Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-30
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

'Ah, wretched men, what evil is
this that you suffer? Shrouded in
night are your heads and your faces
and your knees beneath you; kindled
Is the sound Of Wailing, bathed in
tears are your cheeks, and sprinkled
with blood are the walls and fair
rafters. And full of ghosts Is the
porch and full, the court, of ghosts
that hasten down to Erebus beneath
the darkness, and the sun has per-
ished out of heaven, and an evil mist
hovers over ALL"
So said Mr.. Homer in the Odyssey,
when he was merely reporting an
event similar to what yesterday
transpired in Northern Europe and
across Great Britain-a total eclipse
Of the sun. In the slang of modern
Journalism, Homer was either sob.
sister or a cub doing fine writin',"
for he might better have emulated the
Associated Press, which said on last
Tuesday by its correspondent at Oslo,
Norway:
"Last-minute preparations of as
tronomers from leading countries OF
the world, including a large delega.
ton of Americans, have been COM
pleted for the observation of the to.
tai solar eclipse tomorrow morning
! wednesday,.
The American delegation of as
tronomers is led by Prof. s. A. Mitchell
of the Leander.McCormic Observa
tory, of Virginia. Prof. Mitchell
| specializes in eclipses, for he had
gone far to observe them before this
one. and he states in his book
| "EcIipses of the Sun" Q924):
"The author has Travelled nearly
| $4,000 miles to witness five tota
eciipses Of the sun. The total time
afforded him for scientific observa
tons during these five eclipses has
| been a period of about IL minutes
Since then, he has also observed an
other eclipse of 1925, and Travelled sew
eral thousand miles for two or three
minute observation. Yesterdays tota
eclipse lasted % seconds, though the
approach and passing lasted several
minutes.
prof. Mitchell gives sly dig at
Washington editor Of Science, VINO
| in 1921, declared that "the moon 10 a
more important body than the sun
since the moon gives us light py
night, when it Is dark and we neeo
light, whereas the sun shines during
| the daytime when it is bright and we
|
without it," (Where doctors disagree
who's 1oony now0
* X X \
There is no science older than as
tronomy: there is no science actualIy
so young in it's present knowledge ono
methods of study as is astronomy
It's fundamentals today are not IVU
years old, for they are based on the
application Of photography ana the
spectroscope and the use or CLOCK
| work operated. by electricity, WIZ
| which huge telescopes equipped WIFI
cameras are made to follow mecnan
ically the movement of sun ana stars
| in the heavens, exactly timed with
them, while photographs or spectro
scopic analyses are being made. Inc
progress in knowledge of the heavens
which was achieved by the ancients
was all done without telescopes-for
those instruments were not invented
until about 1900 Abby Lippershey
| NJ Madgeburg. Galileo's telescope
was nothing more than an opera
glass.
The knowledge Of the metals com
posing the gases of suns and stars
was not possible until the invention
of the acknowledgement in 1889, by
Prof. Hale of the University OF Chi
cago. BY means Of this instrument
| it is possible to sift out any par
| ticular color.ray Of the sun or star,
and photograph that alone, all other
colors being excluded. Thus the
measure of the component rays may
be taken, and through that the ele.
ments as shown in the spectros6ope
may be identified.
More recent still is Nine. Curie's
discovery of the power Of radium In
never ending emanation OF light and
chemical rays.
| X ~.
What are the applications of these
| developments of science to the
eclipse of the sun? 1t is only when
the brilliance of the sun Is shut Off by
the curtaining of the moon between
earth and sun that the burst of
gaseous light called tho corona, sur.