Lindsay Collegiate and Vocational Institute - Tatler Yearbook (Lindsay, Ontario Canada)

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,A A THE L. C. 1. TATLER 2 3 The 'Setter stirred uneasily. A low rumblhag in his throat became definitely a growl. With staring eyes and slowly clenching hands Vail waited. There was an odd fumbling at the door. Vail wait- ed. It would be over' soon and he would find rest. The door creaked slowly back on its hinges. Stinging, needle-like snow blew gustily into the room. Vail waited. A man stepped softly in from the :black- ness. The man's eyes held his again. They were coming closer-closer. Quite suddenly Vail was glad and strangely un- afraid. A last conscious thought came before the blackness. Oh God, no more fear! THE ECLIPSE OF 1932 First Prize Senior Essay On Saturday of August 27th. two car- loads of people and a 'truck load of instru- ments -drove into the Town of Actonvale, P.Q., after driving 400 miles from Ham- ilton, some of them 450 miles from Nor- wich, Ontario. The trip was broken by spending the night at Valleyfield where they crossed the river. Those present were: Rev. D. B. March, D.Sc., EPh.B., F.R.A.S., the head and director of the expedition, Mrs Marsh, Mr John A. Marsh, Mr. W. S. Mallory, M.A., president of the Hamilton 'Centre R.A.S.C., Mr. W. T. Wingham, B.Sc., Professor William Find- lay, of McMaster University, Mr. John Findlay, Mr. F. E. Campbell and the two truckers Vernon and Art. On arriving in town the party was im- mediately shown up the side of quite a high hill. The .road wound around a stone quarry and crusher, up the steep side through scrubby trees past an old copper and gold mine to the top of a little plateau. It was a hard spot to reach with a truck-load of delicate instru- ments, but once there it was worth ten hills like that. The view was perfect. Rouge Mont lay off to the west about 40 miles, far away to the south were moun- tains and hills visible at 60 miles. and miles lay stretched to the east. Our view to the north was partially 'cut oil' by a small woods. Then :began the important ltask of set- ting up. A pier had to be erected for our three big cameras -and carefully set to point toward the pole of the sky. Then the other instruments had to be leveled and set up. ' The whole outfit consisted of 3 tele- scopes with camera attachments, two magnetic instrumenlts i.e., dip-needle and compass needle, to note any magnetic in- fluences, several baromseters, thermom- eters, hygrometers and other 'ometers, and instrument to record the sun's altitude at the moment totaliy occurred, two or three stop watches and time pieces, two teles- copes for observaxtion and a metronome to 'beat the seconds for time. Dr. and Mrs. Marsh resorted to the hotel in town for lodging but the rest of the party set up camp on the top of the hill, and what a site for a camp it was! A more delightful spot for camp- ing could hardly be found, On Monday another car arrived in town and a queer looking spectacle it was. The back seat was filled with du-ffle, outside were tent poles on one side and a tele- scope box and tripod on the other. If it had not been for this car-load this story would not be written, for it was then the author and his father arrived on the scene. With all hands on deck, after we had set up our tent about 15 feet from a little shack filled with dynamite, began a ser- ies of drills which are not even sur- passed in our local cadet corps. We had to go through our 102 seconds perform- ance time after time, so that everything would run as smoothly as a new eight cylinder car when the great event took place. The six men who operated the three cameras exposed imaginary plates by the dozens while Mrs. Marsh counted seconds from the metronome and Dr. Marsh shouted instructions. VVhile this was going on Mr. Wingham was making drawings of an imaginary corona, while I was doing the same vbertween making observations of my two magnetic needles. My father was taking readings at the same time of the various 'ometers men- tioned before. The three telescopes were arranged on one pier in such a manner that each was in a position to be conveniently operated. The largest was a five inch refractor made by Dr. Marsh. The next was the McMaster University 'scope, a 316 inch refractor. The third was a three inch refractor made by Dr. Marsh and the property of the Hamilton Centre R.A.S.C. At the small end of each telescope was a small box-like affair which contained the photographic plates. The large telescope had a focal length of 22 feeft although it was only about six feet long. This was accomplished by a, special lens invented by Dr. Marsh, who is an authority on astronomical photography and recognized as such the world over. 'This same camera was fitted with a blue filter made by Dr. Marsh and arranged to allow only the blue light of the spectrum to enter. The other cameras had a yellow filter and an orange-yellow filter.

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24 THE L. C. 1. TATLER V g Two days we spent drilling, during which time we were shown the most gen- erous hospitality by the French people oi Actonvale. The town has a population of about 2000 and a liberal estimate would set the number who speak English fluently at two or three -dozen. The Mayor him- self cannot say a word of English. We were entertained at an informal meeting 'by the Chamber of Commerce on Monday evening and received complimentary tic- kets for the next evening to ia lecture by a French priest on the subject of astron- omy in general and the eclipse in par- ticular. in French. It was most interest- ing!! After about two hours we all had delightful headaches and the phrases L'eclipse Totale and 'le phenomena extraordenairen were buzzing in all direc- tions. The eventful day arrived. We arose to find the sky filled with big white clouds but felt sure that the heat of the sun would soon dispel them and were over- joyed to see the sky become comparatively clear later in the morning. Several of us went down into the town for a game of tennis. The French are enthusiastic ten- nis players. When we had finished our game, however, we found that heavy dark clouds were rolling up here and there and in half an hour not a clear spot was seen. Imagine, if you can. our feel- ings as we ate om' dinner. After all our preparation and time spent we were about to be disappointed. and we thoughft of all those at Magog to the south of us who had come from Englandn Japan, Europe and some from the United States. Of course, we did not give up hope and went ahead with final preparations. First contact we did not see, but when the time came we knew it must be on. At about 15127 on we caught a glimpse of the sun through a slight rift as the clouds parted and we were able to ob- tain photographs of the partial. But still the great clouds covered the sky. It was one chance in a thousand that we might see the totality in the same way. Far off to the west we saw a little hole in the clouds which seemed to be coming our way, but the chances were pretty slim for it to strike us right. Gradually. however, it seemed to grow and at about ten minutes before totality what was our joy to have the whole sky opened for us to see. By this time the light had taken on the most weird air. A sheet which we had spread to observe the shadow bands on was a most peculiar gray colour. Every one had a deathly look. Each instrument was given its last tuning up. At about four minutes before totality a sharp cool breeze sprang up from the north. Everything was getting more weir looking. Every one wlas speaking in Whispers and expe1'iencing a queer sense of awe. The light was fast fading and Mercury and Venus broke into view. The crescent of the sun was disappearing, now only a thin line just a few seconds be- fcre totality one of the most peculiar phenomena appearedg the shadow band. These are long pencils of shadow about an inch in breadth and three or foiu' inches apart which shimmer over the earth's surface at about five feet a second. They are one of the few unexplained phenomena. Just as the last line of the crescent was about to go, it suddenly broke up into sho-rt dots of light around the on-creep- ing moon's edge. These are known as Baileys Beads. since they were first seen by Bailey and resemble a string of beads. I got a fine view of them through the telescope. Then the shadows of totality, speeding on at a 1000 miles an hour, passed over us and totality was on. Mr. Wingham shouted Go, and Mrs. Marsh started counting the seconds. Everything which we had prepared started to move. The pearly corona burst into view like a mag- nificent halo around the moon's dark edge. Through the telescope I saw several little prominences stick up. They were very small but of a beautiful rose-pink colour. H For 71 seconds everyone Worked like mad. Then we looked at the greatest sight of all astronomical phenomena. For 19 seconds we looked, when, to our amaze- ment, there was a flash of light and total- ity was over at 90 seconds. Astronomers had predicted 102 seconds. Something else in the erraticalnes of the moon in its orbit to be explained. The great event was over and we had seen it! The effect was stupendous. Mem- bers of the party, strong men, said they would have cried if Dr. Marsh had not relieved the tension by shouting 'Three cheers for the Chamber of Commerce of Actonvale ! Our first impulse was to talk, and more than one of us were about to recount our observations to our neighbour but were rapidly hushed when we recalled our rules. Every one was to sift down alone immediately and w1'ite all his observations. Then we could discuss without fear of getting things muddled up. I turned in my report on everything that I had seen. I was disappolinrted in not having noted any magnetic changes but the other phenomena I had seen per- fectly. I had the privilege of being one in I venture to say a dozen or fewer peo- ple who actually saw totality through a. telescope. The sky had been opened up for us