Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 21.pdf/19

HARDWICKEH'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 5

EARLY S5UN-GLOWS.I{E remarkable sun-glows of last and the present year having attracted a considerable amount of attention among scientists, and being believed by many to be wholly unprecedented in the history of the earth, it may be of interest and value to give an account of the occasions on which similar phenomena have been abserved in North Lurope, according to the most reliable Scandinayian his- torians. Such purple glows as we have recently achnired have been observed in the earliest times, when people believed that they were warnings from heaven of great coming disasters, as, for instance, war, plague, or famine. There appears, however, to be no reliable record of such a phenomenen until the middle of the sixteenth century, Thus, i the summer of 1553, such a glow, or, as it was then ealler, fire-sign, was obseryed all over Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and, strangely enough, a terrible plague visited these countries in the same year, In Copenhagen its ravages were so great that the academical lectures ai the University had to be adjourned for several months, and the students left the capital. ‘The next glow was seen in the year 1636, when sailors, returning (oe Copenhagen froin yoyages in the Baltic and the North Sea, reported that for weeks the sky seemed on fire afler sunset, and also i that year a plague visited the shores ef Sweden and Denmark, Ly these coincidences popular superstition was fur- ther strengthened, although it was subsequently proved that the purple glow seen in 1636 was caused by a terrible eruption of Itekla, the great Iceland volcano,

On the night of January 4, 1561, a frightful storm broke over Novth Europe, One whirlwind after the other wnroofed houses and uprooted trees in hundreds, while the tide rese so high on the coast of Jutland that large districts were flooded. Tor several days the sky seemed a bath of lurid fire, and a great terror was caused amongst the population, mast of whom believed that the Day of Judgment had come. ‘The celehrated Danish historian, Bishop Jens Birkerod, writes in his diary ‘‘that the sky was terrible to behold ; it looked as if on fire; ” while his father, Professor Jakob Birkerod, asserts that he felt shocks of earthquake in the island of Funen. Whe same authority records that evil prophets predicted the last day, and, as the phenomenon passed without disaster, they stated that it had enly been postponed for a period of three years to give sinners time for repentance. When August 6, 1663, arrived, great terror prevailed in Denmark, and all churches were thronged to suffocation,

The next phenomenon uf this nature was seen throughout Denmark, according to the first-named authority, on May 1680, al sunrise, Long befor a7 22; the sun rose the enlire heavens were filled with a blood-red light, and when the sunbeams shot forth “Viquil fire seemed to rain from the sky,” Again people became terribly alarmed, which was further increased by the report of a great comet approaching, the earth’; when it finally became visille in the following Deceinber, the popular mind was in a state of perfect madness. Another aerial phenomenon occurred! in Denmark on Shrove Tuesday, 1707. At about seven o’clock two enormous beams of light were seen mining from W.N.W. to NUN.E., which made night for several hours as light as day. Some, however, refer this phe- nomenon to the aurora borealis, bat it is strange that it should not have been more widely recognised, as. such in that country.

But the_mosi recent truce sun-glow was observed in 1783—exactly a hundred years ago—throughani Scandinavia. It first Lecame visible in Copen- hagen, on May 29th, and lasted until the end of September. This glow is stated also to have been seen in the whole of Europe, as well as Asia and Africa, in that year. The sky was red as blood at sunset and sunrise, but there was ane creat difference between this phenomenon and the last one, viz., that the sun’s disk was semi-obscured during the day and almast completely so when rising and setting, In other respects, as, for instance, temperature, heat and cold, moisture and drought, the phenomena of 1783 was Identical with the Jast one witnessed. This glow too caused great consternation in North Enrope the last day being believed to be at hand. Zt should be mentioned as a point of weighty importance that, in the spring of the same year (the exact date is unknown), a frightfa) eruption of the Skapta Jokul, in Iceland, took place. This glow seemed in many respects to have resembled that af 1636, when Ilekla was in terrific activity.

Et will thus he seen that, although English records of sun-glows such as the recent anes are limited te one or Gyo instances, the phenomenon has been observed North Europe, more or less prominently, on several occasions during the last three centuries,

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GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOTLICS, By W. MATtTiey Winniams, F.R,A.S,

A CURIOUS statement is made in “The Journal of Science,” of last Qetober, by a correspon-

dlent who states that, ‘If a workman is allowed ta

bring his dog into any manufactory where he is employed, it is astonishing how quickly the animal finds ont ‘who is who’? in the concern. Ilis profound respect for the head of the establishment, and for the managers, foremen, and olfice-hearers De general, forms an amusing contrast to his sauciness ta private workmen.” This is an observation wel!

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