THE STELLAR CHEMIST

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 778, 30 March 1910, Page 11

THE STELLAR CHEMIST

SIR W. HUCCINS AS KEEN AS . EVER AT 86. ANALYSING A COMET. Another patriarch of science, Sir William Huggins, the eminent astronomer, roached his Sfit'n birthday in Feb-' ruary, and; liko those two intellectual veterans, Br. Furnivall and Sir Hiram Maxim, whoso anniversaries were feted recently, the day found him in the plenitude of mental arid physical vigour. People bora in February, somcoiio aptly observed in tho presence, of the happy and venerable scientist, 1 "fuli of years and liondurs," are born indeed under a beneficent star. _;'Ycs, I have no cpuse to complain," Sir AVilliam rejoined; - "Time lias dealt indulgently, with me, and I .feel tonjay as keenly enthusiastic-over my- work as if I were twenty." ."Not the.loast important of your dis-1 coveriees, this—tho secret of perpetual I j'outh and" haiipiriess," I hinted; "Oh, it merely, consists in the love of study. Interest in one's' \vork is a never-failing . source of joy. Then-''l cultivate method. I haye never smoked, and am practically a total abstainer." With abundant enthusiasm, the Grrand Old Man of Astronomy nest discoursed on his favourite subject. "I rejoice to see the lead taken by Cambridge in the work," he explained; • "I-:dori't believe the University , town will bo a rival 'to the other great institution in this country,.,as Greenwich takes a different line; • But; they both in future will.complete one another's work, and , this, I no dotfbt,-admirably.". . . . _ Sir William .takes indeed a personal interest in the' researches made at the Cambridge- Observatory; : Last autumn ho transferred his telescopes and other ''iiistruments to the University on condition that they would be' housed in a new building, and to-day oiie'may see on, I the outskirts of Cambridge the "Huggins Observatory'' erected midway, between .the . watch-towers . occupied respectively by- Sir Robert .Ball and Professor .Newall. Simultaneously,' with .the/erection, of; the new : building, a chair of, Astrophysics _was founded at tlie University. ; This nascent science,' a :new'branch of initiated ana developed .by Sir .William, is to-da.v zealousjy cultivated in ;all the priricipftl observatories ,of_ tlie world. In a collection of Jnb; scientific papers, recently published,. he defines; Astrophysics ns "the. chemistry and physics of the earth extended to the. heavenly .bodies." . ina|ority of men of science,' Sir William js_gifted ; with an. 'exquisitely, sensitive temperament. ' Posi-' tIT ? and dry-as-duit data and;arid computations have not.-kilkd tbe poofc 'ni him ; nay, ho deplores tho fact ' that photography has' robbed him to some exterit of the joy of personal 'observation. It ; has greatly diitfinished, ho the immediate interest of astronomical Work; Instead of looking; directly at the, objects; ono now relies- on tho camera.

To Mm no ' more' glorious sensation can be experienced than that felt by the ■ "Watcher of the skies When a new- planet swimß into his ken." or S e^-^e feeling I oxpori- • enced,.. lie - narrates, .-"when - first J discovered the. nature, of rtha nebulae;' On ,«ho' evening; of .-Augustr-29;■ -1864, • I.~:di~ reeled tho .telescope for tho first time to a planetary nebula in Draco.;' . . . One may. now be able to Picture to oneself _to some estent the'feeling of' excited suspense, mingled with' a degree bf awe, with, which,■ after- a few.moments of hesitation, I put my eye to the spectroscope. Was I not about to look into a secret place of orbation? . . . The riddle of the nebulae was solved. . : which had..'come to..us!>in the light read: .'Not'an .aggregation'of stars, but a luminous gas. With'the same tromnlouß enthusiasm the astronomer watched comets, those' express travellers of space, as he calls' tuom, from his private observatory at Tulse Hill. Thus he was'the first to determine the chemical nature of • tlie mysterious heavenly bodies.' He found that tlie self-light of a comet gave in thQ' sp'ectrpscbppthree Kright:;,''baii'd : s, .coincident with thos? ;emitfefl,by,;a''a)iiiT • pound of, carbon, imd hydrogen, . as -may be seen'at : tho Baso of the .'flame of a candle.' Subsequently lie discovered also a riitrogen.compound of carbon, namely, cyanogen. ■ Since that time observations of. other astronomers throughout the world have confirmed these, results. -