The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-05-17


~ THE ninth of May the sun
and moon staged another of
~ their great periodic dramas in
which the Queen of the Night
for few minutes banished the King
of the Day and ruled the sky.
No one in America or Europe could
see this great show of the heavens.
for the moons shadow swept over
only a narrow band extending from
the middle of the Indian ocean to be-
yOnd the Philippine islands; and the
pencil of darkness traced most of its
line over water. But il crossed land
in northern Sumatra, the southern tip
Of Siam and the northern Malay
states; just touched southern Cam
bOdia, and swept across the middle
Philippines. But so important was this
brief blOtting out of the sun 10 the
scientists Of the world that parties of
them jOurneyed to these far off lands
in the path of the shadow, taking
cameras. Yet the total eclipse that
brought about all this travel and ex-
pense lasted only five minutes in
Sumatra, and less than four in the
Philippines.
1t was not the darkness itself that
interested the observers, but rather
the haze of light that appeared around
the circumference of the lightless
moon, for thar is the chrOmoSphere of
the sun and il holds many secrets.
Also, they wanted 10 see the stars
that shine Immediately past the edge
of the blotted-out sun, for their posi-
ton may shed new light on the Elm
stein theory.
Meanwhile the man in the street
will be wanting TO know what is the
use Of such investigations anyway;
and if the astronomer takes time to
answer, it will be to say, Il don't
know
Nor could anyone foretell what new
truths would be discovered. or fore
see what new applications to human
welfare they may have.
But new scientific knowledge always
has a way of turning mems minds to
its application to human necessities.
Today, in peace times. we see the
great dirigible. the Los Angeles, fly
ing through our skies without fear of
the gas explosion which has wrecked
so many superb lighter-than-air craft.
And all largely because Lockyer, in
1868, training his spectroscope on the
great flames that shoot out from the
rim of the sun, detected a new line in
their spectrum. He noticed its close
resemblance 10 the lines of hydrogen
and concluded it must be the spectre
scopic signature of a light gas IN
known 10 terrestrial chemists.
How Heliun Was Found.
Twenty-eight years passed, with
everybody thinking that this gas was
a stranger to the earth. Then Sir
William Ramsay obtained minute
quantities of new gas from uraninite.
Imprisoned in a test tube and cleo
IricaIly excited. it began TO glow.
Studied with the spectrOscOpe, il
showed the same telltale autograph
that LOckyer had observed.
More years passed. The World war
was on. and America had entered it.
The housewives of the plains of Kan
sas had been complaining of the quail
ity Of their natural gas. 1t didn't
make enough heat or sufficient light.
a middle-western university professor,
II. P. Cady. was sent down to find out
the trouble. In his spectroscope ap-
peared once more the unmistakabIe
signature that had come to Lockyer.
Ramsay. and To Sir Ernest Rutherford
in his manifold investigations of radio
activity. 1t told him why that gas
wouldn't produce sufficient heat and
Hght-it contained heIium. as inert
as stone and playing the same role
in the natural gas that slate plays in
coal.
Then the American Chemical society
met. The university professor was
put on the program to tell of his dis
covery. He apologized for intruding
a theme upon the attention of that
great body which could not, by the
longest stretch of his Imagination,
have any bearing on the momentous
issue before which all other matters
should stand silent. But after he
spoke. a venerable British savant de-
clared that he need offer no apology:
that IL the war went on another two
years the professors contribution
would DO more TO promote victory
than all the other contributions TO
the proceedings
Thus came helium as the straw that
would break the HehenzolIern back
if an other weights should fail. II
made possible the construction OF