Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-20

elsewhere in this issue.
TT HHEN James Smithson wrote
his will making bequest of
M half million dollars for the
w founding of an institution
for 1.-The increase and diffu-
sion of knowledge among men, he build
ed better than he knew. Perhaps never
in history has a half million dollars
yielded such splendid returns that with
which James Smithson endowed the insti-
tuition which bears his name. Many of
the most portentous discoveries in the
history of science have been made
through the activities of the Smithsonian
Institution. The foundations of the tele-
graph and the telephone were laid by its
iirst secretary. Joseph Henry, was also
the under-structure of the science Of me-
teorology It's second secretary, Spencer
F. Baird, instituted the work of fish cul-
ture, without which the food fishes of
this country. preyed upon by their natural
! enemies. and gathered in by the millions
by man. probably would by the present
time be as scarce as is the buffalo, which
in colonial times swarmed across the
plains of the Mississippi valley in count
less millions.
Its third secretary, Samuel P. Langley
is credited with the beginning of the
transmission of time signals as applied
to railroad operations in the United
States. 1t was his work. also. which
demonstrated the remarkable fact that
the FREELY is forty-nine times as efficient
as a lighting agent as the average gas
jet, and which laid the foundation of a
series of investigations which may yet
prove vastly important to mankind. He
also first planned a systematic effort to-
ward mastering the problems involved in
the transmission of the heat and light
OF the sun to the earth, and initiated the
Investigations which are being made by
all of the meteorological agencies of the
civilized nations to find out the relation
existing between the sun and the wealth |
err Further than this, it was his re-
search into the field of aerodynamics
which made possible the flying machine
Of today. The Wright brothers have both ,
testified that it was on the work of Prof.
Langley that they founded their efforts
to solve the problem which the birds have
mastered from the beginning.
The present secretary of the institution
is Charles D. Walcott. who was for many
years director of the United States geo.
logical survey, and organizer Of the
United States reclamation service. Mr.. |
Walcott is one of the leading American
biologists and has borne an important
part In the development of the natural
resources of the United States.
Perhaps the most interesting undertake !
ing in which the Smithsonian Institution |
is engaged today is the effort of Prof |
c. G. Abbot of the astrophysical observa- |
tory to solve the problems of the heat /
and light of the sun. All life, all being. |
everything with which humanity is con- |
cerned depends upon this heat and this |
light. Decrease the amount of heat which /
comes from the sun by few degrees and !
the world would become a frozen sphere /
enShrouded in impenetrabe darkness
w Succaedpd p
ley as director of the observatory. after
series of Investigations declared 1t
probable that there were certain varia
tons in the amount of heat received from
the sun at different times, and that these
variations probably lie at the bottom of I
all weather changes on earth. So he set
to work to study sunbeams., From that
day to this all manner of traps have been
constructed In which to catch these sun
beams and to compel them to add their
mite to the sum of human knowledge
about the great source Of our light and
life. All sorts Of remarkable instruments
have been made to study the sunbeams
and to measure their relative intensity.
One of these Is known as the bolometer,
a device of Prof. Langley. His earlier
instruments would record a difference of
temperature as minute as a hundred
thousandth part of degree. Later its
sensitiveness was so increased that II
was able to record a change as minute
as the millionth part of degree. This
time to time, until now the bolometers
Of the astrophysical observatory are able
to detect changes in temperature even
down to the hundred miIlionth part of
one degree. How much more sensitive
this is than the human body is disclosed |
by the fact that few men are able to
guess the temperature within I'VE de- |
grees.
The manner in which the boometer is |
used and constructed is most interesting. |
1t is operated on the principle that |
wire will carry less electricity when warm |
than when cold. Therefore the end sought |
Is to concentrate the light or heat waves
upon a wire and register the change of |
the amount of electricity passing through |
it. The light and heat from the sun is
received first by a plain mirror which |
throws the beams of light into another |
mirror, concave in shape. This in turn |
concentrates the beam, which has mean
while passed through a great prism of |
rocksalt as clear as glass. onto plati- |
mum smaller than spiders flament. |
through which a current of electricity is |
kept passing. The prism serves to anal !
we the beam into its different compo-
nent colors
Then the bolometer, placed successfully |
In these different colors, measures their
temperatures. The current is measured |
by galvanometer or little balance made |
OF thread of spun glass five inches long
and as fine as a human hair This is
fastened to a support by suspending it on
thread Of spun quartz, two feet long
and a five-thousandth part of an inch in
diameter. In the exact middle Of the
spun glass beam is fastened a mirror as
small rs pinhead. so perfectly made
that every point Of the mirrors side will
touch when placed on a six-foot globe. |
The mirror weighs no more than the hind
leg of fly.
With this instrument a change in heat
no greater than that given off by a can
die Ave miles away Is easily recognized. |
BY the use of a spectroscope in connec
ton with the bOIometer, Director Abbot is |