The history of the 1905 solar eclipse in Mallorca: scientists, tourists and an island turned into a world observatory

PalmaExpectation? People coming from outside to contemplate a very infrequent phenomenon? Nothing new. Another August, but this one 121 years ago, Mallorca became an international focus of attraction for a total eclipse of the Sun, with the presence of six scientific collectives from four countries and three hundred Italian tourists who traveled expressly to the island to witness this exceptional phenomenon. It was August 30, 1905, at noon.

The Balearic Islands were within the terrestrial zone where the eclipse could be observed: from Canada to the Red Sea, passing through the Atlantic, the Iberian Peninsula, and North Africa. In the Archipelago, the visibility strip was located between Mallorca and Ibiza. And Mallorca was the chosen setting for foreign scientists to study that marvel of the universe on-site, which did not sit well with the Ibizan authorities. A lost opportunity to promote the island as a tourist destination, when tourism was practically non-existent.

According to Josep Batlló, the State government transmitted to the provincial governors the instruction to give the maximum facilities to those foreigners who arrived driven by scientific curiosity. They were able to pass their observation equipment through customs without paying any surcharge. The mayor of Palma, Jaume Font i Monteros, asked the factories to reduce their smoke emissions that day, so as not to hinder the view for the expeditionaries. The owner of a factory located in the old town – yes, there were factories back then where tourists now stroll – left the chimney non-operational all day.

The United Kingdom took the prize, because, according to Joan March Noguera, it sent not one, but three scientific expeditions to Mallorca. One of them was led by the physicist and astronomer Joseph Norman Lockyer, the founder of the prestigious magazine Nature, and included, among others, his wife and son. They arrived aboard the British navy ship Venus, kindly provided by the London government, and had the collaboration of Bartomeu Bosch, British vice-consul in Mallorca, and other island personalities. They settled at the Gran Hotel in Palma, the current CaixaFòrum, inaugurated only two years earlier and then considered the height of modern advancements for the comfort of its guests.

A lost filming

Lockyer and company's observation camp was located in the Son Espanyolet neighborhood, in Palma, at a velodrome that was not in use at the time, on land owned by the aristocrat Ferran Truyols. Images have arrived from that stay and it looks like a safari in Memories of Africa, only that, instead of hunting weapons, they have sophisticated scientific instruments.

The British Astronomical Association mounted its own expedition. They couldn't quite agree on the most suitable place in the world to observe the eclipse among the possibilities, until they settled on Mallorca. They also stayed at the Gran Hotel and decided to make their observations from the establishment's terrace: why go to the outskirts when they were comfortable there? With two exceptions: Catherine Stevens and K. L. Hart Davis, curiously, two of the only three women in the group, decided to move to Cas Català to observe the eclipse.

Within this group, Robert Baden-Powell, a military man and amateur astronomer, also arrived in Mallorca. Probably, one more British gentleman wouldn't have attracted much attention then. But he would become world-famous: just a few years later, he created the scout movement – the boy scouts–, which spread throughout the world, including the Islands. He would return to Mallorca many years later, in 1929, to visit the young people who had joined his initiative.

A third collective from the same origin, known as 'the Scots', was made up of amateur astronomers, with equipment loaned by the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh. They chose an exceptional observation site: the towers of Bellver Castle, which they were able to use thanks to the good offices of the former mayor of Palma, Enric Sureda.

In this case, they also proceeded to film that exceptional phenomenon, a task undertaken by Josep Truyol, a pioneer of cinema, who had recently opened one of the first exhibition halls in Mallorca, at what is now Hort del Rei. It would have remained immortalized forever, were it not for the fact that Truyol, when his business failed, disappointed, burned his films in his garden, among which was likely the one of the eclipse.

A fourth expedition, according to March, was sent to Mallorca from Switzerland, with the collaboration of island personnel: the Fine Arts professor and also amateur astronomer Jordi Anckerman and the teachers from the Balearic Institute – the current Ramon Llull – Joaquim Boitia and Sebastià Font, in addition to the Catalan Eduard Fontserè. Anckerman's father, the painter Ricard of this lineage, would draw a watercolor of the eclipse. They set up their observatory at the estate of Santa Ponça, also owned by Ferran Truyols, and which must have resembled its current appearance like an egg to a chestnut.

The eclipse in Ibiza and Menorca

On the other hand, the Italians and, curiously, the Germans, came each one a bit on their own. The first arrived at the port of Palma from Genoa, accompanied by three hundred tourists – a lot of people, for the time – eager to also live that experience. Two of the scientists of this nationality, Francesco Faccin and Giuseppe Lais, made the observation from the bell tower of the church of Sant Felip Neri, in Ciutat.

The Germans had considered a few points in the State as possible scenarios. There were already observations scheduled in Burgos, Daroca, and Tortosa, so they opted for Mallorca. Nor did they complicate their lives much: they chose the consulate of their country as the observation space, located in Can Formiguera, in the current Carrer de la Portella in Palma. They also stayed at the Gran Hotel, where they had the pleasant surprise that the owner welcomed them in their language – truly, ahead of his time.

The conciliar seminary, in Palma, served as the headquarters for a commission of Jesuits, whose interest in science is well known, requested by the then bishop, Pere Campins, with the collaboration of a group of Majorcan priests. The eclipse of 1860 had already been observed from Mallorca and Ibiza, but in no case had it generated an avalanche of external scholars like this time. Obviously, communications had improved notably.

The press of the Balearic Islands, just like now, made a wide deployment to explain that phenomenon with all sorts of details, with detailed graphics so that citizens would understand well what it consisted of. La Almudaina published an extraordinary issue of it, with such a good reception that, of the 4,250 copies that made up the print run, there were not even fifty left the next day.

One issue that concerned all these scientists greatly was whether the meteorological conditions would be suitable for observing the eclipse. There had been a few sunny days, but on August 29 – the day before – it became cloudy, and some drops even fell in the early hours of the 30th. Fortunately, the weather cleared up at midday.

In Inca, according to reports from La Almudaina, almost all the neighbors positioned themselves in elevated places, such as bell towers and rooftops, to witness the spectacle. In Muro, those who had spent the previous day "blackening glasses" to look at the Sun with precautions lamented the presence of clouds: "You won't see anything." But they did manage to see it.

The German physicist Hans Geitel recounts how the crowd waiting for the eclipse fell silent: "The darkness increased rapidly. A luminous line of light was still visible on the eastern face of the Moon when its dark disk, surrounded by the halo of the corona, already appeared." The darkness was not complete: on the horizon, there was still some light. As the Sun reappeared, "the tension of the people, breathless, dissolved into loud shouts and applause."

La Última Hora followed that spectacle of nature at the British camp, in Son Espanyolet: _"[The attendees] are in the deepest silence. Little by little the bite advances, only a faint thread of gold remains. When the Sun reappears, the light wounds our sight and an exclamation escapes from all mouths. The solemn moment had ended," it reported.

In Ibiza, according to Ana Colomar, the eclipse caused a lot of fear in the countryside and the farmers stayed home, so as not to lose their sight, and even a young man believed that it was death. On the other hand, in Vila it could be followed without incident. The weather was good, without clouds. In Menorca, the eclipse was not total, but almost: 99.1%, according to El Iris: a small percentage difference that made it not so spectacular.

The day after the eclipse, the local authorities invited the expeditionaries who came from abroad to a lunch, as a way of thanking them for having chosen Mallorca on that certainly historic occasion. Some stayed for another day to visit the island. Then, goodbye! And see you in 121 years!

Information elaborated from texts by Joan March Noguera, Guillem X. Pons and Antoni Amengual, Anna Colomar, Josep Balló Ortiz, Julius Elster and Hans Geitel, Catalina Aguiló and the publications La Última Hora, La Almudaina and El Iris and the collaboration of Antoni Janer Torrens.