss
Cannon discovered another. Thus, OF
- new suns found in the last quarter
century. these three American women
haze found l2.