Note 47 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
In the Bakerian Lecture for 1842, On the transparency of the Atmosphere, and the law of extinction of the solar rays in passing through it, by James D. Forbes, Esq., F.R.S., &c., will be found a most complete investigation of this subject.
The experiments were, for the most part, made in Switzerland with Sir John Herschel’s actinometer, and they prove satisfactorily,—“That the absorption of the solar rays by the strata of air to which we have immediate access, is considerable in amount for even moderate thicknesses.”