Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-06-08
THE ECLIPSE
Expects Good Weather
for Observation
Have Smoked Glass Ready Sunday
Afternoon and Watch the Birds and
Chickens Go to Nest and Roost-
Eclipse Will Be Partial in Maine

conference, is to draw a jet black line
across the United States from Aberdeen
Wash, to Orlando. Fla, tomorrow aft
ernoon.
While the marking is being made
chickens are expected to go to roost
and birds to nest. Street cars may run
with their head lights aglare, and there
will be a sudden strain on all lighting
utilities. The great cosmic titan who
will hold the pencil and mark the line
will get even" with Washington for
stealing and hour of sunlight on that
day, for he will take a minutes of that
sunlight back again.
The point of that pencil. black as
ebony. will represent an eclipse OF the
sun. The point will begin with the
moon, and will drop in an exact cone
to the earth where it will delete a con-
siderable portion of the Pacific ocean
and the states of Washington, Oregon.
Utah, Colorado. Kansas, Arkansas, Mis-
sissippi. labama. Georgia and Florida,
in about the same manner that a mill
tary censor deletes an Objectionable
line from a war correspondent despatch
The stock of the pencil will be repre-
sented by anebulous space Of infinty
millions of miles long. between the sun
and the moon.
Many an astrological Christopher Col
umbus will be out along the line" to
discover u new world or two. The
mythical planet Vulcan. said to hover
near the sun. may possibly be given a
positive identity. The great solar forca
that makes Mercury shake with an as
trail ague as it spins around its orbit
may be uncovered A thousand theories
may be proven or repudiated, chief of
them being the theory of relatively, first
suggested by Einstein, a German ply
sicist
The nubbin of this theory is that the
light from stars beyond the sun is bent
by the suns gravity before it reaches
the earth in about the same manner
that a street car rail is bent around a
slight curve. The eclipse is expected to
prove whether such sun gravity can
bend light or not.
lie tCllpSC IL cAptNlcu diSp " lItOW
some light on the composition of the
suns spectrum, which, during the pc
Rod Of totality, glows with a greenish
hue. What makes it green is the ques-
ton the scientists are going to try to
answer. Points of similarity and dis
similarity between the atmospheres Of
the sun and the earth are to be given
close attention also.
The polarized light of the sun will al
so attract interest Scientists at the
University of California. near here, and
elsewhere say that the light around the
sun moves in regular waves like wire
less air waves. instead OF being a
steady, even substance. as around the
earth. The eclipse may explain this diff
ference.
The Coronal spectrum OF the sun, aC-
Cording to Professor T.. +. Lewis, de-
partment of Physics, University of Cali
f'ornia. is made up of unknown ele-
ments. Professor Lewis is to study this
coronal spectrum through a large quartz
spectograph as a member of the Lick
Observatory party at Goldendale. Wash.
The spectograph. in the event of clear
weather is expected to reveal many
new and startling facts concerning this
corona and accompanying spectrum.
The war has had some effect on the
plans for observing the phenomena
many of the scientists who observe such
| things now being engaged on prelmi-
nary study Of the great German eclipse,
which is due somewhere in France" at
an unnamed date.
Stations have been established. how
ever, by the Lick observatory at Gold
endale. the United States Naval obser-
vatory at Baker. Ore. the Yerkes and
Mount Wilson observatories at Green
River. Wyo., the Allegheny, Chamber
lain and Yerkes observatories at Den
yer, the Drake University observatory
at Mathesan, Col, the Sproul observa-
tory at Eads, Col. and the Smithson-
ian Astroptysical observatory at a point
in Kansas.
These stations are all on the line to
be drawn by the great astral pencil and
are situated at ali sorts of attitudes to
get all possible effects.
The eclipse will begin at ia in the
morning at a point south Of Japan ana
will end at the Bahama Islands, east Of
Florida, at 729 in the evening, Green
wich mean time. The shadow will en-
ter the United States at 255 in the after
noon, Pacific standard time. or 355 day
light saving time, and will leave at SAL
Central standard time, or Gal, daylight
saving time.
The line of totality will be 50 miles
wide and that of sem-totality $50 miles
wide. The eclipse will be visible, how
ever, in varying phases all over North
and Central America and Japan and a
great portion of China and Russia.
Before Copernicus discovered in the
18th century that the planets revolve
about the sun, eclipses were a source of
terror, scientists say Arabian wise
men happened on the theory Of eclipses
some time before, but kept the knowl-
edge to themselves in order that thew
might strengthen their hold on the
illiterate populace by utilizing the phe-
nomena
Followers of Copernicus were burned
at the stake for their beliefs