The total solar eclipse of 1878 darkened skies from Montana Territory to Texas, offering a priceless opportunity solve some of the solar system's most enduring riddles. American Eclipse animates the fierce jockeying of late nineteenth-century American astronomy, bringing to life the challenges faced by three of the most determined eclipse chasers who participated in this adventure.
James Craig Watson, a renowned asteroid hunter headed west in a quest to discover Vulcan, a hypothesized "intra-Mercurial" planet hidden in the sun's brilliance.
Vassar astronomer Maria Mitchell headed west with a contingent of female students - fighting to demonstrate that science and higher learning were not exclusive to the male population.
Thomas Edison - a young inventor and irrepressible showman - braved the wilderness with his newest invention, the tasimeter. Pursued by reporters at each stop, he sought to leverage the eclipse to cement his place in history. What he learned on the frontier, in fact, would help him illuminate the world.
With memorable accounts of train robberies and Indian skirmishes, David Baron's page-turning drama refracts nineteenth-century science through the mythologized age of the Wild West, revealing a history no less fierce and fantastical.
Author: David Baron
Size: 5.5" x 8.3"
Pages: 352