The Bismarck tribune., 1924-11-14
TOTAL ECLIPSE
OF sun TO BE
SEEN BY MANY
Southern Boundary Of the To-
tai Eclipse Just Reaches,
Duluth, Minnesota
FEW TOTAL ECLIPSES

New Haven, Conn, Nov. IA. On
the morning of January "a next,
the moon vii! get between the earth
and the sun and cut off all the
light we get from that body. This
eclipse will be visible in the United
States. and it doubtless will be seen
by more millions of people than any
such occurrence in the past. accord
ing to Professor f.. W Brown, Of
Yale University.
An eclipse is not Il rare event,
one or two occur every year, but
the one next January is notable for
the fact that il occurs in Il terri
tory from which the light of the sun
has not been wholly obscured by
the moon within the memory Of any
one living.
"lf we look over the records of
past eclipses, Professor Brown said.
land the predictions for future
eclipses we soon see that in any one
place there will be total eclipse
of the sun only once in every few
hundred wears. The coming eclipse
will produce darkness over a narrow
band OF territory which stretches
from Il point somewhat west of Du-
iuth and, after crossing northern
Michigan and Wisconsin, is seen in
Connecticut and then passes out to
sea. The hour of the phenomenon
iS between nine and nlne-thirty,
eastern standard time
There WAS an eclipse in 1919, Wis
ible in Brazil and Crntral West
Africa. and another last September
seen by the people OF California
and Northern Mexico.
The accuracy with which the time
and position can be predicted for an
eclipse is high Professor Brown
went on to say The staff of the
United States Naval Observatory at
Washington is always at work cal
culating the positions Of the heav
cnly bodies years in advance in or
der that the predictions may De
useful. The northern and southern
edges Of the shadow band can be
laid down within mile. Hence,
when the almanac predicts that the
southern edge will cross the upper
end Of Central Park in New York
City it is fairly certain that the sha-
dow will not keep off the grass. All
this knowledge, however, is not II
product of the present generation. 1t
has been slowly accommodating
through many centuries. Most Of it
t, h, Ia, L., &c
gravitation which was given by Isaac
Newton toward the end of the 18th
century.
Pay Homage
"But we have to pay our homage
to observers for their industry much
further back than that" the pro
fessor continued "Morc than $500
years ago the Chaldeans we're able
to predict when cclipses would oc-
cur, because they had learned that
there is a long series of them re-
peated in little over lS years. 1t
is remarkable that they should have
been able to get this knowledge be-
cause any eclipse does not cover
quite the same part of the earth's
surface as the corresponding one
which occurred Is years before.
They must have kept records over
at least a century, perhaps over
many centuries, before the cycle was
discovered. The eclipse of next
January will be seen by many mil
lions Of people. In the map which
has been issued by the naval obser-
vatory it is seen that the southern
boundary of the band over which
the sun will be totally eclipsed just
covers Duluth (Minn.), Menominee,
(Mich.), Frankfort (Mich.), London
(OntD, Dunkirk On. ", Wilkes
Barre (Pa.), and New York City
north of Central Park. Well inside
the northern edge are Manistique