Park Record | 1936-01-31 | Page 4 | Helium First Discovered on Sun; on Earth Later

Helium First Discovered on Sun on Earth Later Fantastic though It may seem heli hell hellum helium helium um first was discovered on the sun approximately miles from the earth before anyone found that It also existed on on our own globe To this fact It owes Its name derived from hellos the Greek word for sun Its existence on the sun sum was betrayed In to when scientists found a brilliant yellow line of light In the suns sun's spec spec- spectrum spectrum spectrum trum the ribbon of different colors that Is formed when sunlight Is passed pas ed through a prism and split Into its various va va- various varIous rious wave lengths len This light was wa characteristic of no element known on onearth onearth onearth earth at that time Helium was not found on earth until 27 years rears later In 1893 IS and even In Inthe Inthe inthe the early eary days of the World war It was a rare substance obtainable only In small quantities at the prohibitive cost of about 2500 per cubic foot Faced with the Imperative need for a non-burning non gas for airships however the government began be an experiments with extraction of helium from nat nat- natural natural natural ural gas This led to establishment of the United States bureau of mines helium plant at Amarillo Texas