The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 16, 1897, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 16, 1897. SCIENTIFIC FACTS ABOVE THE CLOUDS Edward S. Holden, the astronomical expert and director of Lick Observatory, has just issued, through the Smithsonian | Institution, the first book ever written giving an accurate idea | of the mountain obszrvatories of the world. Few works of | fiction are more interesting than this plain recital of facts. It| is a story of hardship, starvation and deadly peril that have| befallen men who have labored on and on in the interests| of science. The illustrations are drawn from photographs. Much of the information concerning the heavenly bo ch we read is gained under circum i at heizhts which would fill us wit knew tue It teils how scientists find ul facts above theclouds. Profes- sor Holden’s object in in titing this work to outline the conditions suitable for | astronomiical labor at high levels. It tells | ot the work of the Harvard College expe- | es of W a we if we only th, B | lightning, etc. notony of such low uufit an ordinary individual for making | lemperatures ana clouds and snow for long periods will the best uce of the few cleard an Alpine winter presents. The discomfort and mo- | a life suljected to very | surrounded by which Telephone | and telegraph lines cannot be maintained in working order under such conditions without taking extraordinary precautions, moutitain is covered with | quantities of snow. | Wind always blows on the Misti at the rate of thirty milez an hour, and the tem- perature ranges from 33 deg. above to zero, The ascent is made by means of a bridle pati. Neighboring stations to the Misti are those in the town of Arequipa. 18060 feet high; on the Chachani, 16,650 feet bigh; Aito de Los Huesos, 13,300 feet above the sea’s level. The Harvard sta- tious have been Kept in full activity since 189l The only observatory in Somth America of note, not included in the Har- vard chain, is the National Observatory of Brazil, 3500 feet above the level of the sea. Itis located at Petropolis. Thus far the work accomplished there has not been ch as to give the institution an interna- tional reputation. The best known of all our observatories | is that on Mount Hamilton, in California, which bears the name of the man througi whose generosity it was built, James Lick. It was erected nnder the direction of trus- | tees appointed by Mr. Lick and according to the plans prepared by Professor Holden | and Professor Newton. This observatory, while not :o notable in point of height above the level of the sea, 4209 feet, has at- tracted wide attention because of its enormous AMERICAN SAVANT'S OBSERVATORY ON THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT HAMILTON. dition on El Misti, that stands 19,200 feet (and there must be days and weeks to- gether when travel between the summit | great Yerkes telescope, placed in position and the valley is shut off. The highest meteorological observatory in the world has been Harvard College observatory exvedition on the mountain peak knows as E oneof tha Andes, whose height above the sea’s level. It describesthe me- teo ical station on the Sonnblick, which is 9843 feet above old ocean. It tells us of the hairbreadth escapes and | constant danger that fall to the lot of those who ta observations on Mont Blanc. The results of Dr. Miller's labors e Santis are revealed, and the story is also told of what transpires on the sum- | mit of famoas Mount Hamilton. In a , it is a resnme of the efforts of scien- tists 03 mountaic ks from the time of or Piazzi-Smith at the peak of Ten- to the latest achievements in | far-away India. \ The modern mountain astronomical ob- servatory is the legitimate descendant, Professor Holden says, of Galileo’'s tower of Arcetri. The inhabitants of the earth K he external universe directly only h the sense of sight, and our terrss- 1 views of the planets and stars are | ch modified by he action of our own | atmosphere upon theraysof their light | ch reach our eyes. We are, as it were, | d in an ocean cf air, and one of | t problems of strouomical physics to determine the effscts of this over- | ying ocean upon the light from external | bodies which penetratesitsdepths. Light | se so that the ray nters eye from a siar nolonger | its primitive directio ‘ necessity for mountain observa- | ises from the fact that in order to | e correct observation of the heavenly | it is necessary that the telescope be as possib’e from what is known as | an at- | hich atmosphere is that where the zir | is not constantly motion. The air is | a just as is the ea W strata that are more sffected by the air currents i ticed that the stars (winkle far less than er other conditions. Now, the twink- | ing of stars is the result of curvature n!i atmospheric strats caused by air currents. | When these air currentsdo notact then | the atmosphere is steady and correct ob- servation is rendered e All these things being realized by the onomers acted upon them justas the adition of an undiscovered country af- fects the explorer. The results as told by Professor Holden seem marvelous. Ob- | servatories o high mountains must| her be al oned altogether during the winter, or, if occupied the observer, must be subj:acted to extremely trying conditions aud to some danger from ter- rific storms of wind, snow, hail, from METEOROLOGICAL STATION NEARLY 10,000 FEET ABOVE TH located by the Misti, 319,200 | | feet, or 4800 feet higher than Pikes Peak in our own United States. Among the | more interesting are the observatories on the Sonnblick, in Austria, and the Santis | the Sacramento Valley to’ Mount Hamil- | thirty-six feet below the surface without obse; Bl i 7 // / s 4/ 7 m // 1 7 n 7 1 /‘,//", /) mm telescope in the world, excepting the | ot long ago at a point on the shore of Loke Geneva, Wisconsin. Professor | Holden, by the way, thinks that unless | the conditions at Lake Geneva are dis- | | tinctly better than those of the.region near by its selection for the site oi the | largest of telescopes may prove to have been an error of judgment. North winds in summer bring dust from {/ equipment, for here is located the largest | are warm, though not oppressive, because of the cryness of the atmosphere. vision during the day is usually unsteady on account of air currents which rise from the neighboring canyons and trom the neated rocks 1mmediately bordering the plateau of the summit. The large valley of Santa Clara lies all day long in the ardent sunshine. Late in the afternoon the sea fog begins to creep in througn the various gaps in the Coast Range, which borders the Santa Clara Valley on the west, and to come toward the north from Monterey Bay tbrough the valley of the Pajaro River. A local fog from the bay of San Francisco often s2nds its thinner vells toward the south, but seldom penetrales as far south as Giiroy, where the Monterey fog is entering. Up to this time the fogs are low lying. As the afternoon goes on, the sea fog rises higher and higher and often pours over the tops of the highes: peaks of the Coast Range that tower 3038 feet, completely covers the valley of Santa Clara and fills the neighboring canyons, although it ! seldom rises to the observatory's level, being usually a thousand feet lower. Thus the scientists at Litk Observatory are above the clouds and gain news from the | heavenly bodies while they, to the ma- | jority of persous, are invisible. Once in a while the fog covers the summit of | Mount Hamilton, but only about as often as the equinoctial storms come. Harvard College observatory. of which we have already learned through the South American chain of stations, hasa meteoroiogical observatory on Pikes Peak, 14,134 feet in altitude. For fifteen years this station was continually occupied, but now the observations are generally confined to the summer months. A nota- ble teatare of the Pikes Peak observatory is the fact that the most tremendous elec- trical storms, which occur in North Amer- ica seem to cluster about its summit. The lightring is nearly continuous for long veriods, and the deep rolling thunder is shattering to the strongest nerves. The observers on the mountain summit, although much incommoded by these electrical storms, have learned how to ar- range their instruments so as to avoid all real danger. It was from this point, in July, 1878, that Dr. Langley observed the total solar eclipse. Other observatories of | note on this continent are.those of: | Flagstaff, Ariz., 7300; Echo Mountain, Cal., 3500 feet; C berlin Observatory, in Denver, Colo., 5400 feet; the National Otservatory of Mexico, at Tacubaya, 7500 foet. No observatory exists around which more interest clusters than that at Mont Bianc, which rears its snowy heaa 15,780 feet from the surface of the ocean. The story of this observatory, of the dangers of those who have utilized it, are succeed- | ing chapters in the tragedy of human ex- istence such as science cannot elsewhere | produce. This observatory was erected by M. Janssen npon compressed snow, be- cause no rock foundations were available. | Itis provided with jackscrews, in order ‘, that it may be leveled if necessary. The base of the structure is 10 by 5 meters and the snow always covers the lower story. It was the intention to leave the upper story in free air, and during ob- servation a telescope is mounted in an alu- minum dome above the upper story. The construction is very solid and strong, with double walls and flocrs, and no pains have been spared to make it safe and rigid. As anindication of the character of the founda- | tion of the observatory, tunnels were run i i il //r i /y,v,‘., / IN THE CLOUDS ON THE SANTIS. | whole atmosphere Then there is the | neither of these hindrances is obvious, the | which are under the control of the Pots- | ton, and forest fires sometimes fill the | meeting rock. dam astrophysical observatory, one of the most noted in Europe. with baze. When atory on the ever-famous Mont |air is of great purity. Neariy all the ., which represents perhaps some of | summer sunsets are cioudless. The sky is the most daring work ever accomplished | a deep orange near the horizon and shades by the devotees of science. these observatories referred to, that on | cal circle to the puie upper blue. The first of | off through the prismatic colors in a verti- The the Misti, is one of a series of Harvard | phenomena of an average summer day stations. servations from there curing a portion of | clear sky and no clouds are visible during Itisonly possible to take ob-| | occur about as follow: The sun rises in a — E SEA ON THE SONNBLICK. The temperature in these tunnels av ail times was three degrees above zero. The cost of building on these heights is very great, The building erected by M. Janssen caused an expense of $60,000. Ordinary laborers are paid 20 francs a day. } The price for transporting material to the summit was 23cents 8 pound. The ordi- nary load for a porter in such cases was twenty-six pounds. The minimun tem- | the year, as in January and February the | the entire twenty-four hours. The days | perature on the summit of Mont Blane 15 43 degrees below zero. The top of the mountain is, in fact, a glacier. On the Sonnblick ob efvatory there is eight times as much snowfall as rainfall. “The twinkling of the stars is regularly ob- served at this point, and, strangely enough, is considerably greater than at the lower station. The movements of the barometer, the wind pressures and, velo- cities, the relative bumidity, the forma- tion and movements of clouds, the amount of atmosyheric electricity and all meteoro- lofical phenomena are daily observed. There are at this observatory .on the aver. age 250 days each year when the mercury stands at zero or below. The observatory of the Santis is one of the least expensive, considering its im- portance, of any that exists, for the total expense of maintaininz it is $1200a year. 11 original cost was $12,000. In all of the observations taken the steadiness of th§ air, as well as its transparenc; able. _The star images are entirely free from twinkling. Each star, viewed from the observatory, shows a magnitude one- tenth brighter than that observed at a point on a level with the sea. The highest German meteorological sta- tion or observatory is the Wendelstein on the northern sloves of the Alps, near Munich. Its altitude is 1837 meters, The ‘most famous station in France is Puy-de- Dome, 1400 meters above the level of the sea. It was here that Pascal caused his barometric experiment to be tried in 1648. ‘The highest French station is the Pic-du- Midi, 2877 meters high. The Ben Nevis Observatory, 4368 feet abuve the sea’s level, located on one of -the highest mountains of Ecotland, 1s deyoted purely Tre | 7 | to meteorological observations because of the rarity of sunshine there. For in- stance, in December, 1593, the sun shone for but a single hour, and that was all the time it was seen during the entire year. The newest obseryatory, and one of which astronomers hope much, has just been erected in the Palani Hills, in India, at a height of 7700 feet. Itis known as the Kodizkanal Solar Physics Observatory. There are over 2000 hours of sunshine at this point vearly, and the experiments thus far conducted show that the atmos- phere is steady as well as clear. The climate of the location is utterly different from enything with which Europeans or Americans are familiar. Professor Holden draws particular at- tention in his interesting work 1io the cbservatory at Nice, peculiar for the fact of its bemg devoted entirely to astron- omy. This institution is located on Mont Gros and is only 1100 feet above the sea’s level. Under good circumstances the transparency and purity of the air at Nice are remarkabie. If the dick of the sun be hidden by a screen there‘is no glarein the field even to the point of tan- gency. The Nice Observatory has an an- nex on the summit of Mont hiounier, 8893 feet high. The station is equipped not only for astronomical observation but for meteorological as well. In closing this resume of observatories it is well to refer 1o the astronomical ob- servatory on Mount Etna, 9652 feet above the sea. During the favorable season the lens is mounted at the summit. At other [ times of the vear it is employed at Catania. The Etna station is reached by a drive of about eleven miles over a car- riage road to Nicolosi, and from thencs on horseback in six hours, provided the trail is not obstracted by snow. Several im- portant series of observations, having for their object the relative advantages of high and low level observing stations, bave been carried out on Etna by famous astronomers, Professor Holden, in the work from which these facts are taken, has laid be- fore the world its first opportunity to ob- serve in continuous form the achieve- | ments of the astronomer and the meteor- |ologist. Who can say that in daring, bravery and heroism they do not compare | favoravly with the tales of expioration with which bistorv is replete ? The Antiquity of Gloves. Gloves have breathed defiance from knight to knight, served as pledges of love between cavaliers and ladies fair, hung apon the altars of gloomy medieval charehes, mute witnesses to the vows of | pions devotees; have been fastened upon church walls as challenges tomortal com- | bat from foe to foe. They have embel- | lished the pages of history, the annals of romance, the flights of poesy, and more | than once have borne in their perfumed { palms the seeds of death. Whence or where the glove originated is unknown. A plausible theory suggests that the carly man invented them for use in his slow and painful labor among the ! bush, A very rough, homely glove it must have been, of untanned skins of coarse fabric and fingerless. They are mentioned in Homer as hav- ing been worn by Laertes in his retire- ment, and Xenophon mukes mention of Cyrus’ gloves. Their use was held up to scorn by both these writers, and among Orientals was considered a mark of effem- macy. They were worn by the Greek pugilists and wrestlers, and when intro- duced in Rome made rapid progress in | popularity among men of wealth and nobility. Under the emiperors they de- veloped fingers, called digitalia. Athenwmas relates a story of a celebrated glutton who used to wear gloves at the table in order to finger the meat while it was hot, and so devour more than his companions. Ttis not known how they reached Britain, but it must have been at any period. Mention of them is made in the poem of Beowulf. As the word is of Saxon origin, from golf, they may have been introduced by that people; but their use was never common until after the advent of the Nor- mans, and then it was restricted to the gentlemen of the noble and royal fam- ilies.—Lippincott for February. — e e The largest business houses are closed for an hour and a half in the middle of the day in Mexico. INTERNAL | eral hunared miles off the beaten paths of | Imagine buildings whose hewn from one solid stone and at the bottom of trenches at [ some - Although one of the oldest and most historic countries in the world, Abyssinia is at the same time one of the least known. Hundreds of travelers have vis- ited it in the interest of science, and yet something new is always being found there. The monolithic churches of this land have long been conceded to be among the strangest edifices in the world, and as early as ten years ago 200 of them had been found. Now comes a famous traveler who teils of another group, com- pared %o which the others are insignifi- cant. They are really wonders of archi- MONOLITHIC CHURCH OF HAMMANUEL. ~ tecture. They are too important to be called curiosities. It might seem strange that these churches, althongh still devoted to wor- ship, should be concealed from the scien- titic world for so long, but when all is known there is little to be wondered at. the churches, but the facts he gieaned and the pictures of ihem have just been made public. The word monolith, in its broadest sense, means anything which 1s cut from a single stone. The wonderful Egyptinn sphynx is a movolith and the Nile country is cov- ered with examples of this style of archi- tecture, if such it can be called. However, they are for the most part pyramilde or sbrines and appear to have been cut from bowlders which were lying TOP OF MONOLITHIC on the earth’s surface. The 200 monolithic | churches of Abyssinia are of this order, | but those bf the last group, which Mr. Raffrey discovered, are different from any other known edifice on the face of the earth. The location of these churches is the | town of Lalibels, Abyssiaia, a place sev- | travel. Neither the European nor A‘nys-; sinian traders pass anywhere near it, and | not many unatives even know of the exist- ence of the place. Itis an exclusively re- | ligious town of about 3000 inhabitants, and Mr. Reffrey was the only white man to en- terit for a couple of centuries. In fact | there watr nobody in the town who had | ever seen a European. In order to reach Lalibela it is necessary It is several years since Mr. Raffrey visited | 'CHURCHES THAT ARE UNDER THE GROUND roofs are on a level with the surface of the ground. Consider also the fact that they are that the entrances to them are east fifty feet deep. You may think they do not exist. But they do, and A. Raffrey, the well-known traveler, has just made public through La Nature teresting facts about them. The edifices referred to are churches located in Abyssinia and known as monoliths. | to travel several days from the town of | Agula on the coast, over a rough, barren | and broken country that 1s desolate and | forbidding in the exireme. The country is practically uninhabited, unless consid- eration is taken of the Nomadic tribes and wild beasts. On reaching Lelibela there is nothing to be seen but the usual array of dirty huts that constitute every Abyssinian town. The earth surtace is rockv hills al- i most devoid of vegetation. Where are | the churches? is what any traveler would ask himself, and he would probably think he had been deceived in regard to them, as there is not a sign of any building de- | serving of that name. According to Mr. Raffrey’s description tbese churches are only too easy to find. In fact, a man who attempted to cross the town at night would most likely bs made aware of their location with a suddenness that would be anything but agreeable. The first indications of them are vast openings in the earth’s surface. Some of these are long and sinuous, but they all lead to the doors of the churches. The roofs of the churches are on a level with the surface of the ground. To give a thorough understanding of bow these churches are built, some ex- planation is neccessary, The country in the vicinity of Lahbela consists of alayer of earth only a few feet in thickness spread over an z2lmost solid ved of sand- stone. In no place is it possible to find a hill that wotld be called steep. All are rolling, so that a few hundred feet of surface, no matter where located, would not be ar from the level. The first thing to be done, therefore, in building one ot these mountain churches was to hew out a huge trench of rectangu- lar form in such a way as 1o leave an ernormous block of stone in the center. The size of the trench, of course, depended on the size the church was to be. In most cases an inclined trench leading to the surface was also cut, but in a number of in- stances the only way to get into the church is by the use of a ladder. In some instances the trench 1s U-shaped, leaving the block of stone attached to the hill at one side, but generally it is free on the four sides. After the block was freed from the hill- side in the desired manner the work of the architect began, and what he accom- plished seems almost incredible. The out- side walls were cut into colonnades, pillars and even porticos, and in some instances elaborately carved. Steps and balustrades were cut from the solid rock. ‘Work then commenced on the interior. This was hollowed out in such & way as 10 leave pillars to support the roof, arches | and naves. Windows to admit light and air were cut, and then the work of carv- CHURCH OF GHORGHIS. ing ornaments commenced. In many cases these were quite elaborate, The finished church consisting of one rock and entirely free from mortar pre- sents exactly the same appearance as if iv were composed of a thousand pieces, esch laboriously cut from . the quarry and hauled to the desired spot and carefully laid in place. As near as they can resemhie any given styie of architecture these churches con- form to the Byzantine. They all face the east and are free from inscriptions of any kind. In some instances the churches are builtin groups and have tunnels or vaulted passageways connecting them. The walls of the churches are from threg to five feet thick and the roof from three to six feet, strenathened, of course, by the arches and pillars. As regards size, a description of the cburch of Hammanuel will suffice for many of the others. ' It is the finest of the group and also one of the largest. From this comparisons of the others may be mace. It, as well as the court that sur- rounds it, is of rectangular form. The court is 98 feet in length, 78 in width and 38 in depth. The church is 58 feet in length and 38 in width. In'the court there is a small baptistery in the form of a Greek cross. The edifice stands upona sort of sub-basement in steps. - The large facades show three stories containing fifteen openings, one of which is a door. Tne windows of the ground floor are cross-shaped, those of the first story are arched and provided with capitals, and those of the second are square. Between each window there is a colonnade and several flat moldings or flat bands. | The Ghorghis (George) church is in the form of a Greek cross and in size nearly equal to the preceding. The accompany- ing picture gives the aspect presented at the level of the ground by the mono- liths jusc described. The otber churches of Lalibela sre generally of smaller size, altbough they have necessitated impor- tant work of excavation. Itis to Negus Lalibela that the honor of constructing these 'churches belong. He was a ruler who reigned about the twelith century and to whom Abyssinian traditton assigns one of the greatest of mystic roles,