CHARTING COSMIC RAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 110, 11 May 1936, Page 6

CHARTING COSMIC RAYS

— ACTIVITIES IN PACIFIC j MUTER PLACED ON AORANGI. i I HL'I.AULB BV IHIiJfE-oU.i A. H. I I \ ppu ai.us tur determining the in- | tensity of cosmic jays has been pia«?ed on the after deck of the Canadian Aus tralasiau liner Aorangi for Professor Arthur H. Compton, professor of phyI sics at the Fniversitx uf Chicago. wh< \ isited New Zealand in 1932 to conduct la series uf experiments here into the i characteristics of these rays. This | cosmic ray meter is one ui seven being i set up ar strategic pL-lnts throughout j the world. (hie has already been •erected at ‘jhristeijurfh. which i- the nearest practicable elevated land to the; south magnetic pole, and another in j I Peru. 0:1 the magnetic equator. The J ulbers are to be installed in Greenland. I which is the neare.-t place possible u I the north magneto- pole, in Mexico, ano in Cue lb -kies, probably in <'ulorado. j The meter was -»q up on the Aorangi when the ship was at Van Huuver at the end uf January, and the Ipiesent arrangements are to leave it there lor a year to record the varia |tions of t-u.-mie rays between Vancouver iand New Zealand. To cheek the worklings c-f the meter. Professor Compton (travelled as far as Honolulu by the ' Aorangi. wlreh left Vancouver ioI Auckland and Sydney on January 3C. His intention was to await the return |of the Aorangi tu Honolulu on the I northward trip c.i March 13. ami if the I result.- of the experiments conducted during the voyage across the Pacific Iproxed satisia iury return to Van I The delicate meciiani-in comprising the meter is insulated from surrounding I radiations by successive layers of lead and copper, leaving it active only to cosmic rays. The apparatus. which weighs more than 49001 b., contains argon, which, when struck by the rays, becomes intensified nod indicates the intensity of its charge on a sensitive electroscope. The serie® of experiments to- determine the intensity of cosmic rays will take place over a period of It yearg. the sunspot cyc»c. as a result of which it is hoped to find what time variations there are in cosmic rays and what rules govern them. By the measurements taken aboard the Aorangi it is hoped to- determine which hemisphere of the earth receives the highest proportion of the rays.