WCP6963

[1]¹

Note change of address

Wallace A.R.

Broadstone, Dorset

April 24th, 1903

Dr. S.P. Langley LL.D.

Dear D^r Langley

I venture to trouble you for some information which I think, you are the person most able to give me. It is, whether any observations have been made, either by yourself or at any of the Astro-physical observatories in America, to determine the amount of radiation emitted by the stars either in the form of heat electricity, or any of the obscurer forms of radiant energy.

I should think it almost certain that at the focus of any of the [2] large photographic telescopes now in use which concentrate the light of a rich field of stars, some heat would be shown by your bolometers. While, considering the powerful magnetic and electrical effects of the sun on the earth, it seems probable that the combined effects of a large number of stars would also be perceptible.

As you are sure to be acquainted with any results obtained in this direction I shall be greatly obliged if you can refer me to any publication containing them, or to any Astronomer who makes such observations a speciality.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]