The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-06-08
GREAT ASTRAL PENCIL
WILL SWEEP SKY
VIII Appear This Afternoon, Being Es-
peeially Visible on the Western
Coast Of the United States.

prncll, whose point II nifty miles IN en-
conference is 90 draw jet black lin
across the United States from Aberdeen
Wash. to Orlando, Fla, this afternoon
While the marking is being mad
chickens are expected TO go TO roost an
birds to nest. Street cars may run wit
their headlights aghre, and there will
sudden strain on all lighting utilities
The great cosmic titan who will hold tn
pencil and mark the line will get even
with Washington for stealing an hou
OF sunlight on the day, for he will tax
fcrty.seyen minutes OF that sunligh
back again.
The point of that pencil, black ~
ebony, will represent an eclipse of tn
sun. The point will begin with thu
moon, and will drop in an exact cona L
the earth where II will delete consid
cradle portion of the Pacific ocean anC
the states OF Washington, Oregon, Utah
Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi
Alabama, Georgia and Florida, in about
the same manner that military censor
deuetes an Objectionable line from a war
correspondent dispatch. The stock of the
pencil will be represented by nebulous
space of infnity, millions of miles long,
between the sun and the moon.
Many an astrological Christopher Co
lumbus will be out "along the line to
discover a new world or two. The myth.
cal planet Vulcan, said to hover near the
| tna1tl,lxr ~.
identity. The great solar force that
makes mercury shake with an astral
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 sug-
gested by Einstein, a German physicist
The nubbin of this theory is that the
light from stars beyond the sun is bent
by the suns gravity before it reaches TIA
earth in about the same manner that a
street car rail is bent around slight
curve. The eclipse is expected to prove
whether such sun gravity can bend light
or not
The eclipse is expected TO throw some
hight on the composition Of the sunl
spectrum, which, during the period of
totslity, glows with a greenish hue.
What makes it green is the question he
scientists are going to try TO answer.
Points of similarity and dissimilarity be-
tween the atmosphere of the sun and
the earth are to be given close atten-
ton also.
The polarized light of the sun will also
attract interest. Scientists at the Uni
versity of California, near here, and else
where say that the light around the sun
moves in regular waves like wireless air |
waves, instead OF being a steady, even
as around the earth. rhe
eclipse may explain this difference.
The coronal SPECTRUM of the sun, &C
cording TO Professor +. p. Lewis. de-
Dartment of physics, University of ca :
fornia, is made up of unknown elements.
Professor Lewis is to study this coronal
spectrum through large quartz spec
ograph as a member of the Lick OBJ
ervatory party at Goldendale, Wash.
rhe spectograph, in the even of clear
is expected TO reveal many
lew and startling facts concerning this
orona and accompanying spectrum.
The war had some effect on the plans
or observing the phenomena, many of
he scientists who observe such things
ow being engaged on preliminary stu'y
( the great German eclipse, which is lie
somewhere in France" at an unknown
ate.
Stations have been established, how s
yer, by the Lick observatory at Golden .
ale, the United States naval observa- I
Dry at Baker, Ore, the Yerkes and 9
iount Wilson observatories at Green 6
liver, Wye, the Allegheny, Chamberlain I
nd Yerkes ofeervatories at Denver, the I
rake university observatory at Mathe
IN, Col, the Sproul observatory at Eads, L
OIL, and the Smithsonian astrophysical U
Dservatory at point in Kansas. IL
These stations are all on the line 10 c
. drawn by the great astral pencil I
nd are situated at all sorts of altitudcs "
get all possible effects. h
The eclipse will begin at 1920 in tie T.
orning at point south of Japan and n
i'll end at the Bahama islands, east
Florida, at 1920 in the evening, Green o
ich mean time, The shadow will enter b
e United States at 2:55 in the aftei-
,on, Pacific standard time, or 1855 day
yht saving time, and will leave at sal,
utral standard time, or Gal, daylight :.
wing time. =
The line of totality will be fifty miles Is
de and that of semi-totality 100 mules
de The eclipse will be visible. how - -
er, in varying phases all over Nurt y
d central America and Japan and a 6,
eat portion of China and Russia =, ~
Before Copernfcus discovered in the =
.teenth century that the planets re- ~
I've about the sun, eclipses were a ~
lrce of terror, scientists say, Arabian W
Sc men happened on the theory of =.
ipses some time before, but KEEP. the ~
owledge to themselves in order that y
" might strengthen their hold or the sn
terate ppoulace by utilizing the phe- M
nena. ~ ~