Wonders of nature science : an every day book for the student and intellectual observer.

Date:
[1873?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wonders of nature science : an every day book for the student and intellectual observer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    572/596 (page 540)
    and Young, using very powerful spectroscopes, have carried on their researches on the solar prominences, and have published papers which have greatly increased our knowledge of the cause of theso phenomena. In conjunction with Dr. Frankland, Mr. Lockyer has studied the spectra of gases under varying pressures, and has shown that the variation m the breadth of the lines in the spectra of the pro- minences is produced by the difference of pressure in the burning hydrogen, of which the prominences are principally composed. Seccki has shown that there is an intimate relationship between the solar prominences and sun-spots. As well as the prominences, there is a narrow line of red matter encircling the sun's disc, and therefore enveloping the whole solar surface. Mr. Proctor has suggested that this consists of the same matter as the prominences ; that it may be thickly studded with prominences of comparatively low elevation; and that the tops of prominences, both before and behind the sun's limb, would help to form part of it. The small space at my disposal prevents me from doing any sort of justice to this part of my subject. By the time this number of the Student appears, Mr. Proctor's new work on the Sun will be published. As I have had the privilege of reading the proof sheets, I can confidently recommend the work as containing full information on all the topics I have touched on, set forth in that admirably lucid manner for which Mr. Proctor is so well known and so justly celebrated, and illustrated copiously with diagrams, in the construction of which Mr. Proctor has no rival. The theory of eclipses is also explained in a novel way, so clearly that any person may understand why they occur at stated periods. For the eclipse observations of 1868 Colonel Tennant gave great attention to the preparation of a polariscope, for the purpose of determining the amount of polarized light in the corona, and, if possible, the direction of the plane of polarization. The results obtained have not enabled us to form any very decided opinion on this branch of the subject. To observe the solar eclipse of 1870, Lord Lindsay has taken to Cadiz a 12.] inch reflecting equatorial, with clock-work driving apparatus, with a set of photographic apparatus contrived by the writer. This apparatus is made on a breech-loading principle, and is so contrived that it can be worked by two persons; an assistant