Newspaper Page Text
Ip ITIHII vrivwMJ
The Mag=
nificent
Display
of the
“Northern
Lights”
on the
Evening of
November
14, 1837 ,
as Seen
from
Boston and
New York
and
Other
Eastern
Cities.
CLOSELY following the discovery of the
North Pole, science has unraveled another
age-long mystery of the mysterious Arctic
—the cause of the Aurora, that awe-inspiring
pageant of light that paints the frozen wastes
at each end of the earth and sends its streamers
far into the skies of the temperate zones.
Dr. W. L. Dudley, head of the Department of
Chemistry of Vanderbilt University at Nashville,
Tenn., has discovered that the Aurora is duo
to the presence in the atmosphere of a very
rare gaseous element called neon. This element
bas the property of becoming luminous when
acted upon by magnetic discharges, whether of
earth currents or of streams of electric atoms,
called lons, sent forth by disturbances on the
surface of the sun.
The streams of lons enter the earth’s atmos
phere. are deflected by the influence of the
magnetic pc:es and stream down toward the
earth at or near these poles. The neon gas,
according to Dr. Dudley’s theory. Is condensed
by the cold of the upper atmosphere, and is
strongly condensed In the Arctics. This con-
By Professor C
THE Aurora has always been the most
puzzling phenomenon in nature, a 3
well as one of the most awe-insplrtng.
The fact that It centres around the north
magnetic pole is enough to show that it has
some connection with the earth's magnetism, but
Just what the connection was, and especially
what made the light, have been unsolved ques
tions. It appears as though Dr. Dudley, of Van
derbilt University, had at last found the true
explanation in ascribing It to the wonderful ele
ment neon.
Hitherto it bas been Impossible for chemists
to Imagine of what use neon was in the air.
Like Its sister element, argon, it defies the law
governing all other substances by refusing ab
solutely to unite In combination with anything
whatever.
It has no affinities; it is entirely independent
and sufficient unto Itself. When forced into
the presence of other elements it turns its back
upon them, and haughtily declines to recognize
their existence, or to enter Into any relations
with them. It goes its own way, refusing all
companionship, and the question has been; What
Is It for, anyway—what Is its part in the great
plan of nature?
Dr. Dudley’s discovery unmasks it, and shows
us at last that this unfriendly and unfriended
gas. an alien and a stranger in chemistry, so
rare and so minute in quantity that it would
seem powerless to perform anything of impor
tance, Is the most spectacular of all the elements
known on the earth.
Such certainly must be regarded as the fact
If it Is neon, as he asserts, that creates those
sublime displays that astonish the world when
the Aurora erects Its vast luminous arches in
the north or south, sends great beams and
streamers shooting to the zenith, and rolls bil
lows of mysterious light, flushing now green,
now red, now yellow, over the heavens, while
concurrent pulses of electricity thrill through
the planet and leap in fiery sparks from tele
graph Instruments.
The Two Auroras.
There is an enormous difference between phys
ical conditions at the North and South Poles.
In the effect of these differences upon the neon
gas may be the explanation of the difference in
the form of the Aurora Borealis, or Aurora of
the Noi;th Pole, and the Aurora Australis, or
Aurora of the South Pole. Usually the former
appears In beams and spears or drifting clouds.
The Aurora Australis presents the form of
Immense and awe-inspiring curtains and rib
bons of shifting light—curtains that seem to
reach down to the earth's surface.
Dr. Dudley m-.de his discovery by experiment
ing with a small quantity of neon in a Crookes
tube. He found that when the neon was In
friction against mercury in the tube it gave
out a yellow light, and that when it was held
near a wireless telegraph coil the strange gas
was illuminated by the electrlo waves. Prom
this experiment he proceeded to establish the
probability that it is the neon in the air which
ceuses the glow of the Aurora in the upper
* Hi? theory falls In with what Is known of the
electric nature of the Aurora. While the mag
netism of the earth plays a part in the phe
nomenon, it has long been recognized that the
master spirit controlling it resides in the sun.
The Aurora Is never so brilliant, and its elec
tric effects are never so evident, as when a
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densation takes place Just where the electric
currents have their course. The Aurora results
—Just as, when the i por of mercury is con
densed in a glass tube and a current is run
through it. luminosity follows. The shifting
and various forms of the Aurora are due to the
shifting of the electrical discharge and the
varying tenuosity of the gas.
Dr. Dudley has succeeded in isolating a por
tion of neon, of which to get a pint one hundred
tons of air must be ransacked. He found that
when placed within a Crookes tube or subjected
to the action of the Hertzian rays it exhibited
all the phenomena of the Aurora.
Dr. Dudley's theory seems to resolve all the
contradictions that have attended other explana
tions of the character of the Aurora and fits
perfectly with all the aspects of the manifesta
tion, even to explaining why the lights, after the
observer reaches the seventy-fourth parallel, are
always seen toward the south from the north
and toward the north from the south. The mag
netic poles, the targets of the hypothetical solar
electric stream and the source of the great
earth currents, are located near that parallel.
arrett P. Scrvtss
great outburst has occurred on the surface of the
solar globe. Then, It is believed, the sun sends
electric ions, or atomic particles, straight to
the earth, but while the“arrival of these ions
has been regarded as the immediate cause of
the display of the auroral lights in the atmos
phere, the questions have been:
How do they do their work?
Why do they produce an outbreak of light in
the air?
Arrhenius bas shown that the Incoming
streams from the sunspots must encounter the
lines of magnetic force flawing round the earth
between the magnetic poles at a great elevation,
and must follow those lines toward the magnetic
poles, at the same time descending earthward
until they enter a part of the atmosphere dense
enough—though still extremely rare—to be
Illuminated by them.
But they would cause no illumination without
the existence of something upon which to act.
This something it now appears-Is the gas neon.
The electric waves from the sun act upon the
neon in the rare upper air of the poles just as
the waves of wireless coll In Dr. Dudley's
experiment acjed upon the small quantity of
neon which he had enclosed in an exhausted
Crookes tube, and cause It
to glow with a strange lumi
nosity.
The formation of the vast
arches and curtains and wav
ing streamers seen during the
Auroral display is to be as
cribed to the play of the elec
tro-magnetic forces shifting
the phenomenon about in the
atmosphere.
Thus this strangely Inde
pendent, and quantitatively
Insignificant element, neon,
whose presence upon the earth
has been so puzzling because
it had no evident function in
the scheme of nature, Is caused
to step forth in its real char
acter as the master of the
show when the earth responds
to the electric messages of
the sun.
For the greater part of the
Draped Auroral Span Seen in I-anland.
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Flashing Serpentine Aurora—Paris.
tlmo this alien element plays no known part; It
holds Itself In reserve, it enters into no com
binations, recognizes no kinship with the tor
restial elements that unite »o produce the or
dinary phenomena of existence on our planet,
imd waits its turn, attending tho signal from
the sun that is to Inflame it with lire and
activity.
At last tho signal comes, tho electric waves
arrive from tho sun and tho neon is ready to play
its role. It awakes from its anomalous sleep,
throws off its inactivity, leaps upon the stage,
and instantly tho heavens glow with tho un
wonted and amazing splendor of billowing
light.
Neon has despised the humdrum concourse of
the ordinary atoms of matter —the orthodox
hydrogen, tho hard-working nitrogen, tho useful
oxygen. Jack-of-all-trados—and has refused tho
hand of fellowship to all such work-a-day com
panions, for it is the star on nature’s stage of
celestial spectacles, and works only as a master
artist in nocturnal pageants.
What the Greatest Aurora Looked Like.
WHILE tho aurora borealis has been ob
served at ono time or another, not only
In tho Arctic and Antarctic regions, but
In almost every part of the globe, the avve-ln
splring display witnessed throughout tho United
States on November 14, 1887, undoubtedly holds
the record for splendor, magnitude and Impres
siveness.
Tills aurora was visible all over the country—
East, West, North and South—and attracted uni
versal attention among the scientists of the day,
many of whom published graphic accounts of
it.
The aurora was first noticed In the east about
6 o’clock In tho ovonlng. There had been a mod
erate fall of snow during the day, but tho storm
stopped about 5 or 0 o’clock. At New Havon,
Conn., tho first inkling tho Inhabitants got that
anything unusual was happening was when tho
entire arch of the heavens suddenly assumed a
strong rosy hue.
Professor Olmstead, then of New Haven, de
scribing tho phenomenon, said:
“The snow, which at sunset had covered the
earth and all things near it, with a mantle of
the purest white, closed early In the evenlr g
wli a most curious and beautiful pageant.
About 0 o’clock, while the sky was yet thick
with falling flakes, all things suddenly appeared
as if dyed In blood. The en
tire atmosphere, the surface
of the earth, the trees, the
tops of the houses, and. In
short, tho whole face of na
ture, were tinged with tho
same scarlet hue.
“The alarm of fire was
given, and the firemen were
seen parading the streets In
their white uniforms, which,
assuming the general tint,
seemed In singular keeping
with the phenomenon. The
light was more Intense In
the northwest and northeast.
At short intervals It alter
nately Increased and dimin
ished In brightness, until, at
6:80, only a slight tinge of
red remained on the sky. On
account of the light being
thus transmitted through the
snowy medium and a thin
veil of clouds, the aurora
was diffused like tho light of
an astral lamp covered with
a red shade of ground glass
That the stratum of clouds
was very thin was Inferred
from the fact that before
C" ~ 7^i
Science at
Last Solves
THE
i
Mysterious
Puzzle
of INJURES
Most
GORGEOUS
AND
Inspiring
■•**• : »t;v • ■[•
Spectacle.
i
I
"-T
»M ; , 4
Y-. - : ■ -j
When its cue has come it springs Into action,
to tho amazement, ono might Imagine, of its de
spised comrades, with whom it refuses to mix#
and astonishes tho world.
It Is a question whether neon, and tho only
elements with which It Is found —though It will
not combine even with them- —argon, helium,
krypton and xenon, may not come direct from
the sun. They are all very rare, they have been
known to exist on ftio earth only within the
last few years, and ono of tl n, helium. I*
known to exist abundantly In »ho sun, and In
many stars, where it w ■ discovered long before
anybody supposed th-n it would evor be founl
on tho earth.
They are a mysterious group, nnd chemists
have had to Invent a special place for them in
tho chemical hierarchy, and the mystery Is not
rendered any clearer by the fact that one of
them, helium, Is spontaneously produced by fho
decay of radium—a bit of nature's alchemy
whoso discovery may b. the prelude to many
wonderful things not yet dreamed of.
0:80 a few stars were discernible as when
seen through a fog, and such was the appear
ance of tho moon, which rose about tho sarni
time.
‘Within ten minutes from the time tho heav
began to assume their llory appearance tha
whole clouded hemisphere shone with that mar
vellously brilliant light, which, reflected la rosy
tints by the snow on tho ground, produced i
scene Indescribably gorgeous."
In the city of Now York the display, as *•*!•■*
nesned from an eminence which commanded an
unobstructed vlow of the horizon In every direc
tion, was, In the latter part of tho evening, mag
nificent beyond description. At about 6:45 the
attentloi of tho observers was attracted by a
most unusual appearance of the heavens
sky was wholly overcast, in Boston, at
the same hour, though the cloud wa- not suffix
clently dense to obscure all the stars absolutely,
quite a number of them being seen from tlma
to tlrno faintly glimmering through.
At t t tlrno of the ttrst observation, the whole
heaven was suffused with a lovely carnation*
brightest, apparently, at tho commencement of
the zcni.ii, bdt soon afterward rather toward
the northeast. This tint, reflected in the •-a.'*
clothed all nature with a red-tinted garnltu i
of supernal beauty. it gradually faded, ah
though at tho end of an hour it was still slight-,
ly perceptible. The sky then rapidly cleared,
and all traces of the aurora passed away.
The Height of the Glory.
A few minutes before i), however, the com
munity was summoned to witness tho last and
moat extraordinary exhibition of auroral won
ders. The heavens were at this time wholly
unclouded, with the exception of a single, very
small and faint cirrus cloud high in tho north
west. Innumerable bright arches shot up from
the whole northern semi-circle of tho horizon,
and from farther south, all converging to the
zenith with great rapidity. Their upper ex
tremities were of the most brilliant scar* t, while
below they were exceedingly white. At the
formation of tho corona, or crown, the appear
ttn of the scores of columns below resembled
that of bright cotton of long fibre, drawn out
at full length
The Intermingled hues afforded each other a
mutual strong relief Tho stellar form was
wonderfully perfect and regular. Toward the
west there was a s<- tor of more than twenty
degrees of unmingled scarlet, superlatively beau
tiful. The duration of this display was quite
remarkable. For three-quarters of an hour after
Its formation, which took place about 0 o’clock,
tho corona continued, with variable brightness,
to maintain Its position a llttlo to the south of
the zenith. At about b:80 the northern columns
had become dlsconected from It, and had sub
sided very low, the heavens being clear be
ween Hut long before this. and. Indeed, within
o few minutes after b, the south was as com
pletely filled with corresponding columns as the
north.
For a tlm*\ therefore, the earth was com
pletely overarched by a perfect canopy of glory.
The southern columns, which seemed to proceed
downward from the corona, rested on an arch
of diffused light, extending in a great circle from
east to west, or nearly so, and being about
twenty degrees, or a little more, above the hori
zon, In the centre. Streamers, for a while, con
tinued to shoot up Irregularly In the north, but
the did not again reach the zenith. By 10:80
all evidence of the phenomenon disappeared front
the heavens.
