Auroræ: Their Characters and Spectra. J. Rand Capron
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J. Rand Capron
Auroræ: Their Characters and Spectra
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066123758
Table of Contents
PART I. THE AURORA AND ITS CHARACTERS.
CHAPTER I. THE AURORA AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS.
CHAPTER II. SOME GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS OF AURORÆ.
CHAPTER IV. PHENOMENA SIMULATING AURORÆ.
CHAPTER V. SOME QUALITIES OF THE AURORA.
CHAPTER VI. THE AURORA IN CONNEXION WITH OTHER PHENOMENA.
CHAPTER VII. AURORA-LIKE PATCHES ON THE PARTIALLY-ECLIPSED MOON.
CHAPTER VIII. AURORA AND THE SOLAR CORONA.
CHAPTER IX. SUPPOSED CAUSES OF THE AURORA.
PART II. THE SPECTRUM OF THE AURORA.
CHAPTER X. SPECTROSCOPE ADAPTED FOR THE AURORA.
CHAPTER XI. THE COMPARISON OF SOME TUBE AND OTHER SPECTRA WITH THE SPECTRUM OF THE AURORA.
CHAPTER XII. SOME NOTES ON PROFESSOR ÅNGSTRÖM’S THEORY OF THE AURORA-SPECTRUM.
CHAPTER XIII. THE OXYGEN-SPECTRUM IN RELATION TO THE AURORA (PROCTER AND SCHUSTER) .
PART III. MAGNETO-ELECTRIC EXPERIMENTS IN CONNEXION WITH THE AURORA.
CHAPTER XIV. EXAMINATION OF GEISSLER TUBES UNDER ACTION OF THE MAGNET.
CHAPTER XV. EFFECT OF MAGNET ON A CAPILLARY GLASS TUBE.
CHAPTER XVI. EFFECT OF MAGNET ON WIDE AIR (AURORA) TUBE.
CHAPTER XVII. EFFECT OF MAGNET ON BULBED PHOSPHORESCENT TUBE.
CHAPTER XVIII. ACTION OF THE MAGNET ON THE ELECTRIC SPARK.
CHAPTER XIX. THE DISCHARGE IN VACUO IN LARGER VESSELS, AND MAGNETIC EFFECTS THEREON.
CHAPTER XX. SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS.
APPENDIX A. REFERENCES TO SOME WORKS AND ESSAYS ON THE AURORA.
APPENDIX B. EXTRACTS FROM THE MANUAL AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE (ENGLISH) ARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1875.
APPENDIX D. THE AURORA AND OZONE.
APPENDIX E. INQUIRIES INTO THE SPECTRUM OF THE AURORA.
PREFACE.
Probably few of the phenomena of Nature so entirely charm and interest scientific and non-scientific observers alike as the Aurora Borealis, or “Northern Lights” as it is popularly called. Whether contemplated as the long low quiescent arc of silver light illuminating the landscape with a tender radiance, as broken clouds and columns of glowing ruddy light, or as sheaves of golden rays, aptly compared by old writers to aerial spears, such a spectacle cannot fail at all times to be a subject of admiration, in some cases even of awe.
Hence it is no wonder that the Aurora has always received a considerable amount of attention at the hands of scientific men. Early explorers of the Arctic Regions made constant and important observations of it and its character; and the list of references to works given in the Appendix will show how often it formed the subject of monographs and communications to learned Societies. The early contributions seem relatively more numerous than those of a later date; and the substance of them will be found well summed up in Dr. Brewster’s ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia’ (1830), article “Aurora.” A most complete and able epitome of our more recent experience and knowledge of the Aurora and its spectrum has been contributed by my friend Mr. Henry R. Procter to the present (9th) edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ article “Aurora Polaris.” It is, however, a drawback to Encyclopædic articles that their matter is of necessity condensed, and that they rarely have the very desirable aid of drawings and engravings to illustrate their subjects. In spite, therefore, of the exhaustive way, both as to fact and theory, in which the contributor to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ has realized his task, it seemed to me there was still room left for a popular treatise, having for its object the description of Auroræ, their characters and spectra. The question of the Aurora spectrum seems the more worthy of extended discussion in that it still remains an unsolved problem. In spite of the observations and researches of Ångström, Lemström, and Vogel abroad, and of Piazzi Smyth, Herschel, Procter, Backhouse, and others