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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 5 (August 1, 1938)

Bickerton's Explanation

Bickerton's Explanation.

Fortunately, an explanation, which depends only on the established principles of chemistry and physics, was thought out in New Zealand sixty years ago. Professor A. W. Bickerton, of Canterbury College, was induced to consider the problem by the appearance of a Nova in Cygnus in November, 1876. He realized at once that the usual explanations, such as the combustion of hydrogen, or the eruption of a volcano, on a dead sun, were absurdly insufficient. No event less than the encounter of two stars seemed capable of liberating suddenly such vast stores of energy. On the 4th of July, 1878, Bickerton read, before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, a remarkable paper in which his theory was ably elaborated. This paper was followed by many others as the theory was found to throw light on the life histories of all kinds of celestial objects.