Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1920-03-23
SKY ILLUMINED
BY BRIGHT LIGHT
VISIBLE HERE
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with tails like those of comet
stretching in every direction
Thousands turned out at Hagers-
town TO view the aurora Old inhabi-
tants said they never had seen such
a spectacle. Fluted columns of green.
plentifully interspersed with crimson,
predOminated in the display there, ae-
cording to word received.
The phenomenon created a sensa-
ton al Germantown, near Annapolis,
where it assumed stong, greenish
hue. There were continual fiickers.
like lightning, running through il, and
the entire neighborhood was lighted
up. A man in Northwest street said
the city appeared to be on fire from
the windows of his home, and others
in the same district verified his as
sertion According to them, the au-
rora changed its tint every few min
utes, but sort of red glare seemed
to overhang ALL
AT Germantown the place was in
darkness. the electric lights being ex
tinguished by the phenomenon, and
the wires went dead"
The Chesapeake and Potomac Tele-
phone Company reported little or no
trouble.
Fixes Blame For Disturbance
Unusual solar activity, evidenced
by the present prominence of sun
spots was blamed for the disturbance
by Or. Henry w Wood. professor of
experimental physics at Johns Hop
kins University. Baltimore.
1.-The phenomenon must be of un
usual brilhance to be seen against the
glare of the city lights said Or.
Wood This is unusual also because
of the great amount of crimson in its
color-band This very probably is
| due to the circumstance that the auro-
ra is at an unusual height above the
earth, in region where the air is ex-
| tremely rare At these attitudes an
element known to science as 'meon
gas is encountered which shows RED
spectrum
DR.. Wood explained the theory that
/ the aurora borealis results from ener-
| gized particles shot away from the
sun, which cause electrical disturb
ances when they encounter the earthIs
/ atmosphere The sun now is undergo
ing an extremely active period, he
said, with sunspots unusually promi-
nent. He believes that these spots
will be visible this morning through
ordinary opera or field glasses.
The weather man said these lights
may be expected at this season.
Remarkable Aurora
DIR Garner, the amateur astronomer,
of Annapolis. said today:
Last night those of our citizens in
i terested in such matters, might have
| witnessed a most remarkable aurora.
i Being visible little after sunset as
pale, yellowfsh light in the nortehrn
4 sky, IT. gradually spread around TO the
east and west and up towards the
zenith. AT first it was rather qnles-
i cent, but as the evening advanced it
became violently active, and at times
would shoot up rapidly from the hori-
zon in wavelike streams and cover
most of the sky As Bobbie Burns
says in Tam O'Shanter:
Or like the borealis race,
That fit ere you can point their
place
"About eleven o'clock it actually
seemed to eliminate, and it changed
, first from pale yellow to pink and then
to blood red The observer, who has
| witnessed many auroral displays, has
never seen a finer one, covering, as
it did, from two-thirds to three-fourths
of the sky and assuming many fam
tastic shapes. In our latitude it is
usually confined to the northern part
of the sky and from there up to the
, zenith, but this one distributed itself
more generality over the heavens.
, While there are northern (borealis)
! and southern (australis) auroras, the
! latter is rarely seen in this latitude.
The present writer has never wit
messed one.
Scientific men have INDUCED in
much speculation as to the causes OF
these lights, but have found no abso-
; lutely satisfactory solution of the
! problem. There can be no doubt about
their electrical origin. Terrestrial
: magnetism is also involved, because
/ the compass is sometimes visibly agi-
tated, but careful observation lasi
| night failed to discover any disturb
3 ance in my instrument. =
3 aAt 1890 p. m. the show was still
: going on, but with lessened activity