Guntur's tryst with helium dates back to 1868

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR, AUG. 18. A few are aware that the observation of the total solar eclipse in Guntur 133 years ago by a British astronomer had led to the discovery of a new element and the unravelling of secrets of nuclear fusion in the sun. Helium was first discovered on the soil of Guntur on this very day in 1868.

This little-known fact was brought to light by the Piduguralla- based Suryacem company on the occasion of celebrations of the 133rd World Helium Day here on Saturday. It organised a seminar and a `Helium walk'. In his message read out in absentia at the seminar, the Director-General of B.M. Birla Science Centre in Hyderabad, Dr. B.G. Siddharth, said two teams -- the British team led by Colonel Tennant and the French team led by Jannsen -- observed the total solar eclipse on August 18, 1868, from Guntur.

When the solar corona flashed into view as the moon completely blocked the photosphere of the sun, the light was spectroscopically analysed by subjecting it to pass through a prism. The spectral lines produced an extra yellow line which was not known before and did not tally with any known elements before, he pointed out. Dr. Siddharth went on to add that the British scientist, Sir Norman Lockyer, suggested that this extra line would be the signature of a new and unknown element in the sun which he called `helium', from the word `Helios,' which meant sun in Greek.

It was only 27 years later that another British scientist, William Ramsey, incidentally chanced upon discovering helium, while he was actually looking for an inert gas called `argon'. Dr. Siddharth observed that helium was today one of the most abundant elements in the universe, next only to hydrogen. Nuclear fusion was considered to be the most important function of helium -- as many as four hydrogen atoms would get compressed into one helium atom releasing a huge amount of energy. It was this energy with the help of which the life was existent on the earth in different forms. Helium also played a key role in the formation of galaxies -- sun is one of the some 1,00,000 million inhabitant stars of an ordinary galaxy.

Stating that superfluidity of helium was also discovered in recent years, Dr. Siddarth said that it behaved like a fluid at very low temperatures. However, its applications were yet to be found out. He complimented Suryacem for organising the seminar.

Dr. Seshadri, a scientist from Chennai, explained the physical and chemical behaviour of helium. The renowned litterateur, Dr. Dasarathi Rangacharya, regretted the fact that most Indians did not know anything about the glory of the country and termed them `resident non-Indians'. The Suryacem Managing Director, Mr. K.V. Subba Rao, and the Executive Director, Mr. B.V. Bucheswara Rao, also spoke. The Assistant Director of B.M. Birla Science Centre, Mr. Ravi Kiran, later made a slide presentation on the solar system.

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Section  : Southern States
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