Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution, with Abstracts of the Discourses Volume N . 16 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ...with the perfect freedom wanted for what we know of aberration, instead of the imperfect freedom of air moving through a grove of trees suggested by Thomas Young. According to it, and for simplicity neglecting the comparatively very small component due to the earth's rotation (only 46 of a kilometre per second at the equator where it is a maximum), and neglecting the imperfectly known motion of the solar system through space towards the constellation Hercules, discovered by Herachel, there would be at all points of the earth's surface a flow The splendid spectroscopic method originated by Hugging thirty-three years ago, for measuring the component in the line of vision of the relative motion of the earth, and any visible star, has been carried on since that time with admirable perseverance and skill by other observers, who have from their results made estimates of the velocity and direction of the motion through space of the centre of inertia of the solar system. My Glasgow colleague, Professor Becker, has kindly given me the following information on the subject of these researches: "The early (1888) Potsdam photographs of the spectra of 51 stars brighter than 2 magnitude have been employed for the determination of the apex and velocity of the solar system. Kempf (Astronomisehe Nachrichten, vol. 132) finds for the apex: right ascension, 206 12; declination, 46 9; velocity, 19 kilometres per second; and Bisteen (Astronomical Journal, 1893) finds practically the same of ether at the rate of 30 kilometres per second in lines all parallel to the tangent to the earth's orbit round the sun. There is nothing inconsistent with this in all we know of the ordinary phenomena of terrestrial optics; but, alas there is inconsistency with a...