Preliminary observations were. made here in April and May by Dr. Robert Trumpler, assistant director of the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California, in preparation for final astronomica] observations in northern Australia to prove or disprove the part of Einstein's theory of relativity which has to do with the composition and characteristics of light.
Various astronomical expeditions will gather.on the northern coast of Australia on September 21 to take their observations when the sun goes into total eclipse that day. Dr. Trumpler's work here has been to photograph, on a large scale, the stars in that part of the heavens where the sun will be on September 21. On the day of the eclipse when the sun is totally obscured and the stars are visible, similar photographs will be taken on the same scale.
Einstein's contention is that light is not, as scientists hitherto have held, the very rapid vibrations of the all-pervading ether, but is made up of electrons and_ therefore is a form of matter. If light is matter in any form it will be subject to the law of gravitation, and it is to establish or disprove this point that the observations are being made here and in Australia.
If Einstein's theory of light -is well founded, according to Dr. Trumpler, the rays of light from a star in that quarter of the heavens passing by so large a mass as the sun will be deflected by the force of the sun's gravitation and the star in question will appear on the photographic plate at a place slightly removed from its true
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.