Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/307

Rh demands a complete understanding of the action of the same forces upon terrestrial matter. The astrophysicist dwells in the laboratory as well as in the observatory; and laboratory researches must supply the links which connect world life and star life.

It has not been possible for laboratory investigators to reproduce stellar phenomena on a scale approaching that occurring in nature, nor to duplicate conditions of temperature and pressure existing within the stars; and these are unfortunate limitations. Nevertheless, many successes have been achieved in this direction. The low-temperature triumphs of Dewar, Olczewski and others approximate to the conditions of space surrounding the stars. The electric arc and spark appear to reproduce the temperatures of many stellar chromospheres and reversing layers. The electric furnace of Moissan seems to supply temperatures comparable with those of the photosphere, and it promises to throw light upon the processes of cloud formation in the stars. Investigations as to the influence of varying pressures—from almost perfect vacua up to many atmospheres—as to the effects of varying electrical conditions and of other factors have answered many celestial questions, and introduced others equally pressing.

Laboratory observations have established that the spectra of the elements are not the same under all circumstances. We formerly thought it remarkable that nitrogen should have two or three characteristic spectra, or that a metal should have a spark spectrum and an arc spectrum. We are now confronted with the potent fact that an element may have a variety of spectra, depending upon the nature and the intensity of the forces employed in rendering it luminous. But for most cases these involve only moderate variations in the relative intensities of spectral lines. The complications which threaten to result therefrom are more apparent than real. The multiplicity of spectral reactions promises to be a powerful aid to analysis, by supplying a more exact key to the conditions in the celestial light source which produce the observed effects.

For many years following the application of the spectroscope to celestial problems it was supposed that a continuous spectrum must indicate incandescent solid or liquid, matter. The situation is not so simple as this. Some gases radiating under high pressures give spectra apparently continuous.

The effect of increasing temperature conditions on certain spectra has long been well known. Certain lines are enhanced in relative brilliancy when we pass from the temperature of the arc to that of the high-tension spark, and vice versa; but it seems certain that, within measurable limits, the positions of the lines do not change under this influence.

Humphreys and Mohler have proved that the spectral lines are shifted by pressure;—toward the red with increasing pressure in the