A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century: Fourth EditionClerke, Agnes M. (Agnes Mary)
History
A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century: Fourth Edition
Clerke, Agnes M. (Agnes Mary)
Astronomy -- History -- 19th century
A low-lying stratum of carbon-vapour was, in 1897, detected in the
chromosphere by Professor Hale with a grating-spectroscope attached to
the 40-inch Yerkes refractor.[623] The eclipse-photographs of 1893
disclosed to Hartley's examination the presence there of gallium;[624]
and those taken by Evershed in 1898 were found by Jewell[625] to be
crowded with ultra-violet lines of the equally rare metal scandium. The
general rule had been laid down by Sir Norman Lockyer that the metallic
radiations from the chromosphere are those "enhanced" in the electric
spark.[626] Hence, the comparative study of conditions prevalent in the
arc and the spark has acquired great importance in solar physics.
The reality of the appearance of violent disturbance presented by the
"flaming" kind of prominence can be tested in a very remarkable manner.
Christian Doppler,[627] professor of mathematics at Prague, enounced in
1842 the theorm that the colour of a luminous body, like the pitch of a
sonorous body, must be changed by movements of approach or recession.
The reason is this. Both colour and pitch are physiological effects,
depending, not upon absolute wave-length, but upon the number of waves
entering the eye or ear in a given interval of time. And this number, it
is easy to see, must be increased if the source of light or sound is
diminishing its distance, and diminished if it is decreasing it. In the
one case, the vibrating body _pursues_ and crowds together the waves
emanating from it; in the other, it _retreats_ from them, and so
lengthens out the space covered by an identical number. The principle
may be thus illustrated. Suppose shots to be fired at a target at fixed
intervals of time. If the marksman advances, say twenty paces between
each discharge of his rifle, it is evident that the shots will fall
faster on the target than if he stood still; if, on the contrary, he
retires by the same amount, they will strike at correspondingly longer
intervals. The result will of course be the same whether the target or
the marksman be in movement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account