Sunset

 

The Rayleigh Scattering

By Carole Blackburn

Sitting in her fragrant garden with its decorative and concise edges, with Henri her devoted husband, they had continued to enjoy this pleasure in life, until one summer ago. Maggie had promised him she would watch the sunset with a glass of something and enjoy their garden, forever. The warm air caressed her aging bones and her thoughts drifting into a different world and time.

The wooden tatty desk in John Strutt’s study was covered with his paperwork: A clutter of his many thoughts on a fascinating theory. Outside in silence, the sun was setting, a huge canopy of fading warmth, in the evening sky.

His supper arrived, as regular as clockwork, carried in by Mrs Matterson. This last of her evening duties for Lord John, 3^rd Baron of Rayleigh. There was no conversation at this hour, apart from,

“Thank you, Matterson.”

Her curtsey and a gentle nod were her reply.

On leaving his study, her words were always the same,” Will that be all, my Lord?”

“Yes, Mrs Matterson, it will be.”

John sighed as he reclined back in the leatherbound chair, another day had gone. The gas lamp would soon be needed. He was driven to continue with his thoughts, after his supper of rye bread, cheese, and a glass of the deepest red wine.

The inner glow from his wine soothed his thoughts that had been screeching for his attention. His need for calming solitude came as he raised his eyes to the spectacular sight of the Sun melting behind the rooftops, above Maldon. The river Blackwater ebbed and flowed nearby in obeyance to the pull of the Moon. Forever, this relationship with our planet has shaped our world, our lives, as does the Sun. 

His gas lamp flickered with shapes that pranced around him. Illuminating his world, as the outside darkens. His supper concluded with crumbs that littered on top of his papers; he had nibbed in italics. Diagrams altered with an urgency to follow his train of thought. The glowing sight in the sky had become his main thought together with the reason for its occurrence, over the past few years.

Why can we witness the splendour of a sunset?

How does this seemingly natural display occur?

What makes sunsets possible?

Always, the sunset colours vary, reflecting through the clouds as the sinking sun ignites the horizon. He never tired of these safe visual pyrotechnics in his daily life. He was told the colours could vary from shades of blue and green. A learned colleague, Edward Routh had sent word of his ideas that very week from his own experiences from the University laboratory.

Edward days and nights flowed and melded into one. His slumber would often be broken as the night warden gently shook him as the next day dawned. No beginning, no ending for him.

John and Edward would pool their ideas as their individual gas lamps flickered while outside a globe of fire, with its intense heat lowered in the sky. Lord Rayleigh’s thoughts hinted at a possible transferring of its heat with the presence of substances in the atmosphere. A potion maybe, that was a presence in the sky. A catalyst of some sort. His thoughts were missing a vital thread, John pondered.

These two men with their insatiable curiosities of the techno-coloured skies fuelled their notes, debates, and presentation papers to the numerous faculties around Europe.

The night curtain fell on this spectacular sky show, once again. Now, the night stars were waking up. Their mother, the crescent moon glowed. The atmosphere was translucent between him and the free light display in the sky. For many these dusk displays were taken for granted. Unlike Lord John, the fascination of the skies kept him awake most nights.

John picked up his calculations with his current thinking. His scribbled ideas all over them as he read aloud,” A sunset has three stages; Civil, Nautical and Astronomical twilights and the last one I have calculated as being 12-18 degrees below the horizon. He continued as he turned the page, “Dusk occurs at the very edge of this stage. The night is defined when the sun reaches 18 degrees below the horizon and with the Sun no longer illuminating the skyline”. He concluded.

Rubbing his chin, he recalled not every evening sky was a picture to behold. Something was making a difference.

The night carried on as his thoughts drew the threads of his theory together. John sent word to Edward; he would have stirred by now.

A gentle tap on the study door behind him signaled that Mrs Matterson needed to carry in his breakfast tray. It had been Evelyn, his wife’s decision for this unusual eating arrangement. The time when they had shared mealtimes together had become a distant memory. She knew him too well to demand anything when his every grain of thought was required elsewhere. For John, he did not need the additional distraction to be present in the dining room and Evelyn would never contest her needs over his.

An enquiring mind brings sheer joy to its owner and for those around a profound sense of awe at hearing the words from such a person.

Such a brain as John’s which calculated and revisited the Cul de sacs of all the unfinished equations had led to a life for his wife Evelyn, few women would contemplate. It would have not been considered, at this time, a proper marriage, let alone continue with a marriage of such solitude. Looking in on their relationship, the outside world would have had eyes of envy. A lifestyle of the well to do and all their needs met. Although few words were spoken, Lord John was forever in Evelyn’s debt. Never taking her faithfulness for granted. This guarantee in their relationship was as solid as a rock, like granite. In this way they love and understanding for each other was immeasurable.

Now, John was determined to prove his thoughts to the World and he would not disappoint, this physicist needed closure. Eventually, John’s Sunset theory was tested and was finally accepted. John’s thinking had urged Edward to concur, that the removal of the shorter wavelengths of light due to the scattering by the air molecules which were much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. These came to be known as “Rayleigh scattering”, named after him, the sunset hues with a spectrum ranging from the yellows and reds to greens and blues. That burned as the Sun lowered in the sky and appears like a wonderful act of nature, for most.

Back in her garden, Maggie blinkered as the last of the day’s sunset vanished below the horizon once again. Taking herself inside knowing that her distant relative, Mrs Matterson had witnessed an amazing theory unfold in the study, of Lord John, the 3^rd Baron of Rayleigh.

  

All of Lord John’s work concluded on his death on the 30^th June 1919 in Witham, Essex.

Copyright Carole Blackburn Aug 2021