lit, a small hole made in a screen placed before it served as a point of light; and the plate 5, which was adjustable in two planes, was moved about till the two images of the point of light, which were reflected by the mirrors, coincided. Then a sodium flame placed at a produced at once the interference bands. These could then be altered in width, position, or direction, by a slight movement of the plate b, and when they were of convenient width and of maximum sharpness, the
sodium flame was removed and the lamp again substituted. The screw m was then slowly turned till the bands reappeared. They were then of course colored, except the central band, which was nearly black. The observing telescope had to be focussed on the surface of the mirror c/, where the fringes were most distinct. The whole apparatus, including the lamp and the telescope, was movable about a vertical axis.
It will be observed that this apparatus can very easily be
made to serve as an “interferential refractor,” and has the two important advantages of small cost, and wide separation of the two pencils.
The apparatus as above described was constructed by Schmidt and Haensch of Berlin. It was placed on a stone pier in the Physical Institute, Berlin. The first observation showed, however, that owing to the extreme sensitiveness of the instrument to vibrations, the work could not be carried on during the day. The experiment was next tried at night. When the mirrors were placed half-way on the arms the fringes were visible, but their position could not be measured till after twelve o’clock, and then only at intervals. When the mirrors were moved out to the ends of the arms, the fringes were only occasionally visible.
It thus appeared that the experiments could not be performed in Berlin, and the apparatus was accordingly removed
to the Astrophysicalisches Observatorium in Potsdam. Even here the ordinary stone piers did not suffice, and the apparatus was again transferred, this time to a cellar whose circular walls formed the foundation for the pier of the equatorial.
Here, the fringes under ordinary circumstances were sufficiently quiet to measure, but so extraordinarily sensitive' was the instrument that the stamping of the pavement, about 100 meters from the observatory, made the fringes disappear entirely!
If this was the case with the instrument constructed with a view to avoid sensitiveness, what may we not expect from one made as sensitive as possible!
At this time of the year, early in April, the earth’s motion in its orbit coincides roughly in longitude with the estimated direction of the motion of the solar system—namely, toward the constellation Hercules. The direction of this motion is inclined at an angle of about -f-26° to the plane of the equator,
