Though our Inter-Library Loan people have worked wonders in many cases, they haven't been able to come up with everything I've asked for. Here's a list of missing items; if you're near a big library that might have some of them, please take a look and see if you can find any of them.
In many cases, the reference I have is incomplete (or, possibly, just plain wrong.) If our ILL folks haven't found something, it's going to be tough to come up with. Still, some of you might find something here that rings a bell. If so, please let me know.
Where my reference is obviously incomplete, a full citation sent by e-mail should suffice to get me going. If you have ready access to the item, I'd appreciate being mailed a photocopy. My address is:
Dr. Andrew T. Young
Astronomy Dept.
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-1221
U.S.A.
I'm also aware that there are many references to mirages — and perhaps also to green flashes — in the Japanese literature. Unfortunately, I don't read Japanese. If you do, and come across such references, please let me know about them.
Dean Newman put me onto the couplet "Glimpse you e'er the green ray, count the morrow a fine day," which he remembers one character in a novel reciting to another at the rail of a ship — but he cannot recall where. Can anyone identify that novel?
The earliest occurrence of this couplet that I know of is in the 1923 edition of
W. J. HumphreysI suspect he invented it himself; if you can find an earlier reference, I'd like to hear of it. But please make sure you verify that the reference you've found really does pre-date 1923; I get a couple of useless suggestions a year from people who turn up later publications and write to me about them, without checking the dates first.
Weather Proverbs and Paradoxes
(Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1923), pp. 14–16.
* cited by Bruce, QJRMS (1914)
??
The South African Pilot, Part II
(Hydrographical Department of the Admiralty, London?, before 1914)
Article Author: Meyer, R.
Article Title: Meteorologische Optik
Journal Title: Richters Kalender (Riga)
Date: 1909, 1910, and 1911
Article Author: J.H.Mathers
Article Title: The Green Flash
Journal Title: Hermes
Vol. 13 p. 112-114 (1966)
Article Author: Streintz, H.
Article Title: (Luftspiegelungen)
Journal Title: Wien Pht. Cor.
Date: 1892
Volume: 29
Pages: 225-??
M.Näbauer
Terrestrische Strahlenbrechung und Farbenzerstreuung
Abhandlungen der Bayerische Akad. Wissenschaften (N.F.), No.3, (1929)
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