Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-07-29

bers Of the two British astronomical expedl
tons agree that the gravitation of the sun
causes a bending of the path of ray of
light; or, in simple terms-light has weight.
"This had been contemplated possibility by
scientists for some years." says Prof. Eddington,
"but never before had it been practicable to settle
the question by experiment. We know that the
weight of rife bullet causes it to take curved
course and the faster the bullet the smaller the
deviation. Light goes so fast that on the earth
could not expect to detect any appreciabe de-
Walton from a straight line, so the experiment
had to be transferred to the sun, where there is
a longer track and bigger pull of gravltatlon.
The light coming from certain stars used
(hence the need for total eclipse, in order that
the stars near the sun could be photography
and rne swarve of the light under the pull of the
sun measured by the apparent displacement
of the stars. The telescope had to be pointed
higher to allow for the drop of the light, as rifle
must he pointed higher to allow for the drop of
the bullet The swerve is extremely minute and
very delicate measures with most elaborate pre-.
cautions necessary.
"The weight of any ordinary quantity Of light
is extremely minute; in fact, the sunlight falling
on the whole earth during one day weighs only
100 tons If we wished to buy light by weight
from an electric light company they would charge
at the rate of at least 500,000,O0O per pound
In order to see this wonderful discovery in its
true perspective astronomers find the following
example by going to The source of the light: Sup
nose some hundreds Of years ago, say, 2O0, ray
or waye of light left one of the great suns OF the
Hyades which appears to US AS mere luminous
noint This wave of light sped across the sup
nosed conveying medium, the imponderable ether
of snace on its vast journey, in this case about
70 non 600 times the distance of the sun from the
earth. Theoretically, it travelled in series OF
unand-down vibrations in this supposed ether
Then on passing the sun, near the end OF It's pas
sage the ray of light, as is reported was bent out
~ it, direct course toward the sun, and, passing
49, ,reat mminary, reached the earth eight mir
,,+os after when the star seen barely two
seconds of arc away from the true place it occu-
Mod in the sky 200 years ago. the difference IN
ros;t;on being so small that it requires power
full telescope to detect 1t.
"The basis of Prof Einstein's work." explains
prof A. c. de la C. Cronmein, one of the Brit
ish observers, "was famous experiment carried
oft in 1886 by Nicholson and Morley IN the en-
deavor to detect our motion through the ether OF
space by comparing the apparent ve!oclties OK
l;ght over a measured distance in several differ
ont directions They reached the perpexing con-
cius;on that no variation of velocity could be de-
+oc+ed II was deduced from this result that OBJ
;ects must alter in length according to their rate
Of motion in the ether.
"Prof. Einsten saw that this conclusion would
involve some notifications in various theories
that had hitherto been accepted and succeeded IN
finding a formula for the law of attraction that
would satisfy the observed phenomena
"The eclipse of last May specially favor
.h,e for the purpose, there being no fewer than ~
fa;rlv bright stars near the limb Of the sun.
1.-THE process of observation consisted in TAX
mo photographs of these stars during totality and
comparing them with other plates of the same
region, taken when the sun was not in the neigh