It has been said of Sir Norman Lockyer, the astronomer, who died recently at Sidmouth, aged 84, that, although his father was a science lecturer, he was not "bred up in the business" of astronomy like the younger Herschel, but that he "hitched his wagon to a star" after being employed, in his early manhood, at the prosaic business of a clerkship at the War Office and the editorship of the Army Regulations. But the study of astronomy, which began as a hobby, so fascinated him that he came to rank as one of the world's most famous scientists. Sir Norman Lockyer and Jannsen, the French astronomer, discovered separately and independently the method of observing the sun without waiting for an eclipse. The discovery, which brought him world-wide fame, has since formed the basis of all solar work. He has told the story as follows:
"I had considerable difficulty in getting a suitable instrument made there was, in fact, a delay of two years. I received what I needed and on studying the sun with it I at once noticed in it a bright yellow line that had not previously been observed.
"We found that it could not be a new hydrogen line. De la Rue sent a note about the discovery to the Paris Academy. and at the same time the Academy had them a letter from Jaonsen. During his observations on the eclipse [one observed in India] he had seen the same bright lines and had remarked, 'Jo reverrai ces lignes-la" ['I shall see those lines again'). Next day he looked for them and found them. including the yellow line that heralded the discovery of Helium" [a gaseous element occurring in the atmosphere of the sun and stars].
Another result of this great discovery was the founding by the Government of the Observatory and Physical Laboratory at South' Kenington, attached to the Royal College of Science and afterwards transferred to Cambridge. Sir Norman was the director of this for 28 years.
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Sir Norman's explanation of the problem of Stonehenge attracted great attention. These famous stones, he said, were arranged so as to catch the rays of the setting sun at certain critical occasions—the equinoxes, midsummer, mid-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.