LOOMIS, Elias.

£500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Circular. The Great Auroral Exhibition of August 28th to September 4th 1859. Seemingly unrecorded appeal from Elias Loomis (1811-1889), the eminent American mathematician - at the time Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of the City of New York - requesting information regarding the spectacular appearance of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights during the summer of 1859. As Loomis notes in the preamble to this circular, the event was "one of the most remarkable exhibitions of Auroral or Polar light which has ever been recorded within the limits of the United States. The display was remarkable for the extent of territory over which it was visible - it was remarkable for its duration - for the intensity of the illumination as well as the brilliancy of the colours, and for the extreme rapidity of the changes". Convinced that study of this single meteorological event promised "to do more for the promotion of science than an imperfect investigation of an indefinite number", Loomis was seeking "accurate but concise description of all the phenomena with the exact time of their occurrence" from '"every portion of the globe, with the sole exception of Europe: for we assume that the appearances in Europe will be fully reported through the European journals".In the accompanying letter, Loomis explains that by then some four articles had appeared in the American Journal of Science based on reports received from around the world, and that now he was keen to extend the scope of h

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