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Title: The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe
Author: Heysinger, Isaac Winter
Language: English
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THE
SOURCE AND MODE
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.
BY
I. W. HEYSINGER, M.A., M.D.
ILLUSTRATED.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1895.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction 7
CHAPTER I.
Statement of the Problem of Solar Energy 17
CHAPTER II.
The Constitution and Phenomena of the Sun 39
CHAPTER III.
The Mode of Solar Energy 70
CHAPTER IV.
The Source of Solar Energy 96
CHAPTER V.
The Distribution and Conservation of Solar Energy 139
CHAPTER VI.
The Phenomena of the Stars 162
CHAPTER VII.
Temporary Stars, Meteors, and Comets 187
CHAPTER VIII.
The Phenomena of Comets 210
CHAPTER IX.
Interpretation of Cometic Phenomena 225
CHAPTER X.
The Resolvable Nebulæ, Star-Clusters and Galaxies 237
CHAPTER XI.
The Gaseous Nebulæ 253
CHAPTER XII.
The Nebular Hypothesis: its Basis and its Difficulties 268
CHAPTER XIII.
The Genesis of Solar Systems and Galaxies 282
CHAPTER XIV.
The Mosaic Cosmogony 308
CHAPTER XV.
Conclusion. The Harmony of Nature's Laws and
Operations 341
Reference Index of Authorities Cited 349
Classified Index of Subject-Matter 353
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Figs. 1 to 8. Types from nature, illustrating development
of a solar system from the attenuated matter of
space Frontispiece.
Fig. 9. A typical sun-spot 57
Fig. 10. Structure of the sun, analytical illustration of 60
Fig. 11. Electrical polarities of sun and planets 82
Fig. 12. Ideal view of the generation and transmission of
planetary electricity 89
Fig. 13. The aurora borealis, view of 91
Fig. 14. Diffused brush discharge of an electrical machine 91
Fig. 15. Planetary generation and transmission of electrical
energy to the sun, analytical illustration of 101
Fig. 16. Gradual discharge of electricity from one conductor
to another in a partial vacuum 103
Fig. 17. Sudden electrical discharge through the atmosphere 103
Fig. 18. Position of planets with reference to the generation
of sun-spots; maximum and minimum of electrical
action 108
Fig. 19. Analysis of a typical sun-spot 112
Fig. 20. Retardation of sun-spots in their travel across the
solar face; development to the rear and recession in
front 114
Figs. 21 and 22. Complex lines of planetary electrical action
upon the sun produced by the inclination of the solar
axis to the plane of the ecliptic 120
Figs. 23 to 29. Examples of electrical repulsion: Fig. 1,
similarly electrified pith-balls; Fig. 2, the
electrical windmill; Fig. 3, repulsion of a flame;
Fig. 4, self-repulsion around a conductor; Fig. 5,
attraction between opposite and repulsion between
similar electricities; Fig. 6, mutual repulsion
between similar + electrospheres of the earth and
the moon; Fig. 7, mutual repulsion between the
similar--electrospheres of sun and comet 124
Figs. 30 to 34. Spectra of solar light, incandescent sodium
and calcium, and the absorption and bright-line
spectra of hydrogen gas 155
Figs. 35 to 37. Reversal and neutralization of spectroscopic
lines of hydrogen in the light of a variable star
like Betelgeuse 160
Fig. 38. A double-sun nebula in process of development into
a solar system 164
Fig. 39. Double stars with complementary colors,
interpretation of the phenomena of 167
Fig. 40. A solar system which would explain the regular
variability of the star Mira 178
Fig. 41. Lineal nebula in Sobieski's Crown which has been
affected by currents in the ocean of space 189
Figs. 42 to 45. Four stages in the phenomena of a new or
temporary star, a "star in flames;" reversal of the
hydrogen lines in its spectrum 196
Figs. 46 and 47. Illustration of repulsion of the tail of a
comet by the similarly electrified solar
electrosphere; comparison with similar repulsion in
a vacuum-chamber experiment 211
Figs. 48 and 49. The electroscope, and mutual electrical
repulsion in a bundle of dry straws 225
Fig. 50. Experiment with a candle and currents of air from
between two disks, illustrating the radial
semi-rotation of a comet's tail during perihelion 230
Figs. 51 to 54. Four non-systemic gaseous nebulæ: Fig. 1,
crab nebula; Fig. 2, dumb-bell nebula; Fig. 3, lineal
nebula in Sobieski's Crown; Fig. 4, Catherine-wheel
nebula. The latter illustrates the formation of a
planetary nebula with a hollow center, or else
dispersion into the elements of space again 263
Fig. 55. Great spiral nebula in Canes Venatici and a small
adjacent nebula affected thereby 273
Figs. 56 to 59. Four gaseous nebulæ in process of development
into solar systems: Fig. 1, divergent spiral; Fig. 2,
later stage of a similar spiral; Fig. 3, subsequent
stage of rupture of the nearly circular convolutions
of a similar nebula; Fig. 4, the same stage in the
development of a solar system with a double sun 279
Fig. 60. Nucleated planetary nebula, showing its external ring
split and held apart, in part of its circumference,
by electrical repulsion 288
Fig. 61. Divergent spiral nebula on cover of book.
INTRODUCTION.
This work is not presented to the reader as a treatise on astronomy,
although the different phenomena pertaining to that splendid science
are reviewed with some detail, and the established facts bearing
upon the subjects discussed are briefly cited in the very words of
the great writers upon whose authority they rest. A considerable
experience in chemistry, electricity, and the other allied physical
sciences long since convinced the author of this work that some
simple and uniform principle must control the production of the
physical phenomena of astronomy,--some general law capable of being
extended in its application to the widest, as well as applied to the
narrowest, limits of that science. Knowing the absolute certainty of
a magnetic and electrical connection between the sun and the earth,
as evidenced by the reflected energy of sun-spots, auroras, etc.,
and that no known cause except electricity could account for some,
at least, of the cometic phenomena, it seemed that any comprehensive
law must at all events include this mode of energy as an effective
cause, and that if the law be uniform in its application, it must
equally exclude all others which may be either antagonistic or not
necessary. A careful investigation was therefore made of those
less generally known principles concerned in the generation and
transformations of electrical energy, in order to determine the
sufficiency or insufficiency of this agency in the grander operations
of nature (for, of course, mere currents of electricity could play no
part in these phenomena), with the result that every line of research
led irresistibly to the conclusions presented in this work. These
investigations, specifically directed, at first, to the source and mode
of the solar energy of our own system alone, were found to be equally
applicable to others, and were successively extended to the whole
sidereal, nebular, and cometic field, and finally to space itself,
for all the phenomena of which it seemed to furnish an adequate
and harmonious interpretation. The fact, when once demonstrated,
that the true source of solar energy is not to be found in the sun
itself, but in the potential energy of space, served as a guiding
principle, and, by its continuously extended application, was found
to cover perfectly the source and mode of all solar energy. Every
step of the investigation has been based on the established facts
of science and the observations of eminent astronomers as laid down
by the best authorities; and the quotations herein made from their
works are full and fair, and are properly credited in every case,
and taken from books easily accessible to the general reader. It is
hoped that further attention may be directed to this field of research
by far more capable investigators than the author of this work, so
that systematic astronomy may no longer bear the reproach that it is
largely an empirical science, but that it may henceforth be based
upon rational and comprehensive principles, capable of universal
extension and of general scientific application.
The authorities cited in this work include many illustrious names:
Proctor, Tyndall, Helmholtz, Langley, Huggins, Newcomb, Young,
Flammarion, Balfour Stewart, R. Kalley Miller, Herschel, Nichol,
Lord Rosse, Urbanitsky, Crookes, Fraunhofer, Ball, and many others,
all of whom are known throughout the world as among the master minds
of science. From them we have drawn the rich stores of knowledge
of the phenomena with which this work deals, and which we have so
fully and freely cited, as the basis of the splendid superstructure
which astronomy to-day reveals. No one will venture to controvert the
statements of fact made by these eminent men, and, where conflict of
opinion has arisen among them, we have quoted all parties, so that
the reader can form his own conclusion, in each case, for himself. So
diverse, apparently, are the phenomena reviewed that they present
the aspect of a great picture-gallery, in which the paintings totally
differ from each other in subject, in treatment, and in origin, their
only common qualities being those of grandeur and fidelity to truth
and to the principles of art. But they are not merely paintings, they
are the moving panorama of creation, and, diverse as they may appear,
they will be found to show the same "handling," which reveals the same
universal artist; they have, in truth, a common mode of development and
a common principle of construction, obscure as these may seem to be.
For thousands of years "Natural History," so called, was studied and
taught; zoölogy was a well-known science far back in old historic
times. But it was left for modern biological research to turn
from these fixed and fully-developed forms of life, and go back to
trace their primal development through what is now the science of
embryology, and thus we have learned that nature traverses the same
paths in forming a man as in producing a frog or a bird. The process
is carried further along in one case than in another, but the lines
of development are almost identical; and the tracing out of these
common lines and their subsequent divergencies has shed a flood of new
light upon these dark and hitherto unknown places, so that we are now
fairly on the true highway of physical life at last. When adult forms
were alone compared, animal with animal, no common ground of origin
or development could be discerned; nature was believed to work by
"special creations," and vast cataclysms were devised to utterly
destroy the organic life of one terrestrial epoch after another,
leaving a few hardy accidental survivors, or "types," perchance,
to trace back their lines of descent beyond such periods of cyclical
destruction. All this is now changed, and these views, so recently held
and taught, have been abandoned forever, and continuously operative
natural processes of development, modified by environment and heredity,
have taken their place, and biology now has a future as well as a
past. And so it must be with the less complex, but far more extended,
creations and transformations in the vast fields of astronomical
science with which this book is concerned. Hitherto we have here,
too, dealt with "special creations" and cataclysms; henceforth we
must follow the uniform and eternal laws of progressive development.
Among the multitude of hitherto unsolved problems of astronomy we may
enumerate the following: Why sun-spots travel faster around the sun
when near his equator than when more distant from it. The physical
causes of sun-spots, faculæ, and solar prominences. Why the number and
size of sun-spots seem to affect terrestrial magnetism. The rational
interpretation of the eleven-year and the long sun-spot cycles. The
origin of the aurora borealis. The causes of the periodicity of
regularly variable stars. How to explain, in accordance with the
nebular hypothesis, why Algol and its companion, which are not
greatly different in mass and volume, and both obviously gaseous,
should so differ in character, one being a bright sun and the other
a dark planet. Whether there are great, compact, but dark bodies,
comparable to suns and planets in magnitude, and unconnected with
any solar system, floating about in space. Why double and multiple
stars are so frequently of contrasted or complementary colors. Why
regularly variable stars are longer in decline than in growth of
brilliancy, since such decline is no criterion of loss of heat,
but rather the reverse. Why the sun and fixed stars have atmospheres
largely composed of free hydrogen, and the planets have atmospheres
of free oxygen and nitrogen. Why a small and sometimes even scarcely
visible star occasionally is seen to suddenly blaze up, in a few
hours, to hundreds of times its normal brilliancy, and then far more
gradually fade, through months and years, back to its former state,
in which thenceforth it continues to maintain its original lustre. Why
comets, when they have tails, always project these appendages radially
from the direction of the sun. How to account for the presence of
cyanogen, and how for the absence of oxygen and the constant presence
of hydrocarbon vapors around the nuclei of comets. Why some comets
split up into separate comets and others sometimes show multiple
tails. Why comets, when they pass around and behind the sun, in
some cases reappear shorn of their splendor and in other cases with
their splendor greatly enhanced. Whence comets are derived, where
is their permanent abiding-place, and how did they originally reach
those distant regions which they occupy before entering our system,
if merely the débris left behind from contraction of the mass of plasma
out of which our solar system is supposed to have been formed. Why so
many of the irresolvable nebulæ present the appearance of divergent
spirals of many different forms. How to account for the annular nebulæ
with hollow centers and for those partially-completed planetary nebulæ,
so called, which afterwards appear to retrograde into diffused gaseous
nebulæ again or gradually disappear. What is the ultimate constitution
of interstellar space? Have the fixed stars planetary systems like
our own, or not? Must they have such, or merely may they have? What
principle of conservation of energy is it possible to apply to the
vast quantities of light and heat which constantly disappear in
the interstellar realms of space? How to account for this enormous
emission of solar energy during the long period of time requisite for
the development of the earth during its past geological ages. How to
explain why the moon always presents the same face to the earth. Why,
if the law of gravity prevails there, there are no visible traces of
atmosphere or moisture in the moon. What is the basic principle on
which depends the ratio of mean planetary distances, 0, 3, 6, 12, 24,
etc., always plus 4? What is the origin of the planetary satellites
and the cause of their irregular distribution, and what the origin
of Saturn's rings? How was the belt of asteroids formed between
Mars and Jupiter? Why is the orbit of Neptune relatively compressed
against that of Uranus? Why is the mass of Neptune out of its proper
proportion compared with those of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
in a diminishing series? What is the rational interpretation and what
the origin of the sun's corona and the cause of the coronal streamers?
There are many other problems equally difficult which are
encountered in the study of this noble science, but the above are
surely sufficiently striking. Any complete interpretation of these
various phenomena, even singly, would seem to be an important step in
advance; then how much more so if the explanation of one and all of
these is to be found in a single, all-embracing cause, a few simple
and uniformly operative principles, as unquestionably operative here
as in the other fields of science to which they pertain, and which,
once thoroughly comprehended and rigidly applied, will be found to
elucidate all the multifarious phenomena of sidereal space so clearly
and precisely that any intelligent observer and reasoner can determine
each question finally for himself, and solve not only these, but all
the other astronomical problems and paradoxes which have from time to
time arisen? It is not to be understood that this sublime science and
these illimitable realms are to be laid off with the metes and bounds
of a farmer's meadow, for all the lines of the different sciences are
linked together at a thousand points, but that the operative principles
which nature constantly employs once firmly grasped, the intricacy of
each series of phenomena encountered will become gradually lessened,
link by link, as observations and deductions are more closely and
rationally made along these well-established lines of research,
instead of here and there, empirically, and at hap-hazard, as has been
the only method hitherto possible to pursue. When the relatively few
fixed principles which control the operations of nature in the field
of astronomy are thoroughly comprehended, for on this vast panorama
she lays her colors with a heavy brush, we can study her phenomena
and interpret her processes even more readily than the kindred
sciences have enabled us to do in the adjacent fields of biology,
wherein the splendid achievements of less than a quarter of a century
past have not only aroused the interest and enthusiasm of the world,
but already point the way to still grander triumphs yet to come.
THE SOURCE AND MODE OF SOLAR ENERGY.
CHAPTER I.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM OF SOLAR ENERGY.
In endeavoring to present a new and rational interpretation of
the source and mode of solar energy, based upon the established
principles of recent science, it becomes necessary to briefly cite
the facts bearing upon the problem to be solved and the authorities
for their support, as well as to describe concisely the different
hypotheses at present in vogue, and to point out the well-established
insufficiency of these theories, one and all, to account for or explain
the difficulties encountered, and which so far have remained as an
unsolved enigma. And this problem of solar energy is the grandest and
most important question of all physics, for upon the light and heat
of the sun depend all physical life and its consequences, animal
and vegetable, past, present, and future. If within finite time,
and relatively, compared with the enormous vistas of the past, a very
brief time, this source of energy is to cease, and our whole system
be involved in darkness and death, such darkness and death must be
eternal; for the dead sun in his final stage of condensation will be
as fixed and unchangeable as the operation of eternal laws can make
it, and henceforth there can be no revival or reversals, no turning
back of the hand upon the dial, while the laws of nature continue;
and outside the uniform operation of the laws of nature there is no
source, or mode, or continuance of solar energy conceivable. It is true
that when our system shall have ran down to its culmination in death,
other present systems may continue for a time to exist and new ones
spring into being; but these, too, must inevitably follow the same
course, and likewise end in eternal darkness, until finally the great
experiment of creation shall have ended in eternal failure. The changes
we see in progress around us, however, are not of this nature. The
individual dies, but the forces which gave life and strength to the
race persist, and others will take his place, and the same forces will
continue to operate with constant renewals, since we draw our light
and heat and life from without; but in the death of suns and their
attendant planets there is no analogous process, for such suns are
constantly expending their enormous energies in the support of life
external to themselves, and only the smallest part of this energy,
even, can ever be utilized by themselves or by other suns or planets
under any mode of interpretation now in vogue, the boundless realms
of so-called inert and empty space receiving the same proportionate
quota of light and heat as the almost microscopic points in the sky
which constitute the suns and systems we see, and practically all,
or nearly all, of this enormous energy is an absolute dead waste; so
that whether receiving new supplies from a constant rain of adjacent
meteor streams, or from the gradual contraction of the solar volume,
the vast realms of space are the useless recipients of what can never
return to the sun again, and, of course, in such case the inevitable
end can be predicted; for contraction of volume, with a given mass,
must have an effective limit, and meteoric aggregation must also find
an effective limit, if the planets are not to be thrown out of place
as they continue to revolve around the sun.
All accepted theories begin with a primordial impulse, the energies
of which are of necessity constantly frittered away and wasted,
until finally all light and heat and life must cease to exist,
and that at a stage in which no further impulse can ever be given,
since the whole universe will have passed through every possible
stage of degradation down to the final one of universal and eternal
death. And yet this is the best that science has to suggest; the only
comfort offered us is that it will not happen in our time, and so,
"after us the deluge." The nebular hypothesis, so called, of Laplace,
has required much modification, in the light of more recent science,
but the essential principles of this theory are still generally
accepted, for they fairly well account for the primal connection of
the sun and planets, and the position of the central sun within,
with the orbital and rotational planetary movements, as no other
theory has yet done. By this theory the limits of our solar system
were once occupied by an attenuated gaseous nebula containing within
itself all the matter which now forms our solar system. This great
nebular mass, primordially assumed, was given by gravity a slow but
gradually increasing rotation upon its center; the force of gravity
acted more strongly upon this rotating body as it contracted, so
that rings of nebulous matter were successively thrown off, which
coalesced into single masses and these finally into planets. These
planetary globes themselves, as they coalesced and contracted, left
behind or threw off rings of their outer matter, which, in turn,
became moons, and finally our solar system with its central sun was
evolved as we now see it; development continued, the planets cooled
and condensed, life appeared when the conditions became suitable,
and the original progressive condensation of the central mass--the
sun--still continuing, the evolution of light and heat continues,
and will continue in a correlative degree. As our moon has passed,
apparently, beyond the stage of life, and is cold, airless, waterless,
and dead, so will the earth pass; and the larger planets, such as
Jupiter and Saturn, which have not yet reached the life stage of
condensation, are still hot, but they, too, will pass through the
present stage of the earth, then through that in which the moon now
is; and the central sun, still glowing, but more and more dimly, will
itself pass through the stages in which Jupiter and Saturn now are,
then through that of our present earth, and finally into that of the
moon, long before which time the emission of all light and heat will
have ceased from the sun to its encircling planets, and finally the
sun itself will sink into eternal frigidity, and all its store of
light and heat will have been dissipated into boundless space, and
the possibility of anything resembling what we know as life will have
been forever extinguished. In considering the question of the sun's
energy, the author of the article "Sun," in Appleton's Cyclopædia,
says, "How to account for the supply of the prodigious amount of heat
constantly radiated from the solar surface has offered a boundless
field of hypothesis. One conjecture is that the sun is now giving
off the heat imparted to it at its creation, and that it is gradually
cooling down (1). Another ascribed it to combustion (2), and a third
to currents of electricity (3). Newton and Buffon conjectured that
comets might be the aliment of the sun (4); and of late years a
somewhat similar theory (first broached by Mr. Waterston in 1853)
has been in vogue,--viz., that a stream of meteoric matter constantly
pouring into the sun from the regions of space supplies its heat,
by the conversion into it of the arrested motion (5). As the sun may,
indeed, derive a small amount of heat from this cause, it deserves more
attention than previous conjectures. But conjecture and hypothesis
may be said to have given place to views which claim a higher title,
as it is now becoming generally recognized, in accordance with modern
physical theories of heat, that in the gravitation of the sun's mass
toward its center, and in its consequent condensation, sufficient
heat must be evolved to supply the present radiation, enormous as this
undoubtedly is. It appears to be susceptible of full demonstration that
a contraction of the sun's volume of a given definite amount, which
is yet so slight as to be invisible to the most powerful telescope,
is competent to furnish a heat-supply equal to all that can have been
emitted during historical periods. According to this theory, then
(which is largely due to the development by Helmholtz of Mayer's
great generalization), the sun's mass remains unaltered, and its
temperature nearly constant, while its size is slowly diminishing as
it contracts; so slowly, however, that the supply may be reckoned on
through periods almost infinite as measured by the known past of our
race, and which are in any case to be counted by millions of years
(6)." To these must be added the hypothesis of Dr. Siemens, fully
described in Professor Proctor's "Mysteries of Time and Space." This
ingenious theory, in brief, is that the rotation of the sun on its axis
causes a suction in the manner of a fan, at the poles, and a tangential
projection, at the equator, of a disk-like stream of gaseous matter
into space. The light and heat of the sun, dispersed through space,
slowly but continuously act upon the compound gases with which space
is universally pervaded to disassociate them into their elements. The
disassociated gases thus sucked in at the solar poles at an extremely
low temperature are brought into a state of combustion by friction
and condensation, thus generating new supplies of light and heat, and
the gases thus reunited by combustion are again projected into space,
to be again slowly disassociated by the operation of the sun's light
and heat. The result of this combustion is to form aqueous vapor and
carbonic acid and carbonic oxide, and these gases, when disassociated
in space, are resolved into carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, which again
and again are thus recombined and again and again decomposed as they
pass over the sun's surface (7).
The seven hypotheses above described are the only ones now in vogue,
and a brief analysis will show that no single one of them, nor all
combined, will give sufficient results to account for the essential
difficulties or known conditions of the problem. The first and second
hypotheses are answered by the fact set forth by Helmholtz (Popular
Scientific Lectures, article "On the Origin of the Planetary System"),
that, if the mass of the sun were composed of the two elements capable
by combination of producing the greatest possible light and heat,--to
wit, hydrogen and oxygen in the proportions in which they unite to
form water,--"calculation shows that under the above supposition the
heat resulting from their combustion would be sufficient to keep up
the radiation of heat from the sun three thousand and twenty-one
years. That, it is true, is a long time, but even profane history
teaches that the sun has lighted and warmed us for three thousand
years, and geology puts it beyond doubt that this period must be
extended to millions of years."
The third hypothesis relates to currents of electricity. We have no
knowledge of currents of electricity which could produce, however
multiplied or intensified, such light and heat as are constantly
poured forth from the sun into all space. That electricity is the
intermediate cause of our sun's energy, and of all solar energy, it
is the purpose of this work to demonstrate, but not electric currents,
which find their attractiveness to theorists in the vague suggestion of
which Professor Proctor speaks, referring to comets, in his article on
"Cometic Mysteries," "that perhaps this is an electrical phenomenon;
perhaps that other feature is electrical, too; perhaps all or most
of the phenomena of comets depend on electricity." But he adds, "It
is so easy to make such suggestions, so difficult to obtain evidence
in their favor having the slightest scientific value. Still, I hold
the electrical idea to be well worth careful study. Whatever credit
may hereafter be given to any electrical theory of comets will be
solely and entirely due to those who may help to establish it upon
a basis of sound evidence,--none whatever to the mere suggestion,
which has been made time and again since it was first advanced by
Fontanelle." It will be seen that the present work, in demonstrating
the true source and mode of solar energy, in itself presents a full
and sufficient explanation of all the cometic mysteries referred to,
as well as all those pertaining to other solar systems in space, and
the multifarious phenomena which they present. Indeed, the philosophic
mind will not be satisfied with the sufficiency of any hypothesis
which will not unlock the mysteries and clearly explain the phenomena
of other systems,--of comets, variable and temporary stars, double
stars, and all the complicated celestial economy which to the eye
of the mere observer presents a bewildering scene of the operation
of independent and inscrutable forces. The fifth hypothesis cited,
that of meteoric impact, doubtless plays a part, as we know from the
generation of light and heat by the constant passage of similar bodies
through our own atmosphere. And we know, of course, that the sun, by
its vastly-increased attraction, must be subjected to the constant
impact of such meteoric bodies in enormous numbers. But the fatal
defect in the theory is that such impacts, to produce the radiant
energy of the sun, must constantly add to its mass in like proportion,
and as the motions and distances of the planets in their orbits are
regulated and preserved by virtue of the substantially constant mass
of the sun, any progressive and considerable increase in its mass must
constantly bring the planets nearer and nearer, and thus increase
their orbital velocity. Helmholtz quotes from Sir William Thomson's
investigation, that, "assuming it to hold, the mass of the sun should
increase so rapidly that the consequences would have shown themselves
in the accelerated motion of the planets. The entire loss of heat from
the sun cannot, at all events, be produced in this way; at the most a
portion, which, however, may not be inconsiderable." R. Kalley Miller,
in "The Romance of Astronomy," says, "But more recent observations
have led Sir William Thomson to a modification of his theory. He
has calculated that if the meteoric shower were sufficiently heavy
to make up for the sun's whole expenditure of heat, the matter
of the corona must be so dense as seriously to perturb the orbits
of certain comets which pass very close to his surface,--a result
which is found not to be the case. But the meteoric theory is only
thrown back a step. If the sun's mass were originally formed, as is
not at all improbable, by the agglomeration of these particles, Sir
William Thomson has calculated that the heat generated by their thus
falling together would be sufficient to account for a supply of twenty
million years of solar heat at the present rate of emission. And thus,
though the meteors are not sufficient to maintain the energy of our
system unimpaired, they may yet have been the original storehouse
from which all that energy was derived.... But if the economy of our
system be spared long enough, the day must come when the sun with age
has become wan; when the matter of the corona has all been drawn in
and used up without avail; when the lavish luxuriance with which he
has showered abroad his light and heat has finally exhausted all his
stores. He has still power, aided by the resisting medium, to drag his
satellites one by one down upon his surface; and the shock of each
successive impact will, for a brief period, give him a fresh tenure
of life. When the earth crashes into the sun it will supply him with
a store of heat for nearly a century, while Jupiter's large mass will
extend the period by nearly thirty thousand years. But when the last
of the planets is swallowed up, the sun's energies will rapidly die
out and a deep and deathly gloom gather about nature's grave. Looking
into the ages of a future eternity, we can see nothing but a cold
and burnt-out mass remaining of that glorious orb which went forth
in the morning of time, joyful as a bridegroom from his chamber,
and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race."
The sixth hypothesis is that to which most credence is now given. It
is that of evolution of energy by condensation of volume. Professor
Proctor ("The Sun as a Perpetual Machine") says, "In company with this
great mystery of seeming waste comes the yet more difficult problem,
how to explain the apparent continuance of solar light and heat during
millions of years. We know from the results of geological research
that the earth has been exposed to the action of the solar rays with
their present activity during at least a hundred million years. Yet it
is difficult to see how, on any hypothesis of the generation of solar
heat, or by combining together all possible modes of heat generation,
a supply for more than twenty millions of years in the past and a
possible supply for as long a period in the future can be accounted
for." Of these vast periods of terrestrial existence in the past we
quote the following from a recent publication:
"Professor C. D. Wolcott expresses the opinion that geologic time
is not to be measured by hundreds of years, but simply by tens of
millions. This is widely different from the conclusion arrived at
by Sir Charles Lyell, who, basing his estimate on modifications of
certain specimens of marine life, assigned 240,000,000 years as the
required geological period; Darwin claimed 200,000,000 years; Crowell,
about 72,000,000; Geike, from 73,000,000 upward; McGee, Upham, and
other recent authorities claim from 100,000,000 up to 680,000,000."
Helmholtz ("On the Origin of the Planetary System") says, "It is
probable rather that a great part of this heat, which was produced by
condensation, began to radiate into space before this condensation
was complete. But the heat which the sun could have previously
developed by its condensation would have been sufficient to cover
its present expenditure for not less than 22,000,000 of years of the
past.... We may therefore assume with great probability that the sun
will still continue in its condensation, even if it only attained the
density of the earth, though it will probably become far denser in
its interior, owing to its far greater pressure; this would develop
fresh quantities of heat, which would be sufficient to maintain for
an additional 17,000,000 of years the same intensity of sunshine
as that which is now the source of all terrestrial life." Of this
process of condensation Professor Ball, in his recent work, "In
the High Heavens," says, "It goes without saying that the welfare
of the human race is necessarily connected with the continuance
of the sun's beneficent action. We have indeed shown that the few
other direct or indirect sources of heat which might conceivably
be relied upon are in the very nature of things devoid of necessary
permanence. It becomes, therefore, of the utmost interest to inquire
whether the sun's heat can be calculated on indefinitely. Here is
indeed a subject which is literally of the most vital importance,
so far as organic life is concerned. If the sun shall ever cease
to shine, then it must be certain that there is a term beyond which
human existence, or indeed organic existence of any type whatever,
cannot any longer endure on the earth. We may say once for all that
the sun contains just a certain number of units of heat, actual or
potential, and that he is at the present moment shedding that heat
around with the most appalling extravagance." Quoting from Professor
Langley, he says, "We feel certain that the incessant radiation
from the sun must be producing a profound effect on its stores of
energy. The only way of reconciling this with the total absence of
evidence of the expected changes is to be found in the supposition
that such is the mighty mass of the sun, such the prodigious supply
of heat or what is the equivalent of heat which it contains, that
the grand transformation through which it is passing proceeds at a
rate so slow that, during the ages accessible to our observations,
the results achieved have been imperceptible.... We cannot, however,
attribute to the sun any miraculous power of generating heat. That
great body cannot disobey those laws which we have learned from
experiments in our laboratories. Of course no one now doubts that the
great law of the conservation of energy holds good. We do not in the
least believe that because the sun's heat is radiated away in such
profusion it is therefore entirely lost. It travels off, no doubt,
to the depths of space, and as to what may become of it there we have
no information. Everything we know points to the law that energy is
as indestructible as matter itself. The heat scattered from the sun
exists at least as ethereal vibration, if in no other form. But it
is most assuredly true that this energy, so copiously dispensed, is
lost to our solar system. There is no form in which it is returned,
or in which it can be returned. The energy of the system is as surely
declining as the store of energy of the clock declines according as
the weight runs down. In the clock, however, the energy is restored
by winding up the weight, but there is no analogous process known in
our system." The purpose of the present work, however, is to clearly
demonstrate that just such a process is actually being carried on, and
has been so carried on from the beginning, and will be forever. This
writer continues reviewing the suppositions formerly entertained,
that the sun was a heated body gradually cooling down, or that it
was undergoing absolute combustion, and shows that they were utterly
insufficient. He then refers to the theory of meteoric supply, of
which he says, "It can, however, be shown that there are not enough
meteors in existence to supply a sufficient quantity of heat to the
sun to compensate the loss by radiation. The indraught of meteoric
matter may, indeed, certainly tend in some small degree to retard the
ultimate cooling of the great luminary, but its effect is so small
that we can quite afford to overlook it from the point of view that we
are taking in these pages. It is to Helmholtz we are indebted for the
true solution of the long-vexed problem. He has demonstrated in the
clearest manner where the source of the sun's heat lies.... A gaseous
globe like the sun, when it parts with its heat, observes laws of a
very different type from those which a cooling solid follows. As the
heat disappears by radiation the body contracts; the gaseous object,
however, decreases in general much more than a solid body would do for
the same loss of heat.... The globe of gas unquestionably radiates heat
and loses it, and the globe, in consequence of that loss, shrinks to
a smaller size.... In the facts just mentioned we have an explanation
of the sustained heat of the sun. Of course we cannot assume that
in our calculations the sun is to be treated as if it were gaseous
throughout its entire mass, but it approximates so largely to the
gaseous state in the greater part of its bulk that we can feel no
hesitation in adopting the belief that the true cause has been found."
Regarding the constitution of the sun, it may be stated, however,
that we only see its photosphere, which is the visible sun, and
the whole volume has a density about that of water; but no man
has ever seen the body of the sun itself. In this respect it is
like the planet Jupiter: we only know that its density cannot be
less than one-fourth the density of the earth's solid globe. If
the photosphere extend to a depth of one thousand, ten thousand,
or a hundred thousand miles, the density of the sun's body or core
will be correspondingly increased. Even computing the whole visible
volume, the density is far greater than that of any gas we know, even
with the solar pressure of gravity; with the sun's metallic vapors,
if the whole core were already vaporized, we would not, to say the
least, be likely to observe the sun-spots and other solar phenomena
as we find them actually to occur; this, however, will be more fully
considered later on. The author continues, "But there is a boundary
to the prospect of the continuance of the sun's radiation. Of course,
as the loss of heat goes on the gaseous parts will turn into liquids,
and as the process is still further protracted the liquids will
transform into solids. Thus, we look forward to a time when the
radiation of the sun can be no longer carried on in conformity with
the laws which dictate the loss of heat from a gaseous body. When this
state is reached the sun may, no doubt, be an incandescent solid with
a brilliance as great as is compatible with that condition, but the
further loss of heat will then involve loss of temperature.... There
seems no escape from the conclusion that the continuous loss of solar
heat must still go on, so that the sun will pass through the various
stages of brilliant incandescence, of glowing redness, of dull redness,
until it ultimately becomes a dark and non-luminous star.... There
is thus a distinct limit to man's existence on the earth, dictated
by the ultimate exhaustion of the sun.... The utmost amount of heat
that it would ever have been possible for the sun to contain would,
according to this authority (Professor Langley), supply its radiation
for eighteen million years at the present rate.... It seems that the
sun has already dissipated about four-fifths of the energy with which
it may have originally been endowed. At all events, it seems that,
radiating energy at its present rate, the sun may hold out for four
million years or for five million years, but not for ten million
years.... We have seen that it does not seem possible for any other
source of heat to be available for replenishing the waning stores of
the luminary." He concludes by saying that the original heat may have
been imparted as the result of some great collision, the solar body
having itself been dark before the collision occurred, and that it
may be reinvigorated by a repetition of a similar startling process,
but indicates in general terms that such an operation would be bad
for the round world and all contained therein. It would, in fact,
be rough treatment for even a hopeless case.
Condensation of the solar volume is unquestionably a source of heat,
for we know that the solid or liquid interior of the earth increases
in temperature at a definite ratio as we descend through its crust;
but long before the sun shall have become contracted to the density of
the earth all its heat will have become substantially internal heat,
and it can then supply no more by radiation to its surrounding planets.
It will be seen that the radiant energy of the sun on any of the above
hypotheses is not sufficient to account even for the life period of the
earth in the past, and that its future period of energy must be still
more brief. Professor Ball ("In the High Heavens"), basing his views
on Laplace's "Nebular Hypothesis," says, "Looking back into the remote
ages, we thus see that the sun was larger and larger the further back
we project our view. If we go sufficiently far back, we seem to come
to a time when the sun, in a more or less completely gaseous state,
filled up the surrounding space out to the orbit of Mercury, or,
earlier still, out to the orbit of the remotest planet." According
to this hypothesis, all these brilliant suns, the author says, will
"settle down into dark bodies like the earth," and that "every analogy
would teach us that the dark and non-luminous bodies in the universe
are far more numerous than the brilliant suns. We can never see the
dark objects; we can discern their presence only indirectly. All the
stars that we can see are merely those bodies which at this epoch
of their career happen for the time to be so highly heated as to be
luminous.... It may happen that there are dark bodies in the vicinity
of some of the bright stars to which these stars act as illuminants,
just in the same way as the sun disperses light to the planets." One
would naturally suppose, however, that there must be some sort of
laws to govern such stupendous operations, and that nature is not
merely engaged in blowing bubbles. To quote Professor Newcomb: "At the
present time we can only say that the nebular hypothesis is indicated
by the general tendencies of the laws of nature; that it has not been
proved to be inconsistent with any fact; that it is almost a necessary
consequence of the only theory by which we can account for the origin
and conservation of the sun's heat; but that it rests on the assumption
that this conservation is to be explained by the laws of nature as
we now see them in operation. Should any one be sceptical as to the
sufficiency of these laws to account for the present state of things,
science can furnish no evidence strong enough to overthrow his doubts
until the sun shall be found growing smaller by actual measurement,
or the nebulæ be actually seen to condense into stars and systems."
While the validity of the views set forth in the present volume
does not depend on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the nebular
hypothesis, and in fact requires the condensation as well as the
expansion of the solar volume under the influence of heat to be
recognized and its extreme importance pointed out, yet it must not
be supposed that this great generalization of Kant and Laplace,
based on the views presented originally by Sir William Herschel, is
established, or that the difficulties in its way are not so enormous
as to be almost insuperable. Professor Ball points out that thousands
of bodies occupy our solar system, and together compose it as a whole;
that these have orbits of every sort of eccentricity and direction,
and occupying all possible planes which can pass through the sun; that
the bodies circle around the sun, some backward and others forward,
and that only the planets seem to conform to some common order; and
without this order, which may be accidental, so far as our knowledge
goes, the system would have been disrupted long since, if it ever
could have begun its operations; and that in this view the heavens
may be strewn with wrecks of systems which failed to survive from
inherent want of harmony,--that is to say, as based on observation
only. Whether the nebular hypothesis be a universal or a partial law
of development, or whether the real processes be quite different,
cannot, however, depend on the continued maintenance and evolution
of the sun's energy, as this source must in truth be sought for in
quite a different direction.
The remaining hypothesis (the seventh) is considered in detail in
Professor Proctor's work, "Mysteries of Time and Space." The fatal
defect in Dr. Siemens's theory is, that his gases will not be projected
from the sun's equator. Professor Proctor says, "Thus the centripetal
tendency of matter at the sun's equator is very much greater (many
hundreds of times greater) than its centrifugal tendency, and there
is not the slightest possibility of matter being projected into space
from the sun's surface by centrifugal tendency. Nor is there any part
of the sun's mass where the centrifugal tendency is greater than at
the surface near the equator. So that, whatever else the sun may be
doing to utilize his mighty energies, he is certainly not throwing
off matter constantly from his equatorial regions, as Dr. Siemens's
theory requires." There are other difficulties which Professor Proctor
considers, such as the doubt as to the power of the sun's rays to
disassociate combined gases in space, and also that, since both light
and heat must be utilized in this work, if the sun's energies are to
be perpetually renewed, these forces would sensibly disappear in work,
and the result would be that the fixed stars would be invisible beyond
their domains, and their light, when not totally cut off, would be
greatly diminished, in any event, as distances increased, which is
not the case. Besides, these gases thus disassociated could never be
entirely used by the sun, and the remainder would be wasted, and the
part wasted would vastly exceed that utilized, probably in as great
proportion of waste as that of the sun's light not utilized by the
planets, which gather but one two-hundred-and-thirty-two-millionths
of the whole. It may be further added that these gases would be
mechanically mixed, the combined and the disassociated, and this
would be mostly the case in those parts nearest the sun, so that large
volumes of spent and useless gases would have to be carried in to no
purpose whatever. In fact, these gases would gradually form a closed
circuit of supply and discharge, and surrounding space would be but
slightly affected. Professor Proctor concludes, "We have, in fact,
the fallacy of perpetual motion in a modified form."
It will be apparent that under any single one, or all, of these
hypotheses, the future prospect for created forms and continued
existence is hopeless, and that the inevitable result must do
violence to every conception of either an intelligent creative
power or the operations of universal law. The mind revolts from
the continued degradation and destruction of all organic creation,
while the malevolent and iconoclastic forces of nature hold high
revel over final ruin and eternal destruction, brought about by their
own incessant efforts, striking out blindly to make or mar, and they
alone the deathless survivors, the half-blind fates and furies of the
eternal future. It betokens, not the processes of orderly government,
but the reign of anarchy.
Note.--Since this work has been in press, at the annual meeting of the
British Association, August 8, 1894, Lord Salisbury, the President,
delivered a powerful and lucid address on the present status of
scientific knowledge and its limitations. With reference to the
antiquity of the earth we quote the following: "It is evident,
from the increase of heat as we descend into the earth, that the
earth is cooling, and we know, by experiment within certain wide
limits, the rate at which its substances--the matters of which it is
constituted--are found to cool. It follows that we can approximately
calculate how hot it was so many million years ago; but if at any
time it was hotter at the surface by fifty degrees Fahrenheit than it
is now, life would then have been impossible upon the planet, and,
therefore, we can without much difficulty fix a date before which
organic life on earth cannot have existed. Basing himself on these
considerations, Lord Kelvin limited the period of organic life upon
the earth to a hundred million years, and Professor Tait, in a still
more penurious spirit, cut that hundred down to ten." If a period of
anything like ten million years, even, has been requisite to cool the
earth's surface only fifty degrees in temperature, what time must have
elapsed since the terrestrial globe had a temperature high enough to
effect the difficult chemical combinations of many of the elements
which compose its structure? And even this must have been far less
than the vast cycles of time during which original consolidation was
effected. Through all these ages the sun must have been pouring out
his radiant energy at at least his present rate. Radiation of heat
from the earth may have been relatively less rapid from a denser
carbon-laden atmosphere in times past than at present, but it never
could have been more so. The whole address cited is, indeed, strongly
corroborative of the facts upon which the present work is based.
CHAPTER II.
THE CONSTITUTION AND PHENOMENA OF THE SUN.
The various theories thus reviewed, while not sufficient in themselves
to account for the facts of our own solar system, are fatally defective
in another respect. While they aim to account for the sun's light
and heat, they all fail to consider the active medium of the solar
light and heat in the sun itself. It is not simply a highly-heated
central mass glowing in space. It is a vast orb surrounded by
different envelopes of incandescent vapors or gases, and by far
the most vast in volume, as well as in light and heat-radiating
power, are the photosphere and its superincumbent chromosphere,
composed almost entirely of free hydrogen gas in a state of intense
incandescence. Whence comes this enormous mass of hydrogen? And
how explain the entire absence of free hydrogen gas from our own
atmosphere and its replacement by oxygen? There is a recent theory
propounded by Mr. A. Mott, which is set forth in detail in Professor
Ball's "In the High Heavens," and which endeavors to account for the
remarkable absence of free hydrogen gas from the earth's atmosphere,
for, as the author states, "It is a singular fact that hydrogen in
the free state is absent from our atmosphere." The theory, in brief,
is that the molecules of hydrogen gas have an average speed of about a
mile a second,--which, however, is only one-seventh that required to
shoot them off into space,--but that these molecules are continually
changing their velocity, and may sometimes attain a speed of seven
miles a second; the result is that "every now and then a molecule
of hydrogen succeeds in bolting away from the earth altogether
and escaping into open space." During past ages the molecules of
hydrogen would thus have gradually wiggled up through the air, and
finally disappeared into outer darkness for good and all; and thus
"the fact that there is at present no free hydrogen in the air over
our heads may be accounted for." Since the molecules of oxygen have
only a velocity of a quarter mile a second, that unfortunate gas
remains behind and is consumed.
The first difficulty with this theory is to explain how, if the
hydrogen wiggled off in this unceremonious manner, it ever wiggled
on. There is no objection to a gait of this rapidity, however; it
is highly creditable, in fact; but we have a right to expect some
degree of consistency in even so light-headed a body as hydrogen
gas. The article quoted thus continues: "If the mass of the earth
were very much larger than it is, then the velocities with which
the molecules of hydrogen wend their way would never be sufficiently
high to enable them to quit the earth altogether, and consequently we
might in such a case expect to find our atmosphere largely charged with
hydrogen." It will be seen that, according to this theory, hydrogen is
able to achieve a speed of seven miles per second under exceptional
excitement, and that this molecular velocity is just enough, and no
more than enough, to give it egress. We know that Jupiter's mass is
three hundred times as great as that of the earth, and the attraction
of gravity is so powerful on the surface of that planet that, as the
writer just quoted says, "Walking, or even standing, would involve the
most fearful exertion, while rising from bed in the morning would be a
difficult, indeed, probably, an impossible, process." We also know that
the atmosphere of this planet is laden with enormous clouds floating
at various altitudes and with incessant movements. We are told that
"the molecular speed of aqueous vapor averages only one-third of that
attained by the molecules of hydrogen." Of course, on the planet
Jupiter, hydrogen would have no chance of escape at all: it would
just have to stay and take it, like the rest of us. Jupiter must thus
have an atmosphere like our own, except that it is "largely charged
with hydrogen." Of the clouds upon this planet, Professor Ball says,
"In fact, the longer we look at Jupiter the more we become convinced
that the surface of the planet is swathed with a mighty volume of
clouds so dense and so impenetrable that our most powerful telescopes
have never yet been able to pierce through them down to the solid
surface of the planet." With the densities, molecular velocities,
and specific gravity of the oxygen, nitrogen, and the hydrogen, with
which latter the atmosphere of Jupiter must be "largely charged," as
it is said, it is difficult to understand how such enormous clouds
of aqueous vapors, themselves composed of oxygen, which is a very
slow-footed gas, and hydrogen, could travel about with such facility;
we ought to find them packed down like London fog, to say the least,
upon the surface of that planet, with the supernatant gases all
adrift overhead. Jupiter is a hot body; it has not yet cooled down;
and if it is provided with volcanoes, such as its great red spot and
the analogies of the earth and moon would suggest, we can tell pretty
nearly what would have happened long ago with a Jovian atmosphere like
ours; but "largely charged with hydrogen," if we compare it with,
say, an equal mass of dynamite touched off by a volcanic explosion;
there would not have been enough of old Jupiter left to swear by, and
what was left would not have had any atmosphere at all. On Mars, the
same writer thinks the oxygen would still cling, like the fragrance of
the rose, but that all the molecules of the fleet-footed and excitable
hydrogen would long since have taken French leave, as it did from the
earth; but at the moon, on account of its small size and mass, both
gases would have gone off incontinently together. "It is now easy,"
the author says, "to account for the absence of atmosphere from the
moon.... Neither of the gases, oxygen or nitrogen, to say nothing of
hydrogen, could possibly exist in the free state on a globe of the
mass and dimensions of our satellite.... Indeed, the weight of every
object on the moon would be reduced to the sixth part of that which
the same object has on earth." Nevertheless, it may be said that
the moon has considerable weight, as weights go, but with a comet
it is quite a different matter. "These bodies," the author says,
"demonstrate conclusively that the quantity of matter even in a
comet is extremely small when compared with its bulk. The conclusion
thus arrived at is confirmed by the fact that our efforts to obtain
the weight of a comet have hitherto proved unsuccessful.... It has
thus been demonstrated that, notwithstanding the stupendous bulk of
a great comet, its mass must have been so inconsiderable as to have
been insufficient to disturb even such unimportant members of the
solar system as the satellites of Jupiter." Now, here is a state of
things; for the spectroscope shows that comets are fully provided with
a large supply of hydrogen, enough and to spare for ornament, even,
and of nitrogen also, while it is the abnormally fugacious oxygen
which has, apparently, taken its departure. Of course, such facts
demonstrate the untenability of the theory, which is, besides, in
direct contradiction with the laws governing gaseous diffusion. Gases
pass into each other with the same velocity as into a vacuum, and
it is not to be imagined that the molecules of hydrogen could thus
move individually off, unless forced upward by the pressure of some
other gas, which the law of gaseous diffusion makes impossible. We
should as readily expect to see a tumbler full of iron balls, into
the interstices of which loose sand has been poured, manifest a
similar phenomenon by the wiggling out of the less dense sand at the
top of the glass. One might also ask whence, if this theory had any
substantial basis, could come the enormous volumes of hydrogen gas
in the atmosphere of a new or temporary star, in a few hours, or the
changes manifested in the atmospheres of the variable stars. So, also,
the nebular or any other hypothesis of creation would be impossible
under this theory, as the heavier and less mobile gaseous elements
would remain behind, or be condensed nearest the center of gravity of
the aggregating nebula, while the more rapid gases would disappear
outwardly, and in consequence the sun would be found to be composed
of the heavier elements exclusively, and each of the planets, in
turn, would consist of only one or two elements, in accordance with
the more and more mobile character of their molecular movements, and
the uniformity of chemical constitution between the sun and planets,
as well as the fixed stars, would not be found to exist. The theory,
in fact, is an example of the endeavor to explain an easily understood
difficulty by a less easily understood impossibility.
None of the different theories even attempt to account for the
prodigious volumes of hydrogen in the solar atmosphere, and without its
presence the sun, so far as we know, would be almost an inert mass,
considered as a source of energy for the supply of our planetary
system. We know, of course, that meteors contain sometimes as much
as six volumes of gases, largely composed of hydrogen, at our own
atmospheric pressure. But the pressure at the sun's surface is more
than twenty-seven times that at the surface of the earth, and yet the
volume of hydrogen there existing visibly is vaster beyond computation
than any possible mass of meteoric material could supply. So, also,
while it may be granted that condensation of volume must vastly raise
the solar temperature, how could it produce the enormous masses of
hydrogen, the lightest of all the elements, unless they have been
temporarily occluded and finally thrown out from within, which is
impossible? These vast volumes of hydrogen are to be considered first
of all in any attempt whatever to solve the problem of the source
and mode of solar energy.
Considering the phenomena presented within the limits of our own solar
system alone, we find that the earth is one of a single family of
planets, each of which very closely resembles it, and all of which
circle, in slightly elliptical orbits, at various distances around
the sun, their orbits occupying substantially the same plane,
thus making our solar system a flat disk of space occupied by
the sun as a center, with the planets and their satellites moving
harmoniously around it. The planets differ from each other in size,
mass, and temperature, but each is surrounded by an envelope of
aqueous vapor, suspended in an atmosphere substantially like our
own. Professor Proctor, in his "Light Science for Leisure Hours,"
says of the planet Jupiter, "His real surface is always veiled by
his dense and vapor-laden atmosphere. Saturn, Venus, and Mercury
are similarly circumstanced." Of Mars he says that it is "distinctly
marked (in telescopes of sufficient power) with continents and oceans
which are rarely concealed by vapors." Now, whence comes this aqueous
vapor surrounding all the planets? Whether received originally from
the diffused nebular mass from which our solar system is supposed
to have been condensed, or attracted by the force of gravity from
interplanetary space, like the meteors which fall upon the earth's
surface, it is evident that interplanetary space must once have been
pervaded with aqueous vapor, since the nebular mass from which our
solar system was constituted must have occupied at least the space
embraced within its largest planetary orbit, and doubtless much more;
and if so, such aqueous vapor, and other vapors also, must still
persist in space, just as the meteoric particles which so constantly
manifest themselves in our atmosphere. If the planets had no common
origin, the evidence is equally conclusive, since then this identical
substance could only have been derived from a common source, which
can only be interplanetary space. This also is in accordance with
the laws of attraction, which would operate to gather and condense
the rarefied aqueous vapor of space around the planetary masses in
definite proportions. In his "Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects,"
Professor Proctor says, "In fact, we do thus recognize in the spectra
of Mars, Venus, and other planets the presence of aqueous vapor in
their atmosphere;" and in his "Mysteries of Time and Space" he says,
"We may admit the possibility that the aqueous vapor and carbon
compounds are present in stellar or interplanetary space." But
in addition to this aqueous vapor which surrounds the planetary
bodies, we find free oxygen in vast quantities, and, with this, free
nitrogen in mechanical admixture, and these together constitute the
atmosphere we breathe, and which sustains organic life by a process
of slow combustion. But we find no free hydrogen either in our own
atmosphere or in that of other planets. Turning now to the sun, we
find that it is surrounded by an atmosphere as well as the planets,
but that this atmosphere is composed not of free oxygen, but of free
hydrogen. In his article, "Oxygen in the Sun," Professor Proctor says,
"Fourteen only of the elements known to us, or less than a quarter
of the total number, were thus found to be present in the sun's
constitution; and of these all were metals, if we regard hydrogen as
metallic.... But most remarkable of all, and most perplexing, was the
absence of all trace of oxygen and nitrogen, two gases which could
not be supposed wanting in the substance of the great ruling center
of the planetary system." The researches of Dr. Draper indicated,
however, that oxygen could be found in the sun; not in his external
atmosphere but far down within his surface. Professor Proctor says,
"Dr. Draper mentions that he has found no traces of oxygen above the
photosphere." Such free oxygen cannot be associated with the hydrogen,
however, even if its presence be finally determined, but it may be
due to the deoxidation of solid compounds precipitated upon the sun
from space, and held at a temperature above that of disassociation,
as hydrogen is sometimes generated at the surface of the earth.
The vast mass of the solar atmosphere is composed of hydrogen gas, with
which are found commingled vapors of the various elements which enter
into the sun's constitution, and this solar atmosphere corresponds
in proportion, speaking generally, with our own atmosphere, except
that the volume of solar hydrogen is vastly greater than that of
terrestrial oxygen, for the reason, as will be explained, that water
contains two volumes of the former to one of the latter.
In Appleton's Cyclopædia the sun is thus described, (article by
Professors Langley and Proctor): "To sum up briefly the received
hypotheses of the physical constitution of the sun: of its internal
structure we know nothing, but we can infer, from the low density of
the solar globe as a whole, that no considerable portion is solid or
liquid. The regions we examine appear to consist of cloud layers at
several levels floating in a complex atmosphere, in which probably
most of the elements are known to us, and certainly many of them
exist in the form of vapor. Outside this complex atmosphere extend
envelopes of simpler constitution, though into them occasionally
arise the vapors which ordinarily lie lower down. The sierra, for
instance, consists in the main of glowing hydrogen gas and that gas,
whatever it may be, which produces the line near the orange-yellow
sodium lines. The prominence region may be regarded as simply the
extension of the sierra." Of these prominences, Professor Ball says,
"The memorable discovery made by Janssen and Lockyer, independently, in
1868, showed that the prominences could be observed without the help of
an eclipse, by the happy employment of the peculiar refrangibility of
the rosy light which these prominences emit.... We can now obtain, not,
as heretofore, merely isolated views of special prominences through
the widely opened slit of the spectroscope, but we are furnished,
after a couple of minutes' exposure, with a complete photograph of
the prominences surrounding the sun.... The incandescent region of
the chromosphere from which these prominences arise is also recorded
with accuracy." Resuming our quotation from Appleton's Cyclopædia:
"The inner corona is still simpler than the sierra, so far as its
gaseous constitution is concerned; but here meteoric and cometic matter
appears, extending to the outer corona and to great distances beyond
even the visible limits of the zodiacal. Returning to the photosphere,
we find it subject to continual fluctuations, both from local causes
of agitation and from the subjacent vapor acting by its elasticity to
burst through it; the faculæ, which are found to be above the general
level of the photosphere, are taken to be heapings up of the luminous
matter like the crested surges of the sea. All the strata are subject
to great movements, which sometimes have the character of uniform
progression analogous to our trade-winds, and sometimes are violent,
and resemble in their effects our tornadoes and whirlwinds. Eruptive
action appears to operate from time to time with exceeding violence,
but whether the enormous velocities of outrush are due to true
explosive action (which would compel us to believe that the sun is
enclosed by a liquid shell, so as to resemble a gigantic bubble) or to
the uprising of lighter vapors from enormous depths, as heated currents
rise in our own atmosphere, is not as yet certainly known." The
sierra, or chromosphere, is thus described in the same article:
"The sierra presents four aspects: 1, smooth with defined outline;
2, smooth but with no defined outline; 3, fringed with filaments;
and, 4, irregularly fringed with small flames. The prominences may
be divided into three orders,--heaps, jets, and plumes. The heaped
prominences need no special description. The jets ... originate
generally in rectilinear jets either vertical or oblique, very bright
and very well defined. They rise to a great height, often to a height
of at least eighty thousand miles, and occasionally to more than twice
that; then bending back, fall again upon the sun like the jets of our
fountains. Then they spread into figures resembling gigantic trees
more or less rich in branches. Their luminosity is intense, insomuch
that they can be seen through the light clouds into which the sierra
breaks up. Their spectrum indicates the presence of many elements
besides hydrogen. When they have reached a certain height they cease
to grow, and become transformed into exceedingly bright masses, which
eventually separate into fleecy clouds. The jet prominences last but
a short time--rarely an hour, frequently but a few minutes,--and they
are only to be seen in the neighborhood of the spots. Wherever there
are jet prominences there also are faculæ. The plume prominences are
distinguished from the jets in not being characterized by any signs of
an eruptive origin. They often extend to an enormous height; they last
longer than the jets, though subject to rapid changes of figure; and,
lastly, they are distributed indifferently over the sun's surface. It
would seem that in the jets a part of the photosphere is lifted up,
whereas in the case of plumes only the sierra is disturbed." Of these
eruptions Professor Ball says, "Vast masses of vapors are frequently
expelled from the interior of the sun by convulsive throes with a
speed of three hundred, four hundred, and sometimes nearly a thousand
miles a second.... The spectroscope enables the observer actually to
witness the ascent of these solar prominences."
The corona, which extends beyond the chromosphere, has been determined
by its continuous spectrum to be a vast envelope extending at
least a million miles from the sun's surface. "It cannot be a solar
atmosphere," Professor Proctor observes in his article on this subject,
in his "Mysteries of Time and Space."... "It will be seen, then,
how inconceivably great the pressure exerted by a solar atmosphere
some eight thousand times as deep as ours would necessarily be,
let the nature of the gases composing it be what it may."... "If a
man could be placed on the solar surface, his own weight would crush
him as effectually as though while on earth a weight of a couple of
tons were heaped upon him.... Now, it happens that we know quite well
that the pressure exerted by the real solar atmosphere, even close
by the bright surface which forms the visible globe of the sun, is
nothing like so great as it would be if the corona formed part of
that atmosphere." In the article "Sun," in Appleton's Cyclopædia,
it is stated that "Mr. Arthur W. Wright, of Yale College, has
succeeded in showing that this light (the zodiacal) is not emitted
from incandescent gas, but reflected from particles or small bodies,
and hence derived from the sun."... "There is reason to believe that
the true solar corona extends much farther (than a million miles),
and that, in reality, the zodiacal light forms the outer part of the
solar corona." Proctor, again, in his article on the corona, says,
"It would seem to follow that the corona is due to bodies of some sort
travelling around the sun, and by their motion preserved either from
falling towards him (in which case the corona would quickly disappear)
or from producing any pressure upon his surface, as an atmosphere
would." In his article on "The Sun as a Perpetual Machine," he says,
"There is every reason for regarding the zodiacal as consisting in
the main of meteorolithic masses, a sort of cosmical dust, rushing
through interplanetary space with planetary velocities. To such
matter, assuming, as we well may, that space really is occupied
by attenuated vapors, ... the luminosity of the zodiacal would be
attributable to particles of dust emitting light reflected by the sun
or by phosphorescence (this last may be seriously questioned). But
there is another cause for luminosity of these particles which may
deserve a passing consideration. Each particle would be electrified
by gaseous friction in its acceleration, and its electric tension
would be vastly increased in its forcible removal, in the same way
as the fine dust of the desert has been observed by Werner Siemens
to be in a state of high electrification on the apex of the Cheops
Pyramid. Would not the zodiacal light also find explanation by slow
electric discharges backward from the dust towards the sun?" It may be
observed in passing that such electrical glow is much more prominently,
and more likely to be, the result of induction than of friction. In
the article "Sun," previously quoted, Professor Young says, "There is
surrounding the sun, beyond any further reasonable doubt, a mass of
self-luminous gaseous matter, whose spectrum is characterized by the
green line 1474 Kirchhoff. The precise extent of this it is hardly
possible to consider as determined, but it must be many times the
thickness of the red hydrogen portion of the sierra, perhaps, on an
average, 8' or 10', with occasional horns of twice that height. It
is not at all unlikely that it may even turn out to have no upper
limit, but to extend from the sun indefinitely into space." In the
same article the sun's apparent diameter is placed at about 32',
so that the thickness of the above gaseous envelope would be not
less than one-fourth the sun's diameter, or more than two hundred
thousand miles. This coronal envelope, extending out from the solar
body until gradually merged into the attenuated matter of space, has
a light so feeble that it can only be clearly observed during total
eclipse. Professor Ball ("In the High Heavens") says, "The sunlight
is so intense that if it be reduced sufficiently by any artifice,
the coronal light also suffers so much abatement that, owing to its
initial feebleness, it ceases altogether to be visible." During the
great eclipse of 1893 it was photographed, and of these photographs
the same author says, "One of the most remarkable features in the
structure of the corona is the presence of streamers or luminous
rays extending from the north and south poles of the sun. These
rays are generally more or less curved, and it is doubtful whether
the phenomena they exhibit are not in some way a consequence of the
rotation of the sun. This consideration is connected with the question
as to how far the corona itself shares in that rotation of the sun
with which astronomers are familiar. I should perhaps rather have
said that rotation of the sun's photosphere which, as the sun-spots
prove, is accomplished once every twenty-five days. Even this shell
of luminous matter does not revolve as a rigid mass would do. By some
mysterious law the equatorial portions accomplish their revolution in
a shorter period than is required by those zones of the photosphere
which lie nearer the north and south poles of the luminary. As to how
the parts of the sun which are interior to the photosphere may revolve,
we are quite ignorant.... We have no means of knowing to what extent
the corona shares in the rotation. It would seem certain that the
lower parts which lie comparatively near the surface must be affected
by the rapid rotation of the photosphere; but it is very far from
certain that this rotation can be shared to any great extent by those
parts of the corona which lie at a distance from the sun's surface
as great as the solar radius or diameter.... The corona presents a
curious green line that seems to denote some invariable constituent
of the sun's outer atmosphere, but the element to which this green
line owes its origin is wholly unknown." The same author quotes from
Dr. Huggins as follows: "It is interesting to read what Dr. Huggins
has to tell us about the solar corona. The nature of this marvellous
appendage to the sun is still a matter of uncertainty. There can,
however, be no doubt that the corona consists of highly-attenuated
matter driven outward from the sun by some repulsive force, and it is
also clear that if this force be not electric, it must at least be
something of a very kindred character.... So far as the spectrum of
the corona is concerned, we may summarize what is known in the words
of Dr. Huggins: 'The green coronal line has no known representative
in terrestrial substances, nor has Schuster been able to recognize any
of our elements in the other lines of the corona.'" The account given
by General Myer--quoted in Professor Proctor's article, "The Sun's
Corona"--of the great eclipse of 1869, as viewed from an altitude
of five thousand five hundred feet above sea-level, is as follows:
"As a centre stood the full and intensely black disk of the moon,
surrounded by an aureola of soft bright light, through which shot out,
as if from the circumference of the moon, straight, massive silvery
rays, seeming distinct and separate from each other, to a distance
of two or three diameters of the lunar disk; the whole spectacle
showing as upon a background of diffused rose-colored light. The
silvery rays were longest and most prominent at four points of the
circumference, ... apparently equidistant from each other. There was
no motion of the rays: they seemed concentric." Three diameters would
make these rays extend two and a half million miles at least from the
sun's photosphere, or even its chromosphere. The coincidence between
these rays and those observed (see above) in the eclipse of 1893 must
be noted, since these latter were conceived at one time to be meteor
streams. As those seen in 1893 radiated from the poles, and were curved
in form, while those last noted radiated at four equidistant points,
none polar, and were straight, it will be seen that, if both phenomena
were of the same class, they could not have been due to meteor streams.
The sun's spots, which we will next refer to, are deep,
relatively dark, but in fact extremely bright depressions in the
photosphere. "Many spots are of enormous size" (see article, "Sun");
"one had a diameter exceeding fifty thousand miles, and many far larger
than this have been seen. The spots are not scattered over the whole
surface of the sun, but are for the most part confined to two belts
between latitude five degrees and thirty degrees, on either side of the
solar equator. An equatorial zone six degrees wide is almost entirely
free from spots.... The inclination of the solar equator is about
seven degrees.... The spots on the sun usually have a dark central
region called the umbra, within which is a still darker part called
the nucleus, while around this there is a fringe of fainter shade than
the umbra, called the penumbra. Although the umbra and nucleus appear
dark, however, it is not to be supposed that they are really dark;
... though the nucleus looks perfectly black by contrast with the
general surface, it shines in reality with a light unbearably brilliant
when viewed alone, while his thermal measurements show that the heat
from the nucleus is even greater proportionately than the light, and
not very greatly below the heat of the surrounding surface.... The
recognition of a nucleus within the umbra would seem to indicate that
a third cloud layer (besides the outer or photosphere and a darker
cloud layer beneath) exists within the second or internal layer of
Herschel's theory. But the observations of Professor Langley show that
most probably all the features of the solar photosphere yet observed
are phenomena of cloud envelopes, since he has been able to recognize
cloud forms at one level floating over cloud forms at a lower level,
while even in the (relatively) darkest depths of the nucleus clouds
are still to be perceived, though so deep down that their outlines
can be barely discerned." Professor Ball says of the heat-wave of
1892, "As to the activity of the sun during the past summer, a very
striking communication has recently been made by one of the most
rising American astronomers, Mr. George E. Hale, of Chicago. He has
invented an ingenious apparatus for photographing on the same plate
at one exposure both the bright spots and the protuberances of the
sun.... On the 15th of July a photograph of the sun showed a large
spot. Another photograph taken in a few minutes exhibited a bright
band; twenty-seven minutes later a further exposure displayed an
outburst of brilliant faculæ all over the spot. At the end of an
hour the faculæ had all vanished and the spot was restored to its
original condition. It was not a mere coincidence that our magnetic
observatories exhibited considerable disturbances the next day, and
that brilliant auroras were noted." Carrington's observations have
shown that spots in different solar latitudes travel at different
rates. "Taking two parts of the visible solar surface in the same
longitude, but one in latitude forty-five degrees (say), the other on
the equator, the latter will advance farther and farther in longitude
from the former, gaining daily about two degrees, so that in the
course of about one hundred and eighty days it will have gained a
complete revolution. That is to say, the sun's equator makes about two
revolutions more per annum than regions in forty-five degrees north
and south solar latitude." The sun is about 850,000 miles in diameter;
its density is one-fourth that of the earth; its mass is 316,000 times
greater, and its volume 1,253,000. Gravity at its surface is 27.1 times
that of the earth; its distance is approximately 92,000,000 miles;
it rotates upon its axis, which is inclined to the planetary plane at
an angle of seven degrees, once in twenty-five and one-third days,
apparently increased to thirty days by the earth's orbital advance
in the same direction around the sun; and it has a motion around its
center,--a true orbital motion,--due to displacement by gravity of
the planetary masses, which, however, is always within its own mass.
The above, in brief, is, so far as we know, the constitution of
the sun and its appendages. Its internal globe is surrounded by
a glowing gaseous envelope, the photosphere, which is the visible
orb, composed of cloud masses of glowing hydrogen gas intermingled
with vapors of many of our terrestrial elements, all in a state
of apparent disassociation. Of the constitution of the sun's mass,
Professor Ball says, "Professor Rowland has shown that thirty-six
terrestrial elements are certainly indicated in the solar spectrum,
while eight others are doubtful. Fifteen elements have not been
found, though sought for, and ten elements have not yet been compared
with the sun's spectrum. Reasons are also given for showing that,
though fifteen elements had no lines corresponding to those shown in
the solar spectrum, yet there is but little evidence to show that
they are really absent from the sun. Dr. Huggins epitomizes these
very interesting results in the striking remark, 'It follows that
if the whole earth were heated to the temperature of the sun, its
spectrum would resemble very closely the solar spectrum.'" Outside
the photosphere is the simpler chromosphere, composed largely of
hydrogen, and merging into the corona at a distance of hundreds of
thousands of miles from the sun's apparent surface, and this corona
extends outward to a vast distance, and is itself largely composed
of self-luminous matter, the action of gravity being counterbalanced
by the centrifugal force of orbital rotation, or more probably by
electrical repulsion. The metallic vapors in the sun's photosphere
are suspended in glowing hydrogen, which vastly preponderates over
all the others in mass and volume, the incandescence of which is
the principal source of solar light and heat. The planets revolve
in elliptical orbits around this central sun, and crossing these
orbits at various angles rush streams of cometic matter and comets
and meteoric bodies, in streams and clouds, which, swiftly sweeping
around at various distances, are again thrown off into space. Meteors
constantly fall into the sun's mass, as they do upon the earth; but the
grand key-note of all his life and energy, so far as we can perceive,
is the vast envelope of glowing hydrogen gas.
Conversely, the planetary envelopes are of relatively cool oxygen
mixed with nitrogen gas, which hold in suspension diffused aqueous
vapors. If our own aqueous vapors are derived by the attraction of
gravity from the interplanetary space, as they must have been, we can
be sure that, were the sun at a sufficiently low temperature, he, too,
would gather to himself a surrounding envelope of aqueous vapor, larger
than our own in proportion to his mass, and larger than that of all
the planets together, the combined mass of which he exceeds by seven
hundred and fifty times. We should also expect similar aggregations
of aqueous vapors to surround all the fixed stars in proportion to
their various masses, yet we do not find aqueous vapor there, but
hydrogen instead. And in the distant telescopic nebulæ we still find
hydrogen and nitrogen; even in the comets we find free hydrogen in
vast predominance, but not free oxygen; so that we may roughly divide
the bodies of stellar space into two grand categories,--those with
atmospheres of hydrogen and those with atmospheres of oxygen. It is
true that the latter are limited to the planets of our own system, so
far as direct observation goes, for we cannot see such dark planets
as exist beyond our own solar system; but if such planets exist,
as they must, for reasons stated later on, and revolve around their
own central suns, we may infer, with the strength of demonstration
almost, that if their suns correspond to our sun in this respect, their
planets will correspond to our planets in a similar respect. But the
bodies with atmospheres of oxygen are those which rotate around the
sun substantially as a center, while with reference to themselves the
sun is more or less a fixed body in space. It is true that our whole
system is drifting through space, at present in the direction of the
constellation Lyra, and directly away from that portion of space
occupied by Sirius and Canopus, with an annual motion of probably
hundreds of millions of miles. Professor Ball ("In the High Heavens")
says, "In conclusion, it would seem that the sun and the whole solar
system are bound on a voyage to that part of the sky which is marked
by the star Delta Lyræ. It also appears that the speed with which
this motion is urged is such as to bring us every day about 700,000
miles nearer to this part of the sky. In one year the solar system
accomplishes a journey of no less than 250,000,000 miles." A speed of
eight miles per second gives an annual rate of 252,288,000 miles. This
speed, however, is greatly exceeded by many stars (as determined
by displacement of the lines of the spectrum); the star No. 1830,
of Groombridge's catalogue (see "In the High Heavens"), has a rate
of two hundred miles per second. The author says, "Indeed, in some
cases stellar velocities are attained which appear to be even greater
than that just mentioned. We do not, therefore, make any extravagant
supposition in adopting a speed of twenty miles per second," which
he takes as the average. "I have adopted this particular velocity as
fairly typical of sidereal motions generally. It is rather larger than
the speed with which the earth moves in its orbit." The distances,
of course, are equally enormous. This author says, "The nearest star,
as far as we yet know, in the northern hemisphere is 61 Cygni.... I
think we cannot be far wrong in adopting a value of fifty millions
of millions of miles.... In the course of a million years a star with
the average speed of twenty miles a second would move over a distance
which was about a dozen times as great as the distance between 61
Cygni and the solar system." This assuming that the solar system is
at rest, which is not the case, as the author says, "Unless binary,
stars do not remain in proximity, so far as we know; the general rule
appears to be that of universal movement through space." This drift
through space, however, no more affects the terms of the problem than
the rotation of the earth upon its axis or its orbital motion affects
the operations of an electric machine as the handle may be rotated to
or from the direction of these motions. Both machine and reservoir
of energy occupying a fixed relation with reference to each other,
the positions of each are the same as though absolutely fixed. This
is true of gravitation, likewise, as well as of all other natural
and universal forces.
The fact established, then, that attenuated aqueous vapor is
diffused throughout the interplanetary space occupied by our own
solar system, and that it tends to surround our sun and planetary
bodies with aqueous envelopes of increased density, proportionate to
the action of gravity, the question arises, Is there any known force
which will act through such interplanetary space to decompose such
aqueous vapor into its constituent elements and deposit hydrogen gas
around the sun and oxygen gas around the planets, and which, while
maintaining a planetary temperature such as we find on the planets,
will at the same time raise the hydrogen envelope of the sun to such a
temperature of incandescence that it will become a glowing sphere of
heated hydrogen, in which other constituents of the sun's mass will
be raised to incandescence and partially volatilized in the intense
heat of that incandescent gas; in which, in fact, the phenomena of
the sun will become manifest? If so, two vastly important corollaries
are inevitable: first, that the fixed stars, which also shine with
the light of their own glowing hydrogen, are themselves surrounded by
a similar aqueous vapor, diffused through their own adjacent space,
and that, in consequence, not only our own planetary distances, but all
interstellar space, as far as the utmost distance of the faintest fixed
stars, is likewise pervaded by the same attenuated aqueous vapor, and
that this is the grand source from which is derived all solar energy,
not only of our own sun, but of all the other flaming orbs of space;
and, second, which is still more important to us as citizens of the
universe, that each flaming hydrogen sun must have surrounding it a
correlative dark planetary system of its own, and that the complement
of glowing hydrogen, as an incandescent envelope of the central
orb, necessitates the corresponding supplement of cool oxygen as
an envelope for each of such planetary bodies; in other words, that
without such planets as our system possesses, there can be no suns such
as our own and the other suns we see. Vast orbs might be conceived
of as rotating in eternal darkness without associated satellites,
but the incandescent atmosphere of hydrogen must have--not may have,
but must have--subordinate planets substantially similar to ours,
surrounded by atmospheres substantially similar to our own (for we
find free nitrogen in comets, in meteorites, and in the faintest
nebulæ), and these planets are thus fitted, so far as we can know,
for the support of organic life and for the same orderly courses
of nature as we see manifest around us. They must be cool, for at
the planetary poles there must be a moderate temperature in contrast
with the solar pole, which becomes, of necessity, highly heated; they
must have an atmosphere of oxygen in order that the solar center may
have an atmosphere of hydrogen; these planetary atmospheres must be
supplied with nitrogen, because nitrogen is universally available,
and similar causes operating under similar circumstances will produce
like effects; these atmospheres must be charged with condensed aqueous
vapors, and, if cool enough, must have deposited water in liquid form,
for aqueous vapors when condensed by gravity are the correlated sources
of supply of their respective gaseous components at both solar and
planetary poles; and these planets must rotate in orderly periods
around their central suns, or the aqueous vapors cannot be regularly
and continuously disassociated into their elemental gases. These
planets may be few or many--perhaps even a single one sometimes--for
each sun, but they must be large enough or numerous enough to operate
by their aggregate mass, so as to disassociate around the planets
as much oxygen as their central sun disassociates of hydrogen in
their combining proportions,--that is, two volumes of hydrogen for
each one of oxygen. We will therefore find in such planets all the
potentialities of life--we can see and study these planets, though
physically invisible, as easily and as thoroughly as we do our own,
for having the relationship of constitution between our own planets
and our sun, we may thereby learn the essential relationship between
any fixed star and its planets by directly studying the constitution
of such star alone. Among the planets of our own system Neptune and
Mercury, and those which exist adjacent to their boundaries, can be
studied with difficulty and uncertainty; but what astronomer doubts
that they are constituted much like the other planets, and have passed,
or will pass, through such stages of progress as we find apparent among
those more directly under our observation? While we shall thus find
universality and harmony among all the starry systems, we shall not
find identity; but with the guiding light of demonstrated scientific
principles, we may apply our knowledge as a key to unlock the mysteries
of the most distant stars. The Milky Way will gleam with new meaning,
Sirius, Aldebaran, the Pleiades, will send us messages of fellowship,
and the established sphere of creative energy will have expanded,
with all its wondrous mechanism, to fill the universe. When we see
at night a vast factory building with every window lighted, one
who understands the operation and mechanism essential to the work
of a mill sees not alone the illuminated windows, but the looms
in motion, the flying shuttles, the spindles humming, the wheels
turning, and all the complicated machinery in active operation. And
he can even picture operatives at work in their various avocations,
and the flashing windows, though themselves silent, are the visible
index of the light within which illuminates and makes possible the work
there performed. And so, when thus comprehended, the flaming stars,
but points of light in the archways of the sky, themselves will reveal
to us the wondrous workings within the realm which they illuminate
and warm and vivify. We may also reasonably infer, as will be more
fully explained further on, that there can be no actual basis for the
opinion sometimes expressed, that great, dark, solid orbs--independent
worlds, in fact--are drifting about through space at random, as it
were, like homeless vagabonds. In these sparsely-occupied domains
the head of each household, as in every well-regulated family, has
all its different members gathered around in strict subordination,
to aid in the support of the establishment. No sun no planets; no
planets no sun, is the general statement of the sidereal formula. Like
a sexual duality, the mutually correlated parts constitute a single,
composite, and interdependent whole: one generates, concentrates,
and transmits; the other receives, transforms, and delivers.
Note.--Regarding the absence of oxygen from the sun's atmosphere
we quote the following from Lord Salisbury's very recent address
(see note at end of Chapter I.): "It is a great aggravation of
the mystery which surrounds the question of the elements, that,
among the lines which are absent from the spectrum of the sun,
those of nitrogen and oxygen stand first. Oxygen constitutes the
largest portion of the solid and liquid substances of our planet,
so far as we know it; and nitrogen is very far the predominant
constituent of our atmosphere. If the earth is a detached bit
whirled off the mass of the sun, as cosmogonists love to tell
us, how comes it that in leaving the sun we cleaned him out so
completely of his nitrogen and oxygen that not a trace of these
gases remains behind to be discovered even by the sensitive
vision of the spectroscope?" We shall find that the absence of
oxygen in the solar envelope is a necessary corollary of its
presence in those of the planets. The same is true, possibly, of
nitrogen. Ammoniacal vapors are decomposable into hydrogen and
nitrogen, and hydrocarbon gases into hydrogen and carbon, just
as aqueous vapors are resolvable into hydrogen and oxygen. In the
earlier stages of the earth's development we have abundant evidence
of an atmosphere heavily laden with carbonic vapors, which have
disappeared, to remain stored as fixed carbon, and the oxygen
has also largely disappeared, to constitute the enormous mass of
oxides in the earth's mass, while the nitrogen remains to dilute
the remaining oxygen and constitute the air we breathe. Their
common correlative, hydrogen, intermingled with metallic vapors,
composes the vast atmosphere of the sun.
CHAPTER III.
THE MODE OF SOLAR ENERGY.
But is there such an available force? There is one, and only
one,--electricity, when properly generated and suitably applied. It
is an axiom of electrical science that any fluid which will at all
conduct a current of electricity can be decomposed by a current of
electricity. (See Urbanitsky's work, "Electricity in the Service of
Man," Cassell's edition, page 154.) It is there stated (page 152),
"We have frequently had occasion to mention certain chemical effects
of electricity,--namely, the decomposition of gaseous compounds
into simple gases." Page 157, "Whatever the substances we expose
to the action of the galvanic current, decomposition takes place
proportional to the strength of the current." Page 152, "Hydrogen is
always evolved at the negative pole of the battery and oxygen at the
positive pole. The gases can then be collected in different tubes,
the hydrogen tube receiving twice as much gas as the oxygen tube;
since water consists of two volumes of hydrogen and one volume
of oxygen, it follows that the galvanic current decomposes water
into its constituents. As chemically pure water has so great a
resistance as almost to force us to consider it a non-conductor,
it is generally acidulated with sulphuric acid. The smallest amount
of acid diminishes the resistance considerably. The silent discharge
is far more effective in bringing about this transformation than the
spark discharge." Page 37, "Gases are bad conductors of electricity;
if it had been otherwise, we should never have become acquainted with
electricity, as it would have been conducted away by the air as fast
as it was generated. The vacuum also does not conduct electricity,
but moist air becomes a partial conductor. Moist air also will spoil
the insulation of non-conducting supports. All bodies are more or
less hygroscopic, and the moisture condensed on their surfaces thus
turns the best insulators into conductors. Change of temperature also
influences conductivity." Page 63, "When using induction machines, the
moisture of the air often causes experiments to fail, especially before
large audiences. The atmosphere becomes saturated with moisture, and
it is often impossible to get the machine in working order." Several
desiccating devices are mentioned by the authors of this work, as
used with such machines, to prevent such dissipation or conduction
of electricity from the machine into space by the aqueous vapor of
the atmosphere. In describing the aurora borealis (page 93), these
authors say, "The rarefied air is nearer the earth at the poles than
the equator, in consequence of the earth's centrifugal motion, and,
the earth being negatively electrified, negative electricity will flow
from this point, directed against the positively electrified upper
layers of rarefied air." Same work, pages 127, 128, "The resistance
(in liquids) diminishes as the temperature increases, a result which
is exactly opposite to what occurs with metals. Conductivity for
carbon increases with the temperature, thus agreeing with the action
of liquids." Page 133, "To determine the resistance in liquids,
the above methods cannot be employed, liquids being decomposed by
the electrical current." Referring to the voltaic arc and the spark
of the induction apparatus (page 200), it is said, "Dry air under
great pressure offers a high resistance, but a perfect vacuum is a
perfect insulator, and between these extremes there are degrees of
rarification which admit of a flow of electricity." In general, it
is said that electrical decomposition requires that the electrolyte
be in liquid form, but this is not universally true, and throughout
interplanetary space may not be true at all. In Ferguson's work on
Electricity, it is stated that, "The passage of electricity through
compound gases in a state of great rarity, as in the so-called vacuum
tubes, frequently separates them up into their constituents." So, also,
the opinion that electricity cannot be readily conducted through
dry gases is refuted by the play of the auroral streamers. The
distance from the surface of the earth of these electrical waves
and the auroral arch is variously estimated at from seventy to two
hundred and sixty-five miles, and in one instance "at a height of
from four thousand to six thousand miles;" see article in Appleton's
Cyclopædia. Certainly there could be no sensible moisture at the
temperatures there prevalent, and especially at night and during the
fall and winter months when these displays are very frequent. Whether
the currents be due to induction, as between neighboring bodies one of
which is electrified, or from direct emission, as in brush discharges,
there must obviously be some medium of contact and continuity for
the free transference of electrical energy through space. Regarding
the rationale of electrolysis ("Electricity in the Service of
Man"), after discussing certain other theories, the authors say,
"Clausius, too, assumes an electrified condition of the molecules
of each electrode, but he neither attributes to the galvanic current
the force of direction nor power of decomposing. He points out that
both the molecules of fluids and also their atoms are in continual
motion. The atoms in molecules of fluids are held together but by a
moderate force, and the molecules themselves constantly undergo changes
both of synthesis and analysis. The galvanic current merely effects a
regulated motion of the atoms; the positive ions are attracted by the
negative electrode, and the negative ions by the positive electrode,
and by this means are separated out from the liquid." Page 91, "The
upper layers of air are more or less electrified, so as to have a
potential differing from that of the earth, but how their electrical
condition has been produced is not at present known. Condensation of
water-vapor is supposed to produce electricity. Close to the earth
the air has little or no electricity; the farther from the earth
the greater the amount of electricity in the air." Referring to the
sparking discharge, it is said, page 75, "The density of the air,
however, has to be taken into account; the sparking distance is
lessened in denser air, and becomes greater when the atmospheric
pressure is diminished. Not only the density, but also the chemical
composition of the medium influences the sparking distance. Faraday
found the distances considerably less in chlorine gas, but twice
as long in hydrogen gas as in air." Page 74, "The sparking distance
increases at a somewhat greater rate than the difference of potential
of the discharging bodies.... When the sparking distance becomes very
great ... it is proportional to the difference of potential." Page 91,
"There is a difference of potential between the earth and points in the
air above. In fine weather the potential is higher the higher we go,
increasing usually at the rate of twenty to forty volts for each foot."
It will be seen that, continued upward at this rate, the increased
electrical pressure for each mile of elevation would be between 100,000
and 200,000 volts, or for each one hundred miles more than 10,000,000
volts; and at an altitude of one thousand miles, if carried so far,
the potential would be between one and two hundred million volts,
an electrical pressure quite inconceivable to us. Such a potential
in currents of enormous quantity continually flowing from the earth
to the sun would certainly decompose any aqueous vapors condensed
around these bodies. But the question at once arises, What reason
is there to suppose that such currents could possibly flow between
the earth and the sun, across that vast intervening region of space,
a distance of more than 90,000,000 miles? And would not the resistance
to such currents in transit be so enormous that the entire potential,
however great, would have been practically lost long before reaching
the sun? To this there is a complete and irrefutable answer, not
based upon any abstract theory, but upon established fact. It is an
absolute certainty that electrical currents of enormous quantity and
high potential are constantly passing between the earth and the sun,
and that these currents have so free a passage--far more free than
through any metallic circuits that we know of--that they pass over
this enormous distance absolutely without appreciable resistance. We
may note in this connection the well-known facts, now being largely
utilized, though the art is still in its infancy, of telegraphing and
transmitting all sorts of electrical currents over large distances
without wires or any conductors, except those furnished by nature.
Of the currents between the earth and the sun, Professor Proctor,
in his "Light Science for Leisure Hours," says, "Remembering the
influence which the sun has been found to exercise upon the magnetic
needle, the question will naturally arise, Has the sun anything to do
with magnetic storms? We have clear evidence that he has. On the 1st of
September, 1859, Messrs. Carrington and Hodgson were observing the sun,
one at Oxford and the other in London. Their scrutiny was directed to
certain large spots which at that time marked the sun's face. Suddenly
a bright light was seen by each observer to break out on the sun's
surface and to travel, slowly in appearance, but in reality at the rate
of about seven thousand miles in a minute, across a part of the solar
disk. Now, it was found afterwards that the self-registering magnetic
instruments at Kew had made at that very instant a strongly-marked
jerk. It was learned that at that moment a magnetic storm prevailed
in the West Indies, in South America, and in Australia. The signal
men in the telegraph stations at Washington and Philadelphia received
strong electric shocks; the pen of Bain's telegraph was followed by
a flame of fire; and in Norway the telegraphic machinery was set on
fire. At night great auroras were seen in both hemispheres. It is
impossible not to connect these startling magnetic indications with
the remarkable appearance observed upon the sun's disk. But there is
other evidence. Magnetic storms prevail more commonly in some years
than in others. In those years in which they occur most frequently
it is found that the ordinary oscillations of the magnetic needle
are more extensive than usual. Now, when these peculiarities had been
noticed for many years, it was found that there was an alternate and
systematic increase and diminution in intensity of magnetic action,
and that the period of the variation was about eleven years. But at
the same time a diligent observer had been recording the appearance
of the sun's face from day to day and from year to year. He had
found that the solar spots are in some years more freely displayed
than in others, and he had determined the period in which the spots
had successively presented with maximum frequency to be about eleven
years. On a comparison of the two sets of observations it was found
(and has now been placed beyond a doubt by many years of continual
observation) that magnetic perturbations are most energetic when the
sun is most spotted, and vice versa. For so remarkable a phenomenon
as this none but a cosmical cause can suffice. We can neither say
that the spots cause the magnetic storms nor that the magnetic storms
cause the spots. We must seek for a cause producing at once both sets
of phenomena." It will be observed that the phenomena seen in the sun
were marked at the same instant by violent electric perturbations on
earth. Hence something must have passed with the velocity of light,
which we know to be at the rate of 188,000 miles per second, or in
about eight minutes from the sun to the earth. But it is stated in
"Electricity in the Service of Man," page 82, that, "According to the
theoretical calculations of Kirchhoff, as well as of Ayrton and Perry,
the velocity of electricity in a wire without resistance would be
equal to the velocity of light." Hence we perceive that the apparent
difficulty has vanished in the light of observed fact, and that
currents of electricity do pass and are constantly passing between
the earth and the sun without the slightest loss of speed,--that
is to say, without resistance. We shall find in the sequel that the
above phenomena were caused most probably by a partial interruption
of a constant direct current from the earth to the sun, instead of
by an opposite return current from the sun to the earth. In further
illustration of the above facts we quote the following, page 172,
"Electricity in the Service of Man:" "Many attempts have been made
to find a connection between the spots and prominences in the sun and
the electrical phenomena on the earth. Professor Forster says that by
numerous magnetic observations of the last thirty or forty years it
has been proved that the formation of black spots on the surface of
the sun, and the generation of pillars and clouds of glowing gases
in the immediate neighborhood of the sun, stand in close connection
with certain deviations in direction and intensity of the earth's
magnetic forces." Professor Proctor, in his "Light Science for Leisure
Hours," says, "From all this it appears, incontestably, that there
is an intimate connection between the causes of auroras and those
of terrestrial magnetism.... The magnetic needle not only swayed
responsively to auroras observable in the immediate neighborhood,
but to auroras in progress hundreds and thousands of miles away. Nay,
as inquiry progressed, it was discovered that the needles in our
northern observatories are swayed by influences associated even with
the occurrence of auroras around the southern polar regions.... Could
we only associate auroras with terrestrial magnetism, we should
still have done much to enhance the interest which the beautiful
phenomenon is calculated to excite. But when once this association
has been established, others of even greater interest are brought
into recognition; for terrestrial magnetism has been clearly shown
to be influenced directly by the action of the sun.... We already
begin to see, then, that auroras are associated in some mysterious
way with the action of the solar rays. The phenomenon which had been
looked on for so many ages as a mere spectacle, caused perhaps by some
process in the upper regions of the air of a simple local character,
has been brought into the range of planetary phenomena. As surely as
the brilliant planets which deck the nocturnal skies are illuminated
by the same orb which gives us our days and seasons, so are they
subject to the same mysterious influence which causes the northern
banners to wave respondently over the starlit depths of heaven. Nay,
it is even probable that every flicker and coruscation of our auroral
displays correspond with similar manifestations upon every planet
which travels round the sun." In Professor Ball's late work, "In the
High Heavens," the author says, "Dr. Schuster suggests that there may
be an electric connection between the sun and the planets. In fact,
with some limitations, we might even assert that there must be such a
connection. It is well known that great outbreaks on the sun have been
immediately followed, I might almost say accompanied, by remarkable
magnetic disturbances on the earth. The instances that are recorded
of this connection are altogether too remarkable to be set aside as
mere coincidences. Dr. Huggins has not referred in this connection
to Hertz's astonishing discoveries; but it seems quite possible that
research along this line may throw light on the subject, at present so
obscure, of the electric relation between the sun and the earth." Of
this common electrical relationship between our sun and the different
planets, and of these with each other, Professor Proctor says, in
his article, "Terrestrial Magnetism," "Interesting as are the bonds
of union which Copernicus and Kepler and Newton have traced in the
relations of our system, it would seem as though we were approaching
the traces of a yet more wonderful law of association. We see the
earth's magnetism responding to the solar influences, not merely
in those rhythmic motions which belong to the periodic variations,
but in sudden thrills affecting the whole framework of our globe. The
magnetic storms which are called into action by such solar disturbances
as the one of September, 1859, are, we may feel sure, not peculiar
to our own earth. The other planets feel the same influence,--not,
perhaps, in exactly the same way, but according to the constitution
and physical habitudes which respectively belong to them. So that one
can scarce conceive a subject of study at once more promising and more
interesting." Of these prophetic shadows which science often seems to
cast before, Professor Nichol, in his "Architecture of the Heavens"
(referring to Sir William Herschel), says, "Without difficulty or
pretence he there casts aside an idea which had not been questioned
before, unless in a few of those obscure, indefinite speculations
which, strangely enough, often prelude important discoveries." These
facts are thus incontestably established: that electric currents of
enormous energy and vast quantity are constantly passing without
appreciable resistance and with the speed of light between the
earth and the sun; that such currents cannot be conducted through
vacua, or through dry gases, or through a dense medium; and that,
whatever other matter may exist in the intervening space, such space
is pervaded throughout by an attenuated vapor of such constitution
and density that it will transmit such electrical currents with the
highest conceivable efficiency. We know that such passage of these
currents cannot depend upon the ether of space which is acted upon by
the sun to produce the ethereal undulatory vibrations of light and
heat, for, after we have produced the most perfect vacuum possible,
we find that the rays of light continue to pass through it as freely
as they pass through space, while currents of electricity cannot be
made to pass at all. Hence we know to a certainty that the medium
which transmits these enormous currents of electricity must be a vapor
capable of conducting electricity, that it must hence be decomposable
by the electric current, and that when decomposed one of its elements
must consist of hydrogen gas and the other of oxygen; in other words,
that this conducting medium must consist of attenuated aqueous vapor,
commingled doubtless with other vapors which themselves, like the acid
of the acidulated water used in electrolysis, aid in the conduction
of these enormous currents. We also know that such vapors in space
will be necessarily attracted, by gravitation, around the solar and
planetary bodies immersed therein, and must form condensed vaporous
atmospheres or cloud masses, and if these are decomposed by the passage
of such currents of electricity, that hydrogen gas will be liberated
at the solar galvanic pole and oxygen at the terrestrial or other
planetary pole, precisely as we find to be the case in nature. Will
such gaseous envelopes, then, have the same temperature for each
gas when thus liberated, or will the hydrogen envelope of the sun be
heated to incandescence, due to the passage of the electrical current?
The temperature of interplanetary space is probably very low. Of this
Professor Ball says, "What this may be is a matter of some uncertainty,
but from all the evidence available it seems plain that we may put it
at not less than three hundred degrees below zero;" and the same author
adds, "The temperature is taken to be sixty-four degrees below zero,
being presumably that at the confines of the atmosphere." Whatever
the temperature of space, or its variations, may be, the passage of
the planetary electricity through the condensed hydrogen envelope of
the sun will produce great changes in the heat of that body and of
the solar core within. While with a small electrolytic apparatus we
find no special differences of temperature in the gases, with large
quantities of electricity, driven at a high potential, we find that
a new and startling result ensues. Something of this sort is seen
in the operation of electric arc-light lamps, now in common use,
in which two slightly separated carbon points are traversed by a
current of considerable potential. The current is driven across the
intervening space between the points, carrying with it an atmosphere
of disintegrated carbon, through which the electricity is carried
at its highest speed, and a most brilliant light is produced. In
"Electricity in the Service of Man," page 151, it is said, "We may
conclude from this that the current does not cease when the arc
of light is formed. The resistance of the arc seems to be only very
slight; in fact, the current must be conducted by it." Of the structure
and constitution of the luminous electrosphere, or arc, produced in
these lamps, "Professor J. A. Fleming," says the Scientific American,
"has shown that the well-known color of the light of the electric
arc from carbon points is due to the incandescence of the carbon
filling the space between the positive and the negative rods. The true
arc is here, and exists in a space filled with the vapor of carbon,
which has a brilliant violet color. Examined by the spectroscope, the
central axis of the carbon arc gives a spectrum marked by two bright
violet bands. Outside this is an aureole of carbon vapor of yellow or
golden color. The electrical strain of the arc occurs chiefly at the
surface of the crater which forms at the end of the positive rod,
where, in fact, the principal work of generating light is done;
for eighty per cent. of the total light of the arc comes from the
incandescent carbon at this place. Thus, in a sense, the arc light is
mainly an incandescent light, the effect being produced by the layer of
carbon which is being constantly evaporated at an extremely elevated
temperature. Hence the light of the carbon arc is not, and can never
be, white, as it is sometimes described as being, but must always be
tinted violet by the carbon vapor normally present between the rods."
The significance of the above-quoted extract will be readily perceived
when we come to consider the action of the direct planetary electrical
currents upon the solar envelope, the effects in both cases being
substantially identical. The quantity and intensity of the electric
current, as it passes through the incandescent arc to the negative
pole, and thence back to the dynamo, are diminished exactly in
proportion to the energy expended in the generation of the light
and heat of the arc. It is precisely the same as in the operation
of a turbine water-wheel; if working at its highest efficiency, the
discharged water is almost deprived of force: its gravity has been
converted into work. In the electric light this conversion is only
partial, owing to atmospheric and other conditions; but in the case
of the solar envelope and its core, it is nearly, if not altogether,
perfect, so that the currents of electricity are almost entirely
converted into light and heat, or expended in the electrolytic
decomposition of the surrounding aqueous vapors, and do not reappear
as electricity, but as converted solar energy. Brilliant, however,
as the light rays are in a powerful arc lamp,--perhaps the nearest
to solar light we can produce,--the obscure heat rays are far more
numerous and powerful. On page 476 of the work just cited a table is
given, showing the proportion of visible and invisible rays emitted
by different illuminants, and with the electric lamp, even, ninety per
cent. of all the rays emitted by the voltaic arc are heat rays, which
are obscure and invisible. But the startling effects of electricity
of large quantity and high potential, in the decomposition of water,
are far more strikingly exhibited by an apparatus shown in 1893 at the
Chicago Exhibition by a firm from Brussels, and which is described
in the Electrical Review as follows: "An ordinary wooden pail is
three-quarters filled with water slightly acidulated; a lead plate
about nine inches broad by sixteen inches long dips to the bottom of
the pail and is connected to an incandescent dynamo machine capable of
giving over one hundred and fifty ampères. The iron rod, or article to
be heated, is connected to the pole of the dynamo and simply dipped
into the water; it immediately becomes heated and rapidly rises to a
melting temperature; only that portion of the metal completely immersed
becomes heated, and the heating is so rapid that neither the water nor
that portion of the metal out of the water becomes very warm. Wrought
iron and steel actually melt if long enough held under water. A carbon
rod subjected to this process becomes amorphous carbon, proving that
a temperature of at least four thousand degrees Centigrade has been
reached, and it is stated that with two hundred and twenty volts'
pressure a temperature of eight thousand degrees Centigrade has been
reached. There are various theories to account for this phenomenon,
but from close observation it appears to be a case of arc heating. The
moment the metal is plunged into the water it is enveloped in hydrogen
gas decomposed from the water. This envelope of gas parts the water and
metal, forming an arc, which raises the surrounding gaseous envelope
to an enormous temperature; the metal surrounded by this arc is almost
immediately raised to the same temperature. A flame of burning hydrogen
appears around the metal on the surface of the water. The principle of
the method is the same as that on which the burning of an arc light
between two carbon points under water depends. An arc lamp will burn
quite steadily under water if the connections are made water-proof;
the arc itself requires no protection."
It will be seen that the process above described is precisely
analogous to that involved in the problem of the sun's energy. The
planets correspond with the leaden plates, upon which oxygen is
disengaged from the water, while at the same moment the liberated
hydrogen necessarily appears at the opposite pole. The generation
of hydrogen gas forms an envelope or atmosphere of hydrogen around
the sun which forces back the aqueous vapor. The current, in passing
through this gaseous envelope to the metal core within, intensely
heats the hydrogen, which rapidly communicates its rising heat to the
central core. If this core is composed of metals, and the temperature
be raised sufficiently high, which only depends upon the quantity and
working pressure of the electricity employed, the metal core will be
volatilized in whole or in part, and, if of mixed metals, we will
find the presence of these elements revealed in the spectroscopic
lines corresponding thereto, and the flames and flashes of hydrogen
at the surfaces beyond the envelope, at the surface of contact with
the matter of space, will be also seen. In fact, such an experiment,
properly prepared, could be made to show roughly most of the phenomena
of solar light and heat as they actually appear, such as sun-spots,
prominences, jets, plumes, faculæ, the photosphere, chromosphere,
absorption bands, vortical disturbances, metallic vapors, and the
complete solar spectrum, with the different Fraunhofer lines. In
the case of the sun, these currents must be measured by millions of
ampères, and possibly by hundreds of millions of volts, instead of by
mere hundreds, while the hydrogen envelope extends outward from the
sun's surface hundreds of thousands of miles until, perhaps, finally
merged into the corona. As the currents pass from the planets and
planetoids (for not only the larger planets, but all the planetary
bodies of our system must contribute, if any of them contribute) to
the sun, or rather to the sphere of its electrical action, without
resistance, so long as these planets generate constant currents of the
same, or nearly the same, potential, so long will the sun maintain
his constant light and heat; if these are increased or diminished,
the sun's light and heat will be temporarily, but only temporarily,
increased or diminished; and this process must continue, without
further loss or change, indefinitely into the future. Whatever the
sun may gain by increment of meteoric masses may pass for what it
is worth, but the gradual contraction of his volume cannot proceed
while his present temperature is maintained by the passage of such
currents,--that is to say, his light and heat will remain constant,
and also his mass and volume, so long as the electric currents which
pass from the planets to the sun and the constitution of space which
surrounds the sun and planets themselves remain constant.
It now remains to consider how such enormous currents of electricity
can be generated and maintained. We know, of course, that chemical
changes cannot operate to produce them. They must be derived from
something contained in or diffused through interplanetary space,
and the planets themselves must be the means by which such currents
of electricity are brought into effective operation. On our own
earth we have many kinds of mechanically-constructed electrical
apparatus which generate electricity, to use a popular expression,
or which, more properly, separate the opposite potentials from
an unstable electrical tension or equilibrium of the matter of
space. These machines practically take positive electricity from
the mutually-balanced electric potentials of which the earth and
its surrounding gaseous envelope are the vast common storehouse,
in such manner that the positive electricity thus drawn out from and
again passing into the common storehouse shall, during such transit,
be compelled to pass through channels which will cause it to do work,
at the expense of its potential or pressure, during its passage,
or in which electricity is raised in its electro-motive force from
a lower to a higher potential or pressure, just as the pressure of
water is increased when delivered from a greater or a still greater
height, or steam, when confined in space under higher and still higher
temperatures. But none of these machines actually generate electricity
ab initio; they merely put into effective operation the pre-existing
force. The mass of the earth is of irregularly negative polarity, the
air above is positive, and as we ascend, the potential, or voltage,
or pressure increases at a nearly uniform rate of from twenty to forty
volts for each foot. The earth is thus surrounded by an electrosphere
as well as an atmosphere, and the two are not coincident, for while
the pressure of the atmosphere diminishes as we ascend, that of the
electrosphere increases. The moon, too, and each planet must have
its electrosphere, and around the sun's core we can see the solar
electrosphere in its visible glory. Thus, all our planets rotate upon
their axes and revolve around the sun, each surrounded by an enormous
electrosphere, just as an electrical induction machine is surrounded,
when in operation, with an electrosphere of its own, and which,
by breaking connection with the conductor which carries away its
current, becomes, when shown in a darkened room, clearly visible. In
"Electricity in the Service of Man" it is said, page 63, "The inductive
action of the machine is quite as rapid and as powerful when both
collectors are removed and nothing is left but the two rotating
disks and their respective contact or neutralizing brushes. The whole
apparatus then bristles with electricity, and if viewed in the dark
presents a most beautiful appearance, being literally bathed with
luminous brush discharges." This is a true aurora.
Let us now examine some of these more recent electric machines,--the
later induction, not the older frictional machines, for it is
obvious that the rotation of the planets, if they operate as
electric generators, or separators, must act by induction and not by
friction. The frictional machines are of the old type and are well
known from the books; in these a glass disk or cylinder is rubbed
upon in its rotation by an amalgamated (so called) friction pad fixed
securely to the bed of the machine. But more recently these have
been replaced by far more powerful and simple machines which operate
entirely by induction, like approaching thunderclouds, for instance,
and in which one or more glass disks are merely rotated rapidly and
freely in the air, these disks having a number of light metallic
sectors, such as bits of tin-foil, pasted on their outer sides at
equal radial intervals, and with metallic collecting brushes which,
however, barely graze the surfaces of the rotating disk. There is
no pressure and no friction, except that of the disks as they freely
revolve in the atmosphere.
In the above-quoted work, page 61, is a description of Wimshurst's
influence machine, one of the most recent and most powerful, which we
condense as follows: This machine was produced about 1883. It consists
of two circular disks of thin glass fourteen and one-half inches in
diameter in the sample described, attached at their centers to loose
bosses, so as to be rotated by cords and pulleys operated by a handle,
in opposite directions. The disks rotate parallel with each other and
are not more than one-eighth of an inch apart, and have their surfaces
well varnished; and attached by cement to their outer surfaces are
twelve or more radial, sector-shaped plates of thin brass- or tin-foil,
disposed around the disks at equal distances apart. These sectors
take the place of the "inductors" of Holtz's instrument, and appear
to act also as carriers, though the exact nature of their action is
somewhat mysterious. It appears, however, probable that those acting
for the time as carriers on the one disk act at the same time as
inductors on the other. The two sectors on the same diameter of each
disk, at opposite sides of the center, are twice in each revolution
momentarily placed in metallic connection with one another by means of
a pair of fine wire brushes attached to the ends of a bent metal rod
loosely pivoted at the center of each disk, the metal sectors just
grazing the tips of the wire brushes as they pass. There is one of
these bent rods on the outside of each disk, and their position as
pivoted on their center can be varied at will, both with reference
to the one on the opposite side and to the position of the fixed
collecting combs. The efficiency of the machine varies with their
position, and the maximum appears to be generally when the brushes
touch the disks on diameters crossing the position of the collecting
combs at about forty-five degrees, and with the bent rods on opposite
sides at right angles to each other. The collecting combs are simple
forks with collecting points turned inward, which forks embrace the
opposite sides of the disks outside, which freely rotate between them,
and they are supported on insulated posts. These supports may be small
Leyden jars or condensers, with discharging knobs, or may be connected
with similar condensers at a distance, or arranged in batteries or
otherwise. The presence of the collecting combs is not necessary to
the operation of the machine, their sole function being to carry away
the positive electricity as generated. The machine is self-exciting,
and it is believed that the initial action must be due to friction in
the layer of air contained between the plates, which, as above stated,
are only about one-eighth of an inch apart. It is nearly independent
of atmospheric conditions, and not liable to reverse its polarity,
as are the Voss machines. The Voss machine uses a larger glass disk
which does not rotate, but is fixed, and which has a central opening
three inches wide, with a different arrangement of tin-foil disks or
sectors, and a smaller glass disk rotates parallel with it. The Holtz
machine is somewhat similar, using a single rotating, well-varnished
glass disk revolving opposite a well-varnished larger disk, the latter
provided with three sector-shaped openings or windows, with varnished
paper inductors or flaps passing through these windows so as to touch
the revolving disk. There are also two series of fine metal points held
by brass bars provided with insulated handles and discharging knobs.
It is only necessary to give a general idea of the construction and
operation of such machines, as their specific construction can be
readily learned from the books. Of the mode of operation, however,
it is said, "What takes place when the machine is in action is of
a very complicated nature, and can hardly be said to be perfectly
understood." With a Wimshurst machine having disks of a diameter
of fourteen and one-half inches "there is produced under ordinary
atmospheric conditions a powerful spark discharge between the knobs
when they are separated by a distance of four and one-half inches,
a pint size Leyden jar being in connection with each knob (one on each
opposite diameter of the two disks), and these four-and-one-half-inch
discharges take place in regular succession at every two and a half
turns of the handle. It is usual to construct the machine with small
Leyden jars or condensers attached to conductors, by which the spark
is materially increased. A machine has been constructed with plates
seven feet in diameter, which, it was believed, would give sparks
thirty inches long; but no Leyden jars have been found to withstand
its discharge, all being pierced by the enormous tension." Three
of Toepler's induction machines (see page 59, "Electricity in the
Service of Man"), connected together, gave a current which maintained
a platinum wire one-fifth of a millimeter thick continually at a red
heat, and was also capable of decomposing water.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SOURCE OF SOLAR ENERGY.
The remarkable resemblance between the mode of operation and effects of
these electrical induction machines and the vast rotating electrosphere
of the earth must be at once apparent. The operation is precisely
the same, and the results must, pari passu, be substantially
similar. We need not seek for precise parallelism of structure,
because these machines themselves, it has been shown, widely differ
in structure among themselves. But the almost infinitely more vast
terrestrial electrosphere, which cannot be less than ten thousand
miles in diameter, and perhaps much more (if we may form an opinion
from the relative magnitude of the field of action of the hydrogen
envelope which constitutes the solar electrosphere), rotating in the
attenuated vapors of space, among which vapors that of water plays a
most important part, and which vapors constantly impinge with various
disturbances of contact against the more and more attenuated layers of
the terrestrial atmosphere, and which gradually, from within outward,
less and less partakes of the earth's rotation until, finally, its
rotatory movement is lost in the vast ocean of space, establishes
the certainty that enormous quantities of electricity must there be
disengaged, precisely as in the machines which we have described,
and to learn the potential or active pressure of this electricity
we have only to consider the fact that we find a rise so rapid,
as we ascend through our atmosphere, that the potential increases
by from twenty to forty volts for each foot. That these currents
are transmitted to the sun without appreciable resistance we already
know, and that they are there transformed into light and heat we can,
from the previously cited experiments, see.
But it may be urged that the resistance of such attenuated vapors in
space, and the generation of electricity in such quantities, would
inevitably retard and finally destroy planetary motion. The sufficient
answer to this is found in the consideration that the same facts must
exist under any possible mode of organization of our solar system,
and that such interference, besides, must have absolutely prevented
its formation at all, if such were the case. All the matter of our
planetary system together is only one seven-hundred-and-fiftieth
that of the sun; if this were added to the sun's bulk it would but
slightly enlarge it. But all this solar and planetary matter together,
if distributed over the space occupied by our planetary system,--and,
by the nebular hypothesis of the organization of our solar system,
this is requisite,--and having an axial diameter one-half that
of its equatorial (see Proctor's "Familiar Essays on Scientific
Subjects,"--"Oxygen in the Sun"), would have had a density of only
about one four-hundred-thousandth that of hydrogen gas at atmospheric
pressure. This nebular mass must have had a diameter at least sixty
times that of the distance of the earth from the sun and a depth
of thirty times its distance. That this enormous mass of attenuated
matter should ever have been made to rotate as a whole by any force of
attraction, repulsion, or rotation, with a tenuity so great that, if
measured by an equal volume of hydrogen gas,--the lightest substance
known to us,--it would have furnished material for four hundred
thousand such systems as ours, presupposes a resistance so slight
that the planets themselves, when coagulated out of such a mass,
could never in any conceivable time exhibit retardation from such
a source; and we know to a certainty that such attenuated vapors do
exist in space, for electricity cannot be transmitted through a vacuum,
and it is transmitted with perfect freedom between the earth and the
sun. But it may be said that the laws were then different. If they
were different then, they are doubtless different now. If, on the
other hand, we assume that the bodies of which our solar system is
composed were simply aggregated into concrete masses from meteoric
dust, the difficulty is not lessened; for if the resistances to their
operation now are such as to perceptibly retard their motions, they
must have operated still more powerfully to originally prevent them;
while, if hurled forth by an almighty fiat, complete from the hand
of creative energy, the same force which impelled them forward must
have also established the laws under which they now move.
It is calculated that our earth must be losing time, by tidal
retardation, at the rate of one-half the moon's diameter in each twelve
hundred years (see Proctor, "Light Science for Leisure Hours,"--"Our
Chief Timepiece Losing Time"), and that "the length of a day is now
more by about one eighty-fourth part of a second than it was two
thousand years ago." Perhaps, however, we may discover that these
changes are themselves periodic and increase in cycles to a maximum,
and then diminish, as is the case with magnetic, planetary, and stellar
variations, and other similar changes, when sufficiently long observed;
for while such changes may very well accompany a theory under which
our system and all other systems are slowly running down to decay and
death, it is entirely incompatible with the primal forces under which
they must have been originally formed. In other words, if the tides
are dragging back our earth without compensation, this dragging back
can only come from the oceanic deposit of water on the earth from
the aqueous vapors of space which do not partake of the planetary
rotation and orbital movement of the earth. But if these can now
retard the earth's motion, they must have originally prevented it in
the beginning. This loss of time is, moreover, merely inferential from
mathematical computations, and its basis is found in the belief that
all the operations of nature are in a slow process of degradation,
and the calculated loss itself may be merely theoretical, and not true
in fact. Professor Proctor himself concedes the uncertainty of this
alleged retardation when he says in the same article, "At this rate
of change our day would merge into a lunar month in the course of
thirty-six thousand millions of years. But after a while the change
will take place more slowly, and some trillion or so of years will
elapse before the full change is effected."
While the processes of nature are generally believed to be running
down, everything is bent to that belief; but the forces of nature
must, nevertheless, be uniform and supreme, for it is by these forces
that the expected results are to be achieved. That changes occur
constantly is inevitable, but the source of these must be looked for
in the interaction of original forces, and not in the degradation
of systems. There is reason to believe, in fact, that the repulsion
of the terrestrial electrosphere by that of the moon may itself
be sufficient to counteract such retarding force of lunar gravity,
for the tides upon earth are not merely oceanic, but atmospheric,
and on the latter the electrical repulsion of the moon must act very
powerfully and with directly counteractive effect.
Let us now apply the preceding principles to the problem under
review. All planetary space is pervaded with attenuated vapors or
gases, among which aqueous vapor occupies a leading place. The planets
and all planetary bodies, having opposite electrical polarity from
the central and relatively fixed sun, by their orbital motions around
and constant subjection thereto act as enormous induction machines,
which generate electricity from the ocean of attenuated aqueous vapor,
each planet being surrounded by an enormous electrosphere, carried
with the planet in its axial and orbital movements, the successive
atmospheric envelopes gradually diminishing in rotational velocity
until merged into the outer ocean of space. As the planets advance in
their orbits they plunge into new and fresh fields, and, as the whole
solar system gradually moves onward through space, these fields are
never re-occupied. These electrospheres, by their rotation, generate
enormous quantities of electricity at an extremely high potential,--so
high that we can scarcely even conceive it,--and this electricity flows
in a constant current to the sun, where it disappears as electricity,
to reappear in the form of solar light and heat. These planetary
currents also flow towards such other negatively electrified bodies
as may exist in space--the comets and fixed stars, for example--in
proportion to their distance; for, since resistance is not appreciable
between ourselves and the sun, as is also the case with light, so, like
light, our electricity must pass outward as well as inward to take part
in the harmonious operations of the whole universe. But it should be
noted that the distribution of electric energy in the form of currents
is quite different from that of light or other radiant energy; for
while light is diffused from a center outward through space, electric
currents, on the contrary, are concentrated and directed along lines
of force to concrete centers of opposite polarity. As a consequence,
the intensity of light decreases according to the squares of the
distances traversed plus the resistance to the passage of the light
itself, while the electric current is only diminished by the resistance
of the medium through which it passes. As the light of the sun has a
velocity of one hundred and eighty-eight thousand miles per second,
and the electric current between the earth and the sun the same,
it will be seen that the resistance is practically alike for these
two forms of energy. Indeed, the striking resemblance between the
ethereal vibrations which constitute light and heat and exceedingly
rapid alternating currents of electricity through molecular media may
suggest that the transformation of one force into the other is some
sort of a "step-up" or "step-down" process, much higher in degree,
but of the same character as the well-known analogous electrical
transformations used in the arts. It should also be borne in mind
that, while the intensity of light diminishes according to the above
law, the quantity remains the same, less resistance, as the area
covered increases precisely in the same proportion as the intensity
diminishes,--that is, in the ratio of squares.
Around the earth and other planets gravity attracts the aqueous vapors
in increased density, the same as around the sun; but the electric
currents passing between the planets and the sun decompose this aqueous
vapor into its constituent gases, hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is
deposited within the positive electrospheres of the planetary bodies,
where it mingles with nitrogen to form our atmosphere and those of
the other planets. In this float the aqueous vapors condensed from
space, which are lighter than air. (See Tyndall, "The Forms of Water:"
"It also sends up a quantity of aqueous vapor which, being far lighter
than air, helps the latter to rise.") These aqueous vapors, condensed
into clouds and precipitated upon the earth, form our oceans and their
affluents. The hydrogen gas disengaged upon the sun's surface forms
a similar envelope, which is penetrated by the planetary electric
currents, and is thus highly heated and rendered incandescent; the
glowing hydrogen transmits its heat to the sun's mass within, which
is thus raised to, and permanently maintained in, a liquid or densely
gaseous state, its metallic constituents being volatilized in part,
and these metallic vapors mingle with the lower strata of hydrogen
to form the sun's photosphere, while, above, the glowing hydrogen
grows more pure, and finally, at a distance of hundreds of thousands
of miles, is merged into the corona, which is composed, in part at
least, of cosmical dust rotating around and repelled by the sun,
and which shines partly by reflected light, partly by that of the
relatively cooler hydrogen, and partly, perhaps, by electrification
of its constituents by the powerful currents passing through it. Each
of the planetary bodies, large or small, takes its proportionate part
in the generation and transmission of electricity, according to its
volume, mass, and motion. As an adjunct to this electrical sequence
we have learned that any interruption of such currents between the
generator and the receiver will cause the generating apparatus to glow
with diffused electrical light, as is the case with the Wimshurst
machine already described. When such connection is removed, it is
said, "the whole apparatus bristles with electricity, and if viewed
in the dark presents a most beautiful appearance, being literally
bathed with luminous brush discharges." Such a phenomenon recalls at
once the aurora borealis; and when we find this as a sequence of the
electrical storm of the first of September, 1859, before described
("at night great auroras were seen in both hemispheres"), and connect
with this the persistence of electricity upon insulated surfaces (see
"Electricity in the Service of Man," page 53: "Glass being a bad
conductor, the electricity does not spread all over the plate, but
remains where it is produced"), we shall inevitably conclude that there
was some partial interruption in the current flowing from the earth
to the sun at that moment; and if we recall that at that very instant
"suddenly a bright light was seen by each observer to break out on the
sun's surface and to travel across a part of the solar disk," we shall
learn that the processes connected with the production of such a bright
light will interrupt in part the terrestrial current. We can readily
understand that if this bright light exceeded in electrical intensity
that due to the earth's current, it might temporarily reverse the
polarity of the afferent current or retard its flow, like the so-called
"backwater" of a mill. It would be like attempting to discharge steam
at sixty pounds' pressure into a vessel filled with other steam at
sixty-one pounds. Whence, then, came this bright light? Perhaps from
the conjoint action of some other planet, perhaps from sudden chemical
disassociation beneath the surface, perhaps by the abnormal piling up
of depths of transparent glowing hydrogen or other local disturbance.
And this leads to the consideration of the uniformity of solar
action. The planetary electrospheres will be constant in their
operation if the constitution of surrounding space remains uniform;
but we shall find reason to believe that there are currents in
the ocean of space, as there are currents in our own seas, and
electrical generation will necessarily vary when such currents are
encountered. The sun itself in such case, however, will become an
automatic regulator, for his density being but one-fourth that of the
earth, and the spectroscope having shown his chemical composition
to a large extent, we know that his mass must be either liquid or
vaporous, and perhaps in part both. Such masses readily respond to
variations of temperature, expanding as it rises and contracting as
it falls. Hence, if a portion of space were reached where the action
of the planetary electrospheres was increased by relative increase of
temperature in some interstellar "Gulf Stream," the sun's volume would
expand and compensation be at once established, while, conversely,
with diminution of such planetary action, the solar volume would
contract and an increased supply from his reserve store be given out
thereby. In this way the condensation relied upon to give us heat for
seven or seventeen million years becomes a compensating mechanism,
self-operative through the most distant cycles of time. We shall
also find in such electric currents an explanation of sun-spots. It
is not meant that a full knowledge can be obtained of their minute
constitution, nor is it necessary; but the equatorial belt of six
degrees, nearly free from sun-spots, we can readily understand to be
caused--since sun-spots are depressions in the photosphere down to
the deeper and denser cloud strata beneath--by the equatorial piling
up of the sun's atmosphere by its rotation. Any point on the sun's
equator travels at four times the rotational velocity of one on the
earth's equator, but the sun's attraction of gravity is twenty-seven
and one-tenth times that of the earth, so that the piling up of an
atmosphere of hydrogen would be considerable, and such depressions
would not ordinarily exist there. Similarly, near the sun's poles we
should find a gradual darkening, as is the case; but from five degrees
to thirty degrees latitude, the sun, in its rotation, by reason of
the inclination of its axis, passes at every point directly beneath
the planets, or within their area of control, and here we find the
solar spots in their greatest number, size, and intensity. These
sun-spots cross the face of the sun in about fifteen days, and vary
in development from year to year, having a cycle of 11.11 years from
maximum to maximum. They also have a long cycle of about fifty-six
years. (See article "The Sun," in Appleton's Cyclopædia.) "Wolf, in
1859, presented a formula by which the frequency of spots is connected
with the motions of the four bodies, Venus, the earth, Jupiter, and
Saturn. Professor Loomis, of Yale College, has since advocated a theory
(suggested by the present writer [Proctor] in 1865, in 'Saturn and
his System,' page 168, note) that the long cycle of fifty-six years
is related to the successive conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. But
the association is as yet very far from being demonstrated, to say the
least." Should such fact be established, an explanation for it will
be found in the direct impact of the condensed electric currents from
several planets approaching conjunction, and raising a portion of the
sun's atmosphere suddenly to a higher temperature and volatilizing an
abnormal proportion of the semi-vaporous metallic core beneath. This
would form an upburst piling the intensely heated faculæ up on the
sides and revealing the relatively darker masses of cloud beneath, the
cooler supernatant hydrogen pouring in from the upper layers to fill
the returning void. This is precisely what is seen in such spots and
their surrounding disturbances. In the article "The Sun," above quoted,
we read, "Mr. Huggins has found that several of the absorption bands
belonging to the solar spectrum are wider in the spectrum of a spot,
a circumstance indicative of increased absorption so far as the vapors
corresponding to such lines are concerned.... Near the great spots or
groups of spots there are often seen streaks more luminous than the
neighboring surface, called faculæ. They are oftenest seen towards the
borders of the disk." This writer also describes "luminous bridges
across spots which sink into the vortex and are replaced by others
of the numberless cloud-like forms from one hundred to one thousand
miles in diameter, the brilliancy of which so greatly exceeds that of
the intervening spaces that they must be recognized as the principal
radiators of the solar light and heat." The apparent retardation of
the spots most distant from the sun's equator may also be partially,
at least, explained by planetary currents of electricity, as the
equatorial atmosphere is deeper and more likely to carry forward
such vortices when formed, while the planets act more directly on
the sun's mass beneath their direct influence.
Let us consider this retardation of sun-spots somewhat more in
detail. Take, for example, the case of a large planet at such orbital
position that its direct line of electrical impact will penetrate
the photosphere at (say) seven degrees north solar latitude, which
is about fifty-two thousand miles from his equator. During its annual
revolution this planet will traverse, with its line of energy, every
point of the sun's surface down to seven degrees south latitude and
back again to its initial point, thus tracing a close spiral around
the sun for fourteen degrees, or about one hundred and four thousand
miles in width. The centrifugal force of the solar rotation piles
up the photosphere and the chromosphere around the sun's equator,
precisely as our atmosphere is piled up around our own equator. If
the planet be a large one (for distance has but little to do with
these electrical currents at planetary distances, in which they
differ entirely from light, heat, and gravity), or if there be two
planets nearly in conjunction, the body of the chromosphere and
the surface of the photosphere will gradually become highly heated,
for currents of electricity, of themselves, do not directly heat the
solar core any more than a like current heats the under carbon of an
arc lamp, the high temperature in both cases being altogether due
to the incandescent heat of the interposed arc or envelope. Faculæ
of intense brightness will then appear upon the photosphere, and
these will be driven forward and also outward in the direction of
the higher latitudes, producing an oblique forward movement from
difference of rotational speed at different portions of the sun's
surface. Similar phenomena are constantly observed on the surface
of the earth in the generation and behavior of cyclones and other
atmospheric disturbances. They may be compared to the wake of a vessel
anchored in a strong tide-way. These faculæ will slowly raise the
temperature of the surface of the sun's core beneath to the point
of eruptive volatilization, and particularly so if the planet is
receding from, instead of advancing towards, the solar equator. At
some point in advance of the line of planetary energy an eruption of
volatilized metals will suddenly occur, first thrusting up a vast
area of the photosphere and then bursting it asunder, which will
drive these ruptured masses with enormous speed forward and obliquely
outward from the equator. Such faculæ (see Proctor's "Light Science")
sometimes reach a velocity of seven thousand miles per minute, while
the sun's rotational movement at the equator is less than seventy
miles per minute. This sudden eruption will be almost immediately
succeeded by great expansion and consequent fall of temperature, so
that within a few hours the heavy volatile metals begin to condense
and rapidly recede into their crater, and the faculæ in front and at
the sides will now stream inward to occupy this vacuum with constantly
accelerated velocity, pouring over the edges like the rush of waters
at the Falls of Niagara. As they sweep downward over the inner rim of
the funnel, these streams of faculæ will glow with increased whiteness,
and appear to be sharply cut off at their inner ends; but this is only
apparently so, and is due to the position of the observer, who looks
almost directly downward upon these descending streams. It is for
the same reason that the faculæ appear more brilliant when near the
borders of the solar disk (see page 109). Any good view of a sun-spot
when analyzed will show the streams of faculæ thus pouring inward,
and they are among the most peculiar and conspicuous phenomena
to be observed. The drawings of Professor Langley, reproduced in
the Popular Science Monthly for September, 1874, and July, 1885,
are particularly striking in their illustration of these effects,
though their significance and interpretation were not then at hand.
But while these heavy metallic vapors so rapidly condense and subside
in the forward or initial portion of the sun-spot under observation,
new depths of intensely-heated faculæ are generated behind, and these
operate with renewed energy upon the fresh surface of the solar core
in rear of the original seat of eruption; so that each sun-spot,
while in an active state, will exhibit two entirely distinct aspects,
the forward portion of the crater in a state of rapid condensation
and subsidence of the recently erupted metallic vapors, and with
inflowing streams of incandescent hydrogen from the front and sides,
and the rear portion of the crater up to its rearward wall, and even
streaming forth from beneath it, in a state of violent eruption. The
large volcanic craters of the Hawaiian Islands exhibit similar
partial eruptions and subsidences progressing simultaneously in the
same depths. The sudden formation of the great incandescent loops and
plumes to which Professor Langley calls especial attention, and which
have hitherto been so perplexing, can now be readily understood and
explained. If one of these inflowing streams be carried partially
down into and across the crater, and then caught, in its advance,
by the uprush in the central or rear portions of the cavity, it will
be at once swept upward alongside the ascending eruption, and either
scattered at its forward extremity into sprays and plumes, or else
thrown forward bodily in the form of a more or less complete loop. In
a sun-spot fifty thousand miles in diameter, such a loop, having a
long diameter of twenty thousand miles, if we give a speed to the
faculæ of seven thousand miles per minute, would be formed in about
seven minutes, during which the sun-spot would itself have advanced
less than five hundred miles across the face of the sun. The luminous
bridges which form so suddenly across portions of the crater may be
explained in a similar manner: they are streams of faculæ floated on
the nearly balanced uprush of metallic vapors from beneath.
It will thus be seen that a sun-spot is not merely a fixed eruption,
like a volcano, but rather a continuous series of eruptions, like
a line of activity following, for example, the great terrestrial
volcanic curve which extends up the western coast of America, across
the Pacific Ocean and Asia, and into Central and Southern Europe,
for during its progression its scene of action is constantly being
shifted to the rear; it is like a furrow cut by a plough, in which
the upturned sod is constantly falling in at one end of the furrow
while the plough is cutting a new furrow at the other, except that
in this case the plough is relatively fixed overhead, and the field
itself passes along beneath it. Consequently, the center of activity
of a sun-spot is only in its rear portions, generally considered, and
the whole sun-spot is gradually retreating, by successive filling up in
front and opening out behind, farther and farther to the rear,--that is
to say, to the east,--so that retardation relatively to the rotational
advance of the photosphere necessarily ensues.
But when the sun-spot is developed upon or near the equatorial
line this retardation is not so considerable, for the deeper layers
of the photosphere in those regions are slower to act and require
greater energy to affect them, so that all except deep and violent
eruptions fail to show themselves at the surface at all, and the
heated faculæ are carried directly forward along the surface of the
equatorial swell, so that the center of activity is driven forward
more rapidly than in the higher latitudes, and the rate of progression
is more nearly coincident with that of the photosphere. But if these
facts are correctly stated and explained, we may have to revise our
calculations of the sun's rotational period, for retardation to some
extent must occur in all cases, if in any.
A sun-spot, we thus perceive, is an elongated wave or ridge of eruption
along the rotational direction of the sun's body. Why, then, it may
be asked, is not this line of eruption continuous entirely around the
sun? For the same reason, it may be answered, that our own cyclones
are not continuous, though caused substantially in the same manner,
and that volcanic eruptions only occur at long intervals, though
the forces at work are continuous. Lowering of temperature follows
swiftly after eruption, and as the deeper structures of the solar
nucleus become gradually affected, instead of volatilization of the
outer layers of the surface, we will have diffused gaseous expansion
of large portions, and finally of the entire solar mass, which cannot
as a whole be volatilized by any conceivable planetary energy. We see
these operations exemplified in heating a bar of copper in a Bunsen
flame; the latter first turns green from surface volatilization of
the copper, but as the heat is communicated to the deeper structures
the green flame disappears, and the whole additional heat goes to
raise the temperature of the mass.
These processes in the sun are thus seen to be self-compensatory in
their nature. They are the means provided to distribute the restricted
areas of abnormally heated photosphere over the solar surface, and
finally to cause the absorption of the whole excess of heat in the
sun's central mass. The balance is so evenly maintained, however, that,
were all the planets equally distributed with reference to the sun's
surface, such sun-spots would be the exception and not the rule, and
their distribution would be equal and constant; but, as the planets
continually change their positions with reference to the sun and to
each other, only by some such provision of nature could the internal
structure of the sun be maintained without serious derangement, or,
indeed, final disruption. So nature distributes her stores of heat
upon the earth. These beautiful self-compensations we shall find
suddenly appearing, as we advance, in all parts of the field of
astronomical research.
It may seem like temerity to advance statements so positive and
specific as to the cause, constitution, and progression of sun-spots,
in the absence of any considerable accumulation of observations
to sustain them, but the few examples which we have noted are in
accordance with these views, and when attention is once called to the
basic principles on which they depend, observations will doubtless be
made in abundance to prove or disprove what has been here stated. The
mere fact of a differential rate of advance among sun-spots, as they
pass across the solar face, of itself demonstrates that the active
causes of these phenomena must be extra-solar, and if so, their only
possible dynamic source must be looked for in the planets, and the
remaining conclusions will of necessity follow as a corollary. We may
even, by merely examining an accurate drawing of a sun-spot, determine
its position and direction upon the solar sphere from which it was
delineated by its lines of active eruption and influx of faculæ,
and also whether it be a new spot or one which has passed entirely
beyond its active stage and is about to finally disappear.
As for the faculæ which striate the photosphere, the mottlings and
so-called "willow-leaves," any one who will quietly gaze downward
upon the turbid surface of the Mississippi or other similar river,
in mid-channel, will see plenty of such faculæ: the river is full of
them. The heavier, intermingled clay, slowly subsiding, is caught up in
the turmoil beneath the surface and swept upward in elongated ovals and
eddies, the larger swells nearly colorless, and others of all shades
of ochre and yellow, and the whole as richly mottled, sometimes, as
the variegated pattern of a Persian carpet. If we substitute for the
subsiding clay the rapidly sinking heavy metallic vapors, and enlarge
the scale from the dimensions of the river to those of the sun, we
will have the mottled solar surface with its kaleidoscopic changes,
the so-called "willow-leaves," and the faculæ in all their glory. A
careful study of the sun will show most clearly that only in some
such explanation as the present view affords can a rational basis
for its varied phenomena be found.
If the sun's equator were coincident with the plane of the planetary
orbits, it is obvious that all the planetary energies would be
directed, whatever the position of the planets around the sun,
immediately upon this equatorial great circle, and that, at each
revolution upon his axis, corresponding nearly to our calendar month,
the same part of his sphere would be exposed to these direct currents,
so that the intensity would be, in its aggregate, nearly a constant
quantity. But, by reason of the sun's axial inclination of seven
degrees to the plane of the planetary orbits, a far more complex and
important condition of affairs ensues. It will be seen at once that
the plane of the planetary orbits intersects the sun's equator at
opposite sides, and that, from a minimum of nothing, this line reaches
a maximum, twice in each circumference, of seven degrees, one north
and the other south of the equator, and that this arc of fourteen
degrees, thus traversed by every planet in its orbital rotation
around the sun, measures more than one hundred thousand miles from
north to south upon the solar surface, nearly one-half the distance
which separates the earth from the moon. If all the planets were in
conjunction or nearly so, on one side of the sun, for example, and in
the vertical plane of the sun's axis, they would continue to deliver
their electrical currents with their greatest intensity upon a single
point of his surface fifty-two thousand miles north of his equator,
while the opposite point, one hundred and four thousand miles distant,
would be unaffected by any direct currents at all. Conversely, if
in conjunction on the opposite side of the sun, they would continue
to deliver these currents upon a corresponding point fifty-two
thousand miles south of the equator; but if in conjunction in the
vertical plane transverse to the sun's axial inclination, these
currents on either side of the sun would be delivered directly upon
the solar equator. The importance of this will be understood when
it is considered that for many of our years such planets as Jupiter
and Saturn must continue to direct their currents upon a very slowly
changing point of the sun's surface, by reason of their vast annual
rotational period, while with the earth and the interior planets these
various points are struck with ever-increasing rapidity as the year
decreases in length with the different planets, the earth, Venus,
and Mercury. There is a solar equinoctial, so to speak, just as there
is a terrestrial equinoctial in which the sun crosses the line twice
each year, and the meteorological disturbances faintly shown on the
earth at such times are vastly increased on the sun, and rendered
far more complex by the interaction of many planets upon the sun,
instead of a single sun upon each planet. While our equinoctial has
to do with gravity and light and heat, and probably magnetism, the
solar equinoctial deals with the vast electrical streams which feed
its fires and set it boiling with furious energy, first at one point,
then at another, until the increment has been absorbed and adjusted,
and thus equalized throughout his mass. What a new interest this must
arouse in our study of sun-spots, faculæ, prominences, sun-storms,
and the vast panorama of solar action hung up before our astonished
eyes! A new world here awaits its Columbus.
But not only the planets thus gather, so to speak, electricity for
the sun's support from space; the moon also must do its part, as it
rotates in the same manner, subject to the sun, and has its own motion
through space. But an examination of the moon shows no atmosphere
and no aqueous matter visible to us, and also the singular fact
that it constantly presents one side only to the earth. R. Kalley
Miller, in his "Romance of Astronomy," article "The Moon," says,
"After an elaborate analysis, Professor Hausen, of Gotha, found that
it could be accounted for only by supposing that the side of the moon
nearest us was lighter than the other, and hence that its center of
gravity was not at its center of figure, but considerably nearer
the side of it which is always turned away from us. He calculates
the distance between these centers to be nearly thirty-five miles,
evidently a most important eccentricity, when we remember that the
radius of the moon is little over a thousand miles. It must have been
produced by some great internal convulsion after the moon assumed its
solid state; but the forces required to produce this disruption are
less than might at first sight appear necessary, owing to the fact
that the force of gravitation and the weight of matter are six times
less at the moon than with us." Those who are fond of the so-called
"Argument of Design" will be gratified to learn that, if the moon
had a rotation upon its own axis similar to that of the earth,
all life--past, present or future--would have been impossible on
that satellite or planet; and that, on the contrary,--provided she
always turns the same side of her surface to the earth,--it is quite
possible that air, water, and life may exist, or may have existed,
on the opposite side of the moon, but not otherwise. In fact, air and
water must now exist on the opposite side; and, since her whole supply
will thus be condensed upon half her surface or less, even with her
small force of gravity, it may be quite sufficient in quantity and
density for the support of animal, vegetable, or even human life. By
reason of this difference in the lunar center of gravity, the side
presented to the earth in physical position is similar to the summit
of a mountain upon the earth's surface two hundred miles high, and
surely we would not expect to find much air or water or life at that
altitude. But the opposite side would resemble a champagne country
at the foot of this enormous mountain, and might be well fitted for
human existence. Now, we know that similar electricities repel each
other, and air or gases charged with similar electricities are equally
self-repellent. Professor Tyndall, in his "Lessons in Electricity,"
says, "The electricity escaping from a point or flame into the air
renders the air self-repulsive. The consequence is, that when the
hand is placed over a point mounted on the prime conductor of a good
machine, a cold blast is distinctly felt.... The blast is called the
'electric wind.' Wilson moved bodies by its action; Faraday caused
it to depress the surface of a liquid; Hamilton employed the reaction
of the electric wind to make pointed wires rotate. The wind was also
found to promote evaporation."
While electrical repulsion is doubtless analogous to, and correlative
with, the attraction of gravitation, this force, and even gravity
itself, has been sometimes interpreted as derived from the mutually
interacting molecules of space itself. We may even learn somewhat
of how such repulsions of similar and attractions of opposite
electrospheres might occur. We constantly speak of positive
and negative electricity as though these were different fluids,
but such expressions are employed only in the same manner as the
analogous terms, heat and cold. We know, of course, that cold is the
relative absence of heat, the dividing line being not a fixed, but a
constantly changing one, so that one body is cold to another by reason
of relative, and not absolute, deprivation of heat. It is well known,
however, that cold, which is purely a negative state, manifests the
same apparent radiant energy as heat. A vessel near an iceberg is
exposed to a wave of cold, precisely as of heat from a heated body at
the same distance. This, of course, is due to abstraction and not to
increment. All space being occupied by attenuated matter in a state
of unstable electrical equilibrium, as we say, which simply means
a condition ready to be raised or lowered in tension by absorption
from or into outside media, all concrete bodies floating in that
space must have an electrical potential either equal to, or higher,
or else lower than that of their surrounding space. A solitary body in
space, if we can conceive of such, in either a higher or lower state
of electrical tension, would be drawn upon from all sides to equalize
the distribution and restore the general average. But if two bodies
occupy the same field, and are widely different from each other in
electrical potential, one higher and the other lower than that of
space, this distribution will be towards each other, and must be
manifested by mutual attraction. But if, on the contrary, these two
bodies are both equally higher or lower than the spatial average,
they have nothing to give to each other, but have this difference
to give to or receive only from outer space, and hence they will be
drawn apart or, as we say, mutually repelled. The case is similar to
what we see in the case of bodies of water at various levels. Suppose
there be a lake of a fixed level, and communicating with it and with
each other, by open channels, two ponds of water occupying an island
in the middle of the lake. If one of these ponds be higher in level
and the other lower than the lake, their waters will rapidly converge,
the higher flowing into the lower; but if both are at the same level,
and higher than the lake, they will flow apart into the lake. Or, if
both are at the same level, and lower than the lake, the water of the
latter will equally flow from outside into both ponds, and their waters
will still be held separate from each other. The analogies of these
various levels may be pursued to any desired extent, as electrical
tensions find their most exact analogies in the pressures of bodies
of water at different levels and of different quantities, and these
analogies are those most constantly used in the interpretation of
such electrical phenomena.
The great electrical activity of the electrospheres of the earth and
moon, while they discharge their tremendous currents directly into
the sun, at the same time must cause their similarly electrified
atmospheres to mutually repel each other, while gravity continues
to operate to maintain the earth and moon at their fixed distances
from each other, and to retain their gaseous envelopes around their
own bodies. The result must be that these similarly electrified
atmospheres repel each other with a force proportioned to their masses
of atmosphere and the intensity of the electricities of each. The
moon's axial rotation being completed but once in twenty-eight days,
and that of the earth once in each day, and the moon's mass and volume
being so much less than those of the earth, whatever of electrified air
or moisture she may have (and she must have both, proportionate to her
attributes) would have been driven as by a cyclone to the opposite side
of the moon and there retained. Now, with an atmosphere and water only
on one side of the moon, and that the side opposite the earth, it is
obvious that a rotation on her axis at all resembling that of the earth
would carry every part of her surface, at each complete rotation, from
a region of air and moisture into one deprived of both, and in such
a condition she would of necessity be deprived of both life and its
possibility; hence, as the laws of nature compel the lunar atmosphere
and moisture to reside permanently on the side always opposite the
earth, a co-ordinate arrest of the moon's axial motion with reference
to the earth could alone compensate for such a state of things,
and, curiously enough, we find as a solitary exception, compared
with the planets, that such is the case. The moon unquestionably has
both atmosphere and water on its opposite side. In his recent work,
"In the High Heavens," Professor Ball reviews the physical conditions
of the other planets as possible abodes of life. He pronounces against
the moon because night and day would each be a fortnight in length;
but this is surely no objection, for even in Norway and Greenland such
nights and days are not uncommon at different seasons, and thousands
of human beings, even as at present constituted on earth, spend their
lives there in content and happiness. That the moon also would be
terribly scorched by the long day and frozen by the long night does
not necessarily follow, for the atmosphere of Mars, that author says,
"to a large extent mitigates the fierceness with which the sun's rays
would beat down on the globe if it were devoid of such protection." As
the moon's opposite face must have a double quota both of atmosphere
and clouds, the difficulty will be correspondingly less than on Mars;
and as for the "lightness" of bodies on the moon, they would probably
get along quite as well as mosquitoes and like "birds of prey" in the
marshes along our coasts. The author refers constantly to our bodies;
for example, "Could we live on a planet like Neptune?" No, we could
not; we would be dead before we got there. Nor could we live in the
bark of a tree, or at the bottom of the ocean, or in a globule of
serum; but living beings are found there nevertheless. The principle
is that wherever life is possible there we may expect to find life;
and surely life is, or has been, or will be possible, not only on
the moon, so far as our knowledge of physical conditions can go, but
also on some of the other planets. Of course each planet has its life
stage, but this applies not only to the earth, but to all the other
planets as well, and not only to the planets of our own system, but
to those of all other solar systems. Each has had, or will have, its
stage in which life is possible, and these planets may be like human
habitations, in which whole races at times migrate from one home to
another. There is no conceivable reason why this may not be the general
law of creation, and every analogy leads us to believe that it is so.
It has been recently announced that, from telescopic observations,
the atmosphere of Mars must be at least as attenuated as that among
the highest mountainous regions of the earth, if this planet has any
atmosphere at all. That it must be far less dense than that of the
earth at sea-level is obvious, for the mass and volume of Mars are
very much less than those of our own planet; but that Mars is devoid
of a gaseous envelope or atmosphere is contrary to what we know of all
sidereal physics. The sun, the fixed stars, the comets, the nebulæ,
and even the meteorolithic fragments which fall upon the earth, all
show the same elementary chemical constitution as the earth itself,
and we cannot believe that Mars alone is differently constituted from
every other body we have been able to examine. We have direct evidence,
on this planet, of polar snows and their melting away under the sun's
heat; we see the apparent areas of sea and land; it has its moons as
the earth has hers, and exhibits all the characteristic phenomena of
the earth and other planets. All sidereal bodies that we know of,
except, perhaps, our moon, which exception we have fully accounted
for, are found to be surrounded by gaseous envelopes or atmospheres
of some sort. The sun, the fixed stars, the nuclei of comets, the
condensing nebulæ, the planets Jupiter and the earth, which are
those under our most direct observation, and even the meteorites,
when examined, reveal the presence of many times their own volumes of
independent atmospheric gases; and whatever may be the theory of the
origin or development of Mars, it must have been subjected to the same
influences, the same environment, and the same processes of creation as
those of our solar system generally; and that this body alone should
possess no gaseous envelope--for the denial of atmosphere denies,
at the same time, the presence of any or all surrounding gases--is
quite incredible. Only the most positive, direct, and long-continued
proofs of such fact could be accepted, and even then the history of all
scientific progress shows that what are believed to be facts themselves
fluctuate like fancies till, by their accumulated force, they solidify
into universally accepted demonstration. The fact, moreover, that
the atmospheres of the smaller planets are more attenuated than our
own and those of the larger ones denser has no bearing, in itself,
on the probability of the existence of life on these other planets,
for in our own atmosphere oxygen, which is the efficient element,
is diluted with four times its quantity of inert nitrogen. These
proportions doubtless vary largely in other atmospheres, so that
the oxygen may be much richer in some and far poorer, relatively,
in others. The mere fact that the presence of nitrogen, probably, and
aqueous vapor, certainly, depends on the gravity of the mass of each
planet, while the oxygen is due to electrolytic decomposition induced
by the combined volume, mass, and rotation, and other causes,--such
as the axial inclination of such planets, for example,--renders
these variations in the constitution of planetary atmospheres a
certainty. As Mars has a diameter much more than one-half that of
the earth, and a diurnal rotational period nearly the same, while his
mass, which controls the action of gravity, is only about one-ninth
that of the earth (see Appleton's Cyclopædia), it is obvious that his
oxygen-gathering power, compared with that for accumulating nitrogen
and aqueous vapor, is much higher than that of the earth, and we should
expect to find there an attenuated atmosphere very rich in oxygen,
and with a relatively smaller proportion of aqueous vapor, or even
water, on his surface. Such seem to be the facts as far as observed.
In operating an electric machine the strength of the current is
directly proportionate to the speed of rotation,--that is to say,
to the velocity of the generating surface; for example, of the
Wimshurst induction machine it is stated (page 63, "Electricity
in the Service of Man"), "These four-and-one-half inch discharges
take place in regular succession at every two and a half turns of
the handle." It is also a well-established law of electrolysis that
"The amount of decomposition effected by the current is in proportion
to the current strength." Professor Ferguson ("Electricity," page
225) says of the voltameter, an instrument devised by Faraday,
and used for testing the strength of currents by the proportionate
decomposition of acidulated water, "Mixed gases rise into the tube,
and the quantity of gas given off in a given time measures the
strength of the current." Roughly estimating the diameter of Mars at
five-eighths, the surface velocity at three-fifths, and the mass at
one-ninth those of the earth, this planet should have an atmosphere
containing about sixty per cent. of oxygen and forty of nitrogen, with
a barometric pressure at sea-level of about six and one-half inches of
mercury. This would be an excellent atmosphere,--about equal in its
quota of oxygen for each respiration to that of the higher areas of
Persia, a great country for roses. The aqueous vapors lying low and
near the surface would serve as a vaporous screen to concentrate and
retain the sun's heat and retard radiation from that planet. Nothing
in particular seems to be the matter with Mars.
On the contrary, the mass of Jupiter is so great, and his attraction
of gravity so powerful, that it is only by his exceedingly rapid
diurnal rotation (once in less than ten hours) that it is possible
for him to accumulate any effective percentage of oxygen at all. But
there is certainly plenty of water there.
We may approximately compute, in general terms, the proportion
of oxygen in the atmospheres of the other planets in the same
way. Neptune, it is true, is so far distant from the sun that the
solar orb only "appears about the same magnitude as Venus when at
its greatest brilliancy, as viewed from the earth," but we must not
forget that "the intensity of the sun's light would be more than ten
thousand times greater than that of Venus" (Professor Dunkin, in "The
Midnight Sky"). Unless the moon gathers a portion of the earth's oxygen
(the planetary satellites, like Saturn's rings, thus constituting
in their rotations a constituent part of the planets themselves),
the percentage of this gas in her atmosphere must be exceedingly
small, for her axial rotation has a period of a whole lunar month,
being the same as that of her revolution around the earth as a center.
The absence of apparent atmosphere and moisture from the visible lunar
surface has already been mentioned and explained. The means by which
this fact has been approximately determined are described by Professor
Dunkin, in "The Midnight Sky," as follows: "Among the many proofs of
the non-existence of a lunar atmosphere, it may be mentioned that
no water can be seen; at least there is not a sufficient quantity
in any one spot so as to be visible from the earth. Again, there are
no clouds; for if there were, we should immediately discover them by
the variable light and shade which they would produce. But one great
proof of the absence of any large amount of vapor being suspended over
the lunar surface is the sudden extinction of a star when occulted by
the moon. The author has been a constant observer of these phenomena,
and, though his experience is of long standing, he has never observed
an occultation of a star or planet, especially at the unilluminated
edge of a young moon, without having his conviction confirmed that
there is no appreciable lunar atmosphere.... Professor Challis has
subjected the results of a large number of these observations to a
severe mathematical test, but he has not been able to discover the
slightest trace of any effect produced by a lunar atmosphere."
In Appleton's Cyclopædia, article "The Moon," it is stated that
"Schröter (about 1800) claimed to have discovered indications of
vegetation on the surface of the moon. These consist of certain traces
of a greenish tint which appear and reappear periodically; much as
the white spots covering the polar regions of Mars.... As we are able,
under the most favorable conditions, to use upon the moon telescopic
powers which have the effect of bringing the satellite to within one
hundred and fifty to one hundred and twenty miles of us, we should
doubtless notice any such marked changes on her surface as the passage
of the seasons produces, for example, on our own globe." Very recently
(August 12, 1894), it has been stated, Professor Gathmann has observed
a peculiar green spot about forty by seventy miles in area near the
crater of Tycho Brahe, "on the northwestern edge of the satellite's
upper limb," which had disappeared twenty-two hours afterwards.
We understand, of course, that the moon's librations, by the variation
of position of the lunar body, enable us to see, at times, around
the edge of this satellite somewhat, so that, instead of observing
only one-half, we can in this way see nearly six-tenths of her
surface, but not at the same time, of course. When the moon is dark
it occupies a position between the earth and the sun, and only its
opposite face is illuminated. In this position the attraction of
solar gravity and the attraction of the electrically opposite solar
electrosphere both accumulate their forces upon the moon's atmosphere
in the same line as the repulsion of the earth's similar electricity,
so that the lunar moisture and atmosphere are, at this part of her
subordinate orbit, most powerfully forced away from the direction
of the earth. As the moon now proceeds towards her first quarter,
the terrestrial repulsion drives her atmosphere radially outward,
while solar gravity and electrical attraction tend to hold it in the
direction of the sun. The result will be an electrospheric libration,
so to speak, and the moon's atmosphere and moisture will be carried
around towards its illuminated face and, to some extent, will overlap
the area of terrestrial repulsion. But as the moon advances this will
gradually diminish, soon cease, and finally be reversed as it again
approaches darkness. We can now understand why the green surface, if
it really was due to vegetation, appeared along the lunar margin at
the time described above, and also that the observation of planetary
occultations "at the unilluminated edge of the young moon" was the
very worst part of the moon and its orbit in which to look for air
or moisture; as the sun's influence is then directly away from the
unilluminated surface of the moon, and his "pull" would have, in fact,
still further denuded the very portion most persistently examined,
and where this absence of atmosphere was especially noted.
When considering the transference of energy from the peripheral
regions of the solar system to the center, its conversion there into
a new form of molecular force, and its subsequent distribution, we
find a curious and instructive parallel in the action of the reflex
nervous system of animal life. This system is one in which the brain
or other conscious center of nerve-energy takes no part. Tickle
the foot of a child, for example, and its whole muscular system is
thrown into uncontrollable convulsions of laughter. Here an exciting
contact with the terminal filaments of the afferent or sensory nerves
is rapidly carried into the local nerve-center of this part of the
system,--that is, the sensory column of the spinal cord. This center
of ganglionic nerve-matter lies directly against the corresponding
motor mass, both freely communicating with each other. The sensory
current passing into its central ganglion undergoes some peculiar
change of character, probably one of intensification, such as is
observed in the action of the condenser of an electrical machine,
through which sensory ganglion, thus raised in potential, it passes to
the motor ganglion adjacent, where it is instantly transformed into
an entirely different form of energy. The sensory character has now
entirely disappeared, and it has been converted into and is flashed
forth as motor energy to the different muscles of the body, which are
immediately contracted, the violent molecular motion of the fibres
being at once converted into muscular motion in mass. The changes are
entirely analogous to those we see in the different conversions of
energy in our solar system. Considering the surface of the body as a
planetary electrosphere, it is acted upon by excitation from without;
currents of energy are engendered, which are at once transmitted to
the sensory ganglion, corresponding to the hydrogen atmosphere or
electrosphere of the sun; intensification of action here ensues, the
current passing through this ganglion or atmosphere into the solar body
itself, which corresponds to the motor ganglion; both ganglia are now
highly excited; the electrical force is converted into the radiant
molecular motor energy of heat and light in the sun and muscular
excitement in the body, and these are flashed forth and find scope
for their action within the body of the subject or upon the surface
of the planets, which lie, like the muscular structure of the body,
within the genetic electrosphere where, acted upon from without and
by agencies entirely external, moving contact has induced the primary
molecular action, which was then instantaneously transferred to the
center, there converted into another form, that of motor energy,
and thence sent forth to produce action in the muscles of the body
in the one case, and in the other upon the planetary bodies and their
satellites and other structures which occupy surrounding space.
CHAPTER V.
THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONSERVATION OF SOLAR ENERGY.
What, then, becomes of the light and heat flashed forth with
eternal energy from the fiery waves of the sun's incandescent
atmosphere? Professor Ball ("In the High Heavens") says, "Much
of what has been said with regard to light may be repeated with
regard to heat. We know that radiant heat consists of ethereal
undulations of the same character as the waves of light. Hence we
see that the heat or the light radiated from a glowing gas is mainly
provided at the expense of the energy possessed by the molecules
in virtue of their internal oscillations." Conversely, of course,
the ethereal undulations thus induced by high molecular motion in
the heated gas or vapor must disappear in so-called absorption or
transference by contact with other molecules, themselves devoid of
such specific internal oscillations. The heat motion then disappears
as heat by its conversion into work, just as the motion of a belt
in a mill disappears in the work of the machine which it drives. One
two-hundred-and-thirty-two-millionth part of the radiant solar energy,
we know, is caught by the flying planets of our system in the forms of
heat and light, adapted to sustain life and its continued potentiality,
and we know that this solar energy is the sole source of all the
development and maintenance of the planets as the possible abodes of
organic life, past, present or future.
But what of the vast total, of which we consume so minute a
fraction? It is true that, in addition to the planets, space is
occupied by many small meteoric bodies, which manifest themselves to us
as shooting stars and meteorites, but the mass of these is too trifling
to be estimated. Professor Helmholtz, in his "Popular Scientific
Lectures," says, "According to Alexander Herschel's estimates, each
stone is, on an average, at a distance of four hundred and fifty miles
from its neighbors." When these bodies enter our atmosphere by force of
the earth's attraction they are heated by its atmospheric friction to
incandescence, and in most cases are even volatilized before reaching
the earth's surface. The vast volumes of solar heat and light, however,
are poured forth from the sun indiscriminately in all directions into
illimitable space, wherein all the masses of concrete matter, including
the stars, are relatively far less in volume than the flying motes of
the purest morning air which sparkle in the flood of light sent forth
by the rising sun. Is all the rest wasted? Professor Balfour Stewart,
in his work "The Conservation of Energy," says, "If this be the fate of
the high-temperature energy of the universe, let us think for a moment
what will happen to its visible energy. We have spoken already about
a medium pervading space, the office of which appears to be to degrade
and ultimately extinguish all differential motion, just as it tends to
reduce and ultimately equalize all difference in temperature. Thus,
the universe would ultimately become an equally heated mass, utterly
worthless as far as the production of work is concerned, since such
production depends upon difference of temperature."
It is obvious that the starting-point taken by the author last
quoted, but which, nevertheless, is in accordance with the views
now generally prevalent, is diametrically opposed to that sought
to be established in this work. Professor Stewart takes the sun's
inherent energy as the initial point of departure, and reasons from
that as to the final consequence when all its light and heat shall
have been distributed or dissipated into the attenuated medium which
occupies space, and which will be thus slowly heated until all space
has been raised in temperature to that of the last dying sun, when
all will thenceforth remain unchanged and unchangeable, silent, dark,
and dead, to all eternity. On the contrary, the purpose of the present
work is to establish a directly opposite principle, based, however, on
demonstrated scientific facts and not on theory, that the medium which
pervades all space was originally in the same equally and universally
potential state (with its molecules raised to a tension constituting
an unstable equilibrium) in which, practically, Professor Stewart's
argument leaves it finally, and that this universal molecular energy
of position was permanently maintained by the employment of the forces
which afterwards, transformed into light and heat, were shed abroad
by the sun in the work of again overcoming the intermolecular tension
of cohesion, and that the light and heat of the sun are merely caught
up again by these same or other molecules and successively employed in
the same manner, while the planetary electrospheres utilize these same
forces of internal tension in the generation of electricity, which,
sent to the sun, is converted into light and heat, and these are again
transferred to their original source. The rotation of the planets is
the grand exciting cause, and the process, in its complete cycle of
development, has live stages: first, planetary generation; second,
transference by currents of electricity to the sun; third, conversion
into light and heat; fourth, emission; and, fifth, reabsorption and
conversion again into molecular energy of position. All space is thus
found to be pervaded by extremely attenuated vapors, which contain
the elemental constituents out of which suns and planets are evolved
under favorable circumstances of development, and, among other vapors,
aqueous vapor, and that these are the agency upon which the planetary
electrospheres operate in their generation of electrical currents, and
which vapors, in turn, by absorption of the solar energy of radiation,
again transform this energy into mutually balanced electric potential,
until it is once more disengaged as electricity by the rotating
planetary electrospheres, and so on in a constant circuit forever
repeated. It differs from perpetual motion, however, in that the
planetary rotation is the external and not the internal generative
cause, since the electrical forces neither cause nor control these
motions; they belong to the realm of gravity. The disassociation,
moreover, is electrical and not chemical disassociation. The tensions
are against cohesion and not against chemical affinity; are, in fact,
similar to those which constitute our atmosphere a vast electrical
reservoir; and the aqueous vapors, through all their changes,
permanently remain as aqueous vapors, except those condensed portions
disassociated by electrolytic action at the electrospheric poles, and
which have no relation to the attenuated vapors of space, except in
that the latter are their sources of supply. The process is analogous
to what we see around us at all times in the atmosphere. While the
process described by Professor Stewart resembles the emptying of the
inherent water of a cloud, in the form of rain, into an ocean which
never yields up its water again, so that, when the cloud has rained
itself out, it is gone forever, the processes here sketched are like
the vapors which are caught up by the heated air, carried over the
thirsty lands, distributed in rain to fertilize and vivify them,
then gathered in a thousand tiny rills from countless fountains,
again descending to the sea and again carried up in vapor, and so on
over and over in unceasing round. It is the difference between an
old-fashioned flintlock musket and a modern magazine rifle, except
that the magazine is always full.
This great ocean of space was primordially charged with these
potential vapors; it is the constitution of space itself. We are so
accustomed to consider space as empty, and that it is nothingness,
the antithesis of something or anything, that it is a negation or
a blank, that it requires an effort to even think of it as a fully
stocked establishment with all the goods necessary for use or ornament,
in the latest styles and of prime quality, only not made up, and that
all our suns and worlds are merely tailoring establishments where
the operatives cut and fit and make them up to order. When more goods
are wanted they have to go to the store.
Is space, then, eternal, and is this constant round of energies to
be eternal? If one is eternal, so is the other, and surely nothing
can be more eternal than space, and we cannot conceive of any
other space than this space. Out of it came all created things,
and so long as the orbs rotate without retardation, so long will
these interchanges go on without impairment, and that they do so
rotate is the necessary corollary of the fact that they ever began
to rotate. If rotation, on the contrary, was imparted by special
creative power, then the same power established the laws by which
they rotate, and took cognizance of resistance as well. Whatever the
impulse was, it still remains; whatever caused the rotation to begin
maintains it; if the cause is eternal the rotation may be eternal;
and, in any case, its period must be measured by cycles of æons,
to which the allotted lifetime of a dying sun--a few million years,
perhaps--is but as the sunburst of a morning-glory flower to the
hoary age of a mighty planet. Compared with the popular view of the
sun's life-period, we may formulate the terms of an equation in which
the sun's mass, compared with the realms of infinite space, is as
the sun's lifetime--on a basis of contraction of his volume--to the
lifetime which actually is to be. As one of the terms is practically
infinite, so must be the answer to the problem. Professor Stewart says,
"We cannot help believing that there is a material medium of some
kind between the sun and the earth; indeed, the undulatory theory
of light requires this belief." It has already been shown that the
transmission of electricity also requires it, but that there must be
a medium quite different from the undulatory ether. Professor Proctor
("Mysteries of Time and Space") says, "We may admit the possibility
that the aqueous vapor and carbon compounds are present in stellar
or interplanetary space." Again he says, "Assuming, as we well may,
that space is really occupied by attenuated vapors." The same writer
says further, "To this end all thoughtful study of the mechanism
seems to tend (associating, perhaps, our visible universe with others,
permeating it as the ether of space permeates the densest solids, and
in turn with others so permeated by it); there may be that constant
interchange, that perpetual harmony, of which Goethe sung:
'Balanced worlds from change defending,
While everywhere diffused is harmony unending.'"
The light and heat poured forth from the sun are, as stated, in
the form of radiated energy. They penetrate the attenuated vapors
as far as vision extends, and doubtless farther, but they cannot
reach the boundaries of space, for even the mind of man cannot reach
those limits. Aqueous vapor absorbs heat; we know this without any
demonstration, for the radiated heat of the earth is arrested by
a veil of clouds, so that on cloudy nights frost will not form. So
also the sun shining into water will raise its temperature, as in
a glass globe, and such absorption of heat by aqueous vapors or
water would be much more manifest were not a large part employed in
loosening the tension of the constituent molecules, since, when thus
employed, it is not manifest as sensible heat. Professor Tyndall, in
"The Forms of Water," states that "The quantity of heat which would
raise the temperature of a pound of water one degree would raise the
temperature of a pound of iron ten degrees." Professor Stewart, in
"The Conservation of Energy," says, "That peculiar motion which is
imparted by heat when absorbed into a body is, therefore, one variety
of molecular energy.... Part of the energy of absorbed heat is spent in
pulling asunder the molecules of the body under the attractive force
which binds them together, and thus a store of energy of position is
laid up, which disappears again after the body is cooled.
"Heat will only be changed into work while it passes from a body of
high temperature to one of low.... At very high temperatures it is
possible that most compounds are decomposed, and the temperature
at which this takes place, for any compound, has been termed its
temperature of disassociation. Heat energy is changed into electrical
separation when tourmalines and certain other crystals are heated." It
may be added that it is also changed into electrical energy by the
operation of all electrical machines, as molecular motions are all
mutually interconvertible, and heat itself is only a mode of such
motion. Of radiant energy, the same writer says, "This form of energy
[radiant heat] is converted into absorbed heat whenever it falls upon
an opaque substance ... and heats it. It is a curious question to ask
what becomes of the radiant light from the sun that is not absorbed
either by the planets of our system or by any of the stars. We can
only reply to such a question that, as far as we can judge from
our present knowledge, the radiant energy that is not absorbed must
be conceived to be traversing space at the rate of one hundred and
eighty-eight thousand miles a second."
We know, of course, that aqueous vapors are partially opaque to heat
rays, as the radiated heat of the earth is partially arrested by
such vapors in the atmosphere, but they are apparently transparent to
the rays of light. But we know that this cannot be entirely true in
fact, for light rays only differ from heat rays in the comparative
length of their waves or impulses, while rays of light are always
accompanied--when emitted by a thermally incandescent body--by a much
larger number of those of heat. As a body is raised in temperature
radiant dark rays first appear; these being raised higher, become
visible as light, and new dark rays are radiated behind them, and this
continues till after the state of highest incandescence is reached
and the invisible chemical rays beyond the spectrum appear. It is
like a crowd surging forth in flight from the doors of a building;
as the speed of those in front increases to a run, others follow more
slowly in the mass, and as these gain speed others continue to follow,
while the great mass of laggards still trails along in a lengthening
line to the rear. The perception of light is itself merely due to the
constitution of the optic apparatus of the observer, which only takes
cognizance of vibrations radiated from the middle portion of the scale,
just as the ear does with sounds, and not to any actual difference in
their mode of production. That heat rays and light rays are identical
in constitution can be readily shown by the experiment described by
Professor Tyndall in his "Forms of Water," in which an opaque screen
of iodine solution in bisulphide of carbon was employed to arrest, in
a beam of light, all the light waves (to which it is entirely opaque),
while transmitting the dark rays. These non-luminous rays are then
converged by a lens: "Let us, then, by means of our opaque solution,
isolate our dark waves and converge them on the cotton. It explodes
as before.... At the same dark focus sheets of platinum are raised
to vivid redness; ... a diamond is caused to glow like a star, being
afterwards gradually dissipated." Sir William Herschel (see article
"Spectrum," Appleton's Cyclopædia) says, "If we call light those rays
which illuminate objects, and radiant heat those which heat bodies,
it may be inquired whether light be essentially different from radiant
heat. In answer to which I would suggest that we are not allowed by the
rules of philosophizing to admit of two different causes to explain
certain effects, if they may be accounted for by one."... "Tyndall,
by similar experiments, found that the thermal energy of the invisible
radiation of a very powerful electric light is eight times that of
the visible.... Seebeck showed that the position of maximum heat
in the spectrum changes with the nature of the prism and sometimes
occurs in the red." Melconi, with prisms of alcohol and water, found
it in the yellow. Athermic bands are also found in the heat-spectrum,
corresponding to the Fraunhofer lines seen in the visible spectrum.
We may illustrate this successive development of more and more rapid
light-waves by conceiving of a harp having musical strings of various
length and thickness, but not strung up, so that, when swept by the
hand, the vibrations are felt, but no musical tones are produced. If,
now, all the strings are simultaneously and gradually stretched
while under continuous vibration, we will first hear the hum of
the lighter strings, but deep down in the scale; and as the tension
gradually increases the pitch of these will rise higher and higher
and be succeeded by other new tones below, until the whole register
is simultaneously sounded. And if the tension be further increased,
the vibrations of the upper strings will gradually grow so rapid
that the ear can take no cognizance of them, corresponding to the
invisible chemical rays of the spectrum, while the middle strings
will be sounding loudly, and others will be slowly vibrating below the
musical scale, but without sound, corresponding to the invisible heat
rays. In addition to this gradual ascent of pitch along the scale,
however, there is reason to believe that sympathetic vibrations are
induced in the spectrum of thermal and chemical light corresponding to
the over-tones in music and to those hidden rhythms which differentiate
the "timbre" of one kind of musical instrument from that of another,
so that a definite wave-length will not only repeat itself among
adjacent molecules, but will give rise to harmonious vibrations
quite different in amplitude and velocity. An example of this is
found in some of the phenomena of phosphorescence and fluorescence,
in which chemical rays totally invisible are able, under suitable
conditions, to excite molecular movements corresponding to parts
of the visible spectrum, and quite different in wave-lengths and
in rapidity. This process is precisely the converse of what we
perceive in thermal light; in the latter case the colors ascend,
loaded with invisible heat rays; in the former they descend, loaded
with invisible chemical rays, only noted, perhaps, by their actinic
action on the photographic plate. Others, as the sulphide of calcium
paints and the like, repeat their own vibrations for many hours, and
we find in certain chemical salts of some rare metals, as lanthanum
and cerium, the curious property of suddenly raising the whole scale,
as in a recently introduced gas-lamp, in which a skeleton mantle of
these oxides glows with a wondrously beautiful white light under the
relatively low temperature of a small Bunsen burner; similar phenomena
are manifested in the behavior of electric discharges in attenuated
gases, as well as in what is known to children as "fox-fire," wood
undergoing slow decomposition in damp places, or in the self-luminous
secretions (corresponding, perhaps, to ptomaines or like products)
of glow-worms and other animals. If we ever--as we probably soon
shall--reach that point where we can illuminate our dwellings with
"cold candles," as the inhabitants of tropical countries carry about a
few fire-flies in a paper box for a lantern on dark nights, it must be
by the study of these phenomena. But meantime "Old Sol" will continue
to discharge his accumulating stores of both heat and light, for both
these are essential, not only for use upon the planets, but throughout
all the realms of space. In the transformation into and emission of
his radiant energy the sun is not a chemical engine, but a mill,--one
of those which "grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small."
The difference between radiated thermal light and heat is obviously
one of degree only and not of kind. The undulations of light may
be compared to the thrust of a rapier, and the more massive waves
of radiant heat to the blow of a bludgeon, but the same resistance
which arrests the advance of the one must retard and finally arrest
that of the other, if sufficiently extended. Within the limits of
a space in which Professor Stewart conceives that the first rays of
light which ever flashed forth at the dawn of creation, in the primal
æons of the universe, are still to this day, along their original
lines of radiation, "traversing space at the rate of one hundred
and eighty-eight thousand miles per second," there must certainly
be room enough and absorption enough (which even a few yards of mist
will supply) to curb these runaway steeds somewhere along their lines
of flaming passage. At that very point they are at work acting upon
the molecules of the attenuated vapors of space, and assisting to
re-establish the potential energy which has there been converted, into
another form of force by the planetary rotations of the solar systems
of those distant regions. By the law of the diffusion of gases, and
that of the diffusion or transference of heat-energy from molecule
to molecule, the vast realms of interstellar space must tend to be
all brought into approximate uniformity of tensions, and the force
abstracted at those points of space occupied by the relatively few
and insignificant solar systems will be returned, not directly at
the identical places where such solar systems may exist, but at every
part of space to which their radiant energy extends. As we give from
our own supplies to other systems for their support, so they, in turn,
give back again to us. It is said that in the earliest days of creation
the stars sang together; they still sing together, planets and suns, as
"Jura answers from her misty shroud
Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud."
When old Earth lifts his brimming beaker from the great crystal sea
and drains it to the good health of all the stars of heaven, they each
respond with fiery energy, and by their merry twinkle we may know
how highly they appreciate the toast. We are all one family,--but
what a family! Comets, planets, double stars, variable stars, stars
of complementary colors, blue, yellow, orange, and red stars, stars
which blaze up in sudden conflagration, apparently new stars, nebulæ
half star and half vapor, nebulæ all vapor and others all stars, the
vast milky-way like a wondrous river of hundreds of millions of solar
systems, the insulated stars scattered through space like watchmen
on the distant hills beyond the city walls, streams of stars, stars
which are parting from each other in space like scattering families,
and those which travel together in groups like pioneers in a strange
country,--all these and doubtless other unknown types and forms
compose this sidereal family. Will they fall into their categories as
lawful subjects, so as to be properly classified in a single scheme
of the visible order of creation, or shall we fail to interpret their
apparent mysteries when we apply the same principles which have been
successfully applied to the phenomena of our own solar system? Let
us see.
In examining the sun, we find that a beam of its light passed
through a prism is thrown upon the wall in a wedge-shaped streak of
rainbow-tinted colors. Fraunhofer, many years ago, found that this
spectrum was crossed at irregular intervals by a series of dark lines,
of variable width and distance apart, of which he catalogued more
than five hundred. These lines were subsequently found to correspond
in the aggregate, in their position in the spectrum, with a series of
bright lines of different colors which formed the separate spectra
of various metals when burned, in vapor or powder, in the flame of
an alcohol lamp. Each of these transverse lines was found to have a
fixed and invariable position in the extended scale of the spectrum,
and scarcely any lines of the different elements are alike; so that,
when the spectrum is properly magnified under telescopic observation
and the lines identified, we have the means of determining the
presence or absence of such elements in the vaporous constitution
of any incandescent body by examination of its spectrum. In this way
many of our terrestrial elements are found to exist in the sun,--so
many, in fact, that we know that the sun's nucleus, or core, must
be composed substantially of the same elements, the same sort of
matter, as exists on earth,--that we are, in fact, "a chip of the
old block." But it was found--and this is the real basis of spectrum
analysis--that if a certain metal or other element be burned in the
flame of an alcohol lamp, and a more brilliant flame of the same metal
or element burned in another lamp be observed through the first flame,
it will be seen that, "while the general illumination of the spectrum
is increased, the previous bright lines characterizing the element
are now replaced by dark lines or lines relatively very faint; in
a word, the spectrum characteristic of the given element is exactly
reversed" (Appleton's Cyclopædia, article "Spectrum Analysis"). We have
referred to this fact above in considering the origin of sun-spots,
showing that they are due to increased heat acting upon the core of
the sun so as to volatilize an abnormally large proportion of the
elements usually in a more condensed state upon the surface of the
solar body beneath its hydrogen envelope. These vapors, thus raised
in temperature, are driven upward by their volatilization into the
incandescent atmosphere of hydrogen, and the vaporous matters in the
higher strata thus produce the characteristic absorption bands of
these elements, while the overheated vapors, by a vast uprush from
beneath, hurl aside the more highly heated hydrogen above to appear
as faculæ around the sun-spot, the cooler upper layers of hydrogen
following downward the subsiding vaporous metallic uprush as it sinks
back beneath the photospheric level.
It is obvious that by similar spectrum analysis we may determine
to a large extent the constitution of the fixed stars and other
self-luminous bodies of space and interpret the phenomena which they
exhibit. We quote the following from the previously cited article
in Appleton's Cyclopædia, by Professor Proctor: "Spectroscopic
analysis applied to the stars has shown that they resemble the sun in
general constitution and condition. But characteristic differences
exist, insomuch that the stars have been divided into four orders
distinguished by their spectra. These are thus presented by Secchi,
who examined more than five hundred star spectra: The first type is
represented by Alpha Lyræ, Sirius, etc., and includes most of the
stars shining with a white light, as Altair, Regulus, Rigel, the
stars Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, Zeta, and Eta of Ursa Major, etc. These
give a spectrum showing all the seven colors, and crossed usually
by many lines, but always by the four lines of hydrogen, very dark
and strong. The breadth of these four lines indicates a very deep,
absorptive stratum at a high temperature and at great pressure. Nearly
half the stars observed by Secchi [more than two hundred out of five
hundred] showed this spectrum. The second type includes most of the
yellow stars, as Capella, Pollux, Arcturus, Aldebaran, Alpha of Ursa
Major, Procyon, etc. The Fraunhofer lines are well seen in the red
and blue, but not so well in the yellow. The resemblance of this
spectrum to the sun suggests that stars of this type resemble the
sun closely in physical constitution and condition. About one-third
of the stars observed by Secchi [more than one hundred and fifty
out of five hundred] showed this spectrum. The third type includes
Antares, Alpha of Orion, and Alpha of Hercules, Beta of Pegasus,
Mira, and most of the stars shining with a red light. The spectra
show bands of lines; according to Secchi, there are shaded bands,
but a more powerful spectroscope shows multitudes of fine lines. The
spectra resemble somewhat the spectrum of a sun-spot, and Secchi has
advanced the theory that these stars are covered in great part by
spots like those of the sun. About one hundred [out of five hundred]
of the observed stars belong to this type." (It should be noted that
the presence of sun-spots is no evidence of diminished heat in a sun;
see Professor Proctor in his "Myths and Marvels of Astronomy," article
"Suns in Flames:" "It may be noticed, in passing, that it is by no
means certain that the time when the sun is most spotted is the time
when he gives out least light.... All the evidence we have tends to
show that when the sun is most spotted his energies are most active. It
is then that the colored flames leap to their greatest height and show
their greatest brilliancy, then also that they show the most rapid and
remarkable changes of shape.") ... "The fourth type differs from the
preceding in the arrangement and appearance of the bands. It includes
only faint stars. A few stars, as Gamma of Cassiopeia, Eta of Argus,
Beta of Lyra, etc., show the lines of hydrogen bright instead of dark,
as though surrounded by hydrogen glowing with a heat more intense
than that of the central orb itself around which the hydrogen exists."
All the above five hundred stars reveal the presence of hydrogen under
precisely such conditions as conform to the general principle involved
in the source and mode of solar energy as herein stated. But a single
star (Betelgeuse) was observed by Huggins and Miller in England which
showed the lines of sodium, magnesium, iron, bismuth, and calcium,
"but found those of hydrogen wanting." Of the spectrum of this gas,
Professor Ball says, "The hydrogen spectrum appears to present a
simplicity not found in the spectrum of any other gas, and therefore
it is with great interest that we examine the spectra of the white
stars, in which the dark lines of hydrogen are unusually strong and
broad." Referring to the new star in the Northern Crown, which burst
forth in 1866, the same writer says, "The feature which made the
spectrum of the new star essentially distinct from that of any other
star that had been previously observed was the presence of certain
bright lines superposed on a spectrum with dark lines of one of the
ordinary types. The position of certain of these lines showed that
one of the luminous gases must be hydrogen." Of this particular star
(Betelgeuse) it is said (Proctor's "Familiar Essays"), "Red stars
and variable stars affect the neighborhood of the Milky Way or of
well-marked star-streams. The constellation Orion is singularly rich
in objects of this class. It is here that the strange 'variable'
Betelgeuse lies. At present this star shows no sign of variation,
but a few years ago it exhibited remarkable changes." We thus see
that Betelgeuse is a variable star, and it must have passed in its
different variations between the limits of extreme brilliancy, in which
the lines of hydrogen appear bright, and that of a less brilliant
stage, in which they appear dark,--that is, as absorption bands. It
has thus, in fact, run the gamut, so to speak, of color changes, and
now occupies an intermediate position in the scale. In his article
"Star unto Star," the same writer says, "On this view we may fairly
assume that the darkness of the hydrogen lines is a characteristic
of stars at a much higher temperature than our sun and suns of the
same class." We have already seen that the spectra of stars of the
fourth type--Appleton's Cyclopædia, "Spectrum Analysis"--"show the
lines of hydrogen bright instead of dark, as though surrounded by
hydrogen glowing with a heat more intense than that of the central
orb itself." Professor Dunkin says, in his work "The Midnight Sky,"
"One of the conclusions drawn by Kirchhoff from these experiments
is that each incandescent gas weakens, by absorption, rays of the
same degree of refrangibility as those it emits; or, in other words,
that the spectrum of each incandescent gas is reversed when this gas
is traversed by rays of the same refrangibility emanating from an
intensely luminous source which gives of itself a continuous spectrum
like that of the sun." ... "The third division, including Betelgeuse,
Antares, Alpha Herculis, and others of like color, seems to be
affected by something peculiar in their physical composition, as if
their photospheres contained a quantity of gas at a lower temperature
than usual. The stars in this class have generally a ruddy tint,
probably owing to their light having undergone some modification
while passing through an absorbing atmosphere.... A great number of
the stars in the third division are variable in their lustre." We may
therefore readily conclude that midway between the inverted lines which
constitute the dark absorption bands and the faint spectra which show
the bright lines of hydrogen direct there must be an atmosphere of
glowing hydrogen superposed upon a deeper one in such proportion that
it will not reveal its presence in the spectroscope at all; for when
the dark and light bands, which occupy precisely the same position in
the spectrum, are of approximately equal intensity the result will
obviously be the neutralization of both. That among a myriad suns,
some with dark hydrogen lines and some with bright, there should occur
occasionally an example corresponding to this point of divergence,
and especially among variable stars, is not only to be expected, but
is, in fact, confirmatory of the general hypothesis itself. It is an
exception which emphatically proves the rule, when we can trace the
operative cause which has produced it.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PHENOMENA OF THE STARS.
Let us now consider the phenomena of the double stars. These
were formerly believed to be single orbs, but the more powerful
telescopes of recent years have shown them to consist of two suns,
each substantially similar to our own sun, revolving around each
other at a relatively small distance apart. In Appleton's Cyclopædia,
article "Star," we read, "It is noteworthy that few simple stars
show such colors as blue, green, violet, or indigo; but among double
and multiple star systems not only are these colors recognized, but
such colors as lilac, olive, gray, russet, and so on. A beautiful
feature in many double stars remains to be noticed: it is often found
that the components exhibit complementary colors. This is oftener
seen among unequal doubles, and then the larger component shows a
color from the red end of the spectrum, as red, orange, or yellow,
while the smaller shows the corresponding color from the blue end,
as green, blue, or purple. The colors are real, not merely the result
of contrast, for when the larger star is concealed the color of the
smaller remains (in most cases) unchanged. Spectrum analysis shows
that the colors of many double stars are due to the absorptive vapors
cutting off certain portions of the light.... The components are
circling around each other, or rather around their common center of
gravity." Professor Ball, in his work "In the High Heavens," says,
"There is no more pleasing phenomenon in sidereal astronomy than
that presented by the contrasted hues often exhibited by double
stars.... It seemed not at all impossible that there might be some
optical explanation of colors so vividly contrasted emanating from
points so contiguous. It was also remembered that blue stars were
generally only present as one member of an associated pair.... When,
however, Dr. Huggins showed that the actual spectrum of the object
demonstrated that the cause of the color in each star arose from
absorption by its peculiar atmosphere, it became impossible to doubt
the reality of the phenomena. Since then it has been for physicists
to explain why two closely neighboring stars should differ so widely
in their atmospheric constituents, for it can be no longer contended
that their beautiful hues arise from an optical illusion."
Of these double stars with complementary colors we quote the following
from Professor Dunkin (who, in turn, quotes from Admiral Smyth, the
author of "Sidereal Chromatics"): "In Eta Cassiopeiæ the large star
is a dull white and the smaller one lilac; in Gamma Andromedæ, a deep
yellow and sea-green; in Iota Cancri, a dusky orange and a sapphire
blue; in Delta Corvi, a bright yellow and purple; and in Albiero,
or Beta Cygni, yellow and blue. In most of the remaining stars of
the list the contrasting colors are equally marked, and also in many
others which are not included in it." Some of these double stars are
variable in their colors, as are the ordinary single variables, and,
of course, for a similar reason,--to wit, the varying intensity of
more or less cumulative planetary impacts.
The interpretation, of course, as explained below, is that these suns,
each one of different mass and consequently of different electrical
resistance, are arranged in parallel circuit along a single line of
electric current; a pair of different-sized arc or incandescent lamps,
similarly arranged, would exhibit precisely the same phenomena. A
compound solar system of this sort, apparently, with double sun and
single planetary system in process of formation, nearly completed
from a spiral nebula, is shown in a gaseous nebula within the
constellation Ursa Minor, illustrated in Lord Rosse's drawing (see
Nichols "Architecture of the Heavens," Plate X., lower figure).
More than three thousand of these binary stars have been catalogued,
and some of them make a complete revolution about their common
centers of gravity--so distant are they from each other--in periods
of not less than sixty, or even eighty, years. Of the double star
Mizar,--the middle one of the three which form the tail of the Great
Bear,--Professor Ball states that, by new methods of spectroscopic
analysis, the component stars which form this double have been found
to be one hundred and fifty millions of miles apart, while Alcor, a
smaller star, visible to the naked eye, and enormously farther from
Mizar than are the components of the latter from each other, moves
through space in a parallel direction and with the same velocity as
its double companion. What the connection may be, if any, we do not
know, but their identical course is obviously related to some common
circumstance of origin, as is the probable case with those other
groups of stars which drift through space together. They show that
solar systems are not necessarily individual creations, but may be
formed in groups at the same period of time, and by the operation of
natural laws simultaneously directed upon or into the creative matter
from which solar systems are built up and sent along their way. It
has been already shown that our sun has a motion around the center
of gravity of our own solar system, as a whole, similar to that of
the binary stars around each other, but that, by reason of his vast
relative mass (seven hundred and fifty to one for all the planets),
this center is always within the confines of his own volume. If,
however, our sun were divided into two suns one, two, or five million
miles apart, each revolving around a common center of gravity situated
between the two, and the planets revolving around the same center
of gravity, but relatively more distant, the planets would thus
rotate around both suns as a common center, and with the electric
polarity of both suns the same, as must necessarily be the case,
they would present phenomena precisely similar to those exhibited by
the double stars. And such might very easily be the case in even a
system so small as our own, for the planet Mercury has so elliptical
an orbit that its distance from the sun varies in different parts
of its annual movement from twenty-eight to forty-five millions
of miles. There would then be mutual electric repulsion of the two
solar electrospheres, such as we see in the case of comets and in
the sun's corona and long streamers. Professor Proctor, article
"The Sun's Long Streamers," says, "These singular appendages, like
the streamers seen by Professor Abbe, extend directly from the sun,
as if he exerted some repellent action.... I cannot but think that
the true explanation of these streamers, whatever it may be (I am not
in the least prepared to say what it is), will be found whensoever
astronomers have found an explanation of comets' tails.... Whether
the repulsive force is electrical, magnetic, or otherwise, does not
at present concern us, or rather does concern us, but at present we
are quite unable to answer the question." A similar example is to
be found in the self-repellent positive electrospheres of the earth
and moon, illustrated on a previous page, which, in fact, are types
among planets of precisely what we find in double stars. Now, if
these double central suns, with a common system of planets revolving
around them both, differ one from the other in size, they will differ
also in the depth and density of their hydrogen atmospheres, and the
electric forces directed against them will produce different results
in each. In one we will have high temperature, great volatilization,
and wide absorption bands; in the other, a shallow atmosphere,
a temperature below that of an extensive volatilization of its
metallic components, and a spectrum rich in light at the blue end,
while the former one will be correspondingly richer in the yellow
and red rays at the opposite and lower end of the spectrum. One,
in fact, will manifest the phenomena of blue-white stars, the other,
those of orange-red, but variously modified in a chromatic series. The
case may be extended to multiple stars, and complementary colors,
more or less perfect, may be almost predicated as the law of compound
solar bodies having cores like that of our sun, but each of different
mass, and surrounded by hydrogen atmospheres of different depths and
densities, both acted upon by the same exterior planetary electrical
currents. It is certainly true of double stars, and probably so of all
the others. Of course such enormously massive double suns presuppose
enormous planets, rotating around them at enormous distances; but
when we compare the distance of our own satellite, the moon, from
the earth with the distance of Neptune from the sun, and consider
that the light of the sun will reach Neptune in about four hours, and
then compare this distance with the inconceivable distances of space
requisite to retard and merge all radiant energy into the diffused
molecular energy of position, our wonder will cease.
We have also to consider those single stars which (see Appleton's
Cyclopædia, article "Star") are variable in their brilliancy. "These
stars may be divided into periodic variables, irregular variables,
and temporary stars. Periodic variable stars are those which undergo
increase and diminution of light at regular intervals. Thus, the
star Mira, or Omicron of Cetus, varies in lustre, in a period of
three hundred and thirty-one and one-third days, from the second
magnitude to a faintness such that the star can only be seen with
a powerful telescope, and thence to the second magnitude again. It
shines for about a fortnight as a star of the second magnitude,
and then remains invisible for five months, the decrease of lustre
occupying about three months, the increase about seven weeks. Such
is the general course of its phases. It does not always, however,
return to the same degree of brightness, nor increase and diminish
by the same gradations; neither are the successive intervals of its
maxima equal. From recent observations and inquiries into its history,
the mean period would appear to be subject to a cyclical fluctuation
embracing eighty-eight such periods, and having the effect of gradually
lengthening and shortening alternately those intervals to the extent
of twenty-five days one way and the other. The irregularities in
the degree of brightness attained at the maximum are probably also
periodical.... It suggests a probable explanation of these changes of
brightness, that when the star is near its minimum, its color changes
from white to a full red, which, from what we know of the spectra of
colored stars, seems to indicate that the loss of brightness is due
to the formation of many spots over the surface of this distant sun.
"Algol is another remarkable variable, passing, however, much more
rapidly through all its changes. It is ordinarily a second-magnitude
star, but during about seven hours in each period of sixty-nine hours
its lustre first diminishes until the star is reduced to a fourth
magnitude, and after it has remained twenty minutes at its minimum its
lustre is gradually restored. It remains a second-magnitude star for
about sixty-two hours in each period of sixty-nine hours. These changes
seem to correspond to what might be expected if a large opaque orb
is circling around this distant sun in a period of sixty-nine hours,
transiting its disk at regular intervals."
Of this star, Professor Ball says, "Applying the improved spectroscopic
process to Algol, he [Vogel] determined on one night that Algol
was retreating from the earth at a speed of twenty-six miles per
second.... When Vogel came to repeat his observations, he found that
Algol was again moving with the same velocity, but this time towards
the earth instead of from it.... It appeared that the movements were
strictly periodic; that is to say, for one day and ten hours the star
is moving towards us, and then for a like time it moves from us, the
maximum speed being ... twenty-six miles a second.... It is invariably
found that every time the movement of retreat is concluded the star
loses its brilliance, and regains it again at the commencement of the
return movement.... The spectroscopic evidence admits of no other
interpretation save that there must be another mighty body in the
immediate vicinity of Algol.... Algol must be attended by a companion
star which, if not absolutely as devoid of intrinsic light as the
earth or the moon, is nevertheless dark relatively to Algol. Once in
each period of revolution this obscure body intrudes itself between
the earth and Algol, cutting off a portion of the direct light from
the star and thus producing the well-known effect." This is, in fact,
a periodic transit or eclipse of Algol by a planet, such as we see in
eclipses of our own sun by the moon and the inner planets, except that
Algol's planet is apparently single like our moon with reference to
the earth, and that it is relatively much larger than any of our own
planets, as we would necessarily suppose it to be, if solitary. Its
mass has been computed by the effects which it produces, and we learn
that it is not a dark sun with a brilliant planet, but a brilliant
sun with a dark planet, just as our solar system presents. "Algol,
at the moment of its greatest eclipse, has lost about three-fifths
of its light; it therefore follows that the dark satellite must have
covered three-fifths of the bright surface.... The period of maximum
obscuration is about twenty minutes, and we know the velocity of the
bright star, which, along with the period of revolution, gives the
magnitude of the orbit." From these data it has been computed that
the globe of Algol itself is about one-fourth larger than that of
our visible sun, but its mass is so much less that its weight is only
one-half that of our sun, so that its body is probably gaseous. The
author concludes, "No one, however, will be likely to doubt that it
is the law of gravitation, pure and simple, which prevails in the
celestial spaces, and consequently we are able to make use of it to
explain the circumstances attending the movements of Algol's dark
companion. This body is the smaller of the two, and the speed with
which it moves is double as great as that of Algol, so that it travels
over as many miles in a second as an express train can get over in an
hour. The companion of Algol is about the same size as our sun, but
has a mass only one-fourth as great. This indicates a globe of matter
which must be largely in the gaseous state, but which, nevertheless,
seems to be devoid of intrinsic luminosity. Their distance [apart]
is always some three million miles. This is, however, an unusually
short distance when compared with the dimensions of the two globes
themselves." With this exception, the author says, "the movements of
Algol and its companion are not very dissimilar to movements in the
solar system with which we are already familiar." It will be seen that
the want of luminosity in the dark companion of Algol finds a ready
explanation in the fact that it is a planet, acting precisely as our
own planets do, and that the luminosity of Algol itself is directly
attributable to the electricity developed by the presence of this
planet rotating axially and orbitally around it, and the darkness of
the planet itself is the necessary correlative of the heat and light
of its sun. The planet has about one-half the density of Saturn, while
Algol has one-half the density of the sun, and hence we should expect
to find on Algol an atmosphere largely composed of glowing hydrogen,
and on its planet an atmosphere largely composed of oxygen, in which,
doubtless, float enormous clouds of aqueous vapor. The interpretation
is direct and conclusive, and upon no other hypothesis can the facts
be explained, for their close connection with each other demonstrates
their common origin, and their masses are not so different one from the
other as to permit, on any theory of their coequal origin as suns, one
to glow with the fires of youth and energy and the other to have grown
dark and dead from old age and exhaustion, and especially so if still
in its gaseous stage, which is that which must characterize its highest
state of incandescent energy from the most active condensation of its
volume, if the nebular hypothesis has any validity whatever. In fact,
this example alone, if the constitution of Algol's dark satellite is
really gaseous, must go very far to throw the gravest doubt, in itself,
on the validity of this hypothesis.
The star Beta, of the constellation Lyra, has a full period of twelve
days and twenty-two hours, divided into two periods of six days and
eleven hours, in each of which the star has a maximum brightness of
about the three and one-half magnitude, but in one period the minimum
is about the four and one-third magnitude, while in the other it
is about the four and one-half magnitude. This peculiarity points,
it is said, to an opaque orb with a satellite, the satellite being
occulted by the primary in the alternative transits, and therefore
the loss of light is less.
The star Delta of Cepheus is quite different, however, for, while it
takes only one, day and fourteen hours in passing from its minimum
to maximum of brightness, it occupies three days and nineteen hours,
or somewhat more than double this time, in passing from maximum to
minimum. Two or three hundred of these variable stars are already
known. The above examples are cited in detail because they furnish
the strongest possible proof of the truth of the hypothesis which we
are endeavoring to present. While the movements of the stars Algol
and Beta Lyræ may find an adequate interpretation in the one case
in a large occulting planet, and in the other in an occulting planet
with a satellite, it is obvious that Mira and Delta Cephei cannot be
explained except by the presence of planetary bodies or satellites
which do not mechanically occult the light of their suns. In these
regularly variable stars it is the light which varies, but of course
the solar heat must vary also,--that is to say, the solar energy varies
regularly, but with unequal periods of growth and decline and with
larger periods of cyclical variation in addition. Such variations can
only be produced by the action of permanently connected and orbitally
rotating planetary bodies, acting dynamically through space, to
regularly increase and diminish the solar energy, and such bodies can
only do this by their orbital positions with reference to each other
and to the central sun itself. In this case, since the activity of
solar energy is most unquestionably varied by the planetary energies,
by their position and movements, at least a portion of solar energy
must be due to planetary action, and if this be so, it may be affirmed
with certainty that substantially all solar energy may be produced in
the same way; for, otherwise, we seek for two diverse causes to produce
a single effect, which may be produced by one. We have no knowledge,
however, of any planetary energy which could operate to increase or
diminish the energy of the central sun in its emission of light, except
that which we have already presented, and no theory of our own sun's
energy hitherto advanced has ever taken cognizance of the planetary
energies of our system as an effective cause for those of the sun. But
while the sun's energy is--as it must be in this case--the outcome of
that of the planets, it is equally obvious that the planets themselves
can have no permanent, inherent energy of their own to generate or
modify such energy of the sun, since they are in fact supplied by
the solar energy, and their motions are controlled and regulated by
the sun itself. Hence the inference is irresistible that the planets
must derive their primary force from an external source not solar,
and this they can only do by means of their rotation in space, and
the only force derivable from space of which we have any knowledge
is electricity, so that the circle thus becomes complete. How now
shall we explain these periodical aberrations of energy? The color
of a star, as we know, is no criterion of its age or size. The color
is due to atmospheric absorption of the radiant light. The double
stars, for example, revolve around each other at regular periods,
and they are necessarily of nearly the same age, as sidereal ages
are computed, but they frequently differ one from the other in color,
and multiple stars may be all different each from the others; and the
color, as before stated, is no criterion of size, for a small sun,
with its glowing hydrogen in a state of high incandescence, and with
few absorption bands in its spectrum, will appear bluish-white, or of
that specific type of stars, without reference to size, while a much
larger sun, with its light darkened by broad absorption bands and
sun-spots, will appear orange or red; and, consequently, difference
of color can be no criterion of distance, since a blue-white star of
small size will outshine a red orb of much greater magnitude, whether
it be more or less distant. The variable stars, for these reasons,
belong to the order of red stars mostly, if not altogether. We must
also bear in mind that sun-spots do not diminish the solar heat, as
they are the result of increased and not of diminished energy. Electric
currents of high potential pass directly, as we know, along the lines
of least resistance to their opposite center of polarity, so that two
planets nearly in conjunction with each other transmit their currents
almost directly towards the sun's center, and upon the same point
of solar latitude, while, if at right angles with the sun, they must
deliver their electricity along converging lines and thus strike the
solar surface at different points. Currents of electricity of high
potential also (see "Electricity in the Service of Man," page 75),
by their own passage, facilitate the passage of succeeding currents,
so that generators discharging along the same lines find less and
less resistance. It is true that we find no appreciable resistance
in the passage of these currents between the earth and the sun, as
their velocity is that of light, but both light and electricity may
be equally retarded by resistance in a small degree. We know also
that in the condensed hydrogen atmosphere of the sun there must be
resistance, and also that the resistance in fluids diminishes as the
temperature rises. Considering now the variable star Mira, as above
described, we observe, as is the case with Delta Cephei, also cited,
that the period between its greatest light, in a descending scale,
and its least is about twice as long as its rise from minimum to
maximum. During a period of four years (1672 to 1676) it is said that
it was not visible at all.
If Mira be considered a relatively small sun, with its axis strongly
inclined to the planetary plane, and having three planets only, two of
them constituting a double planet, like the earth and moon, but nearly
equal in size, and having a rotation about the sun in nearly eleven
months and a rotation about each other in the same period, and, besides
these, a much more distant large planet, something like our Jupiter,
with an orbital period of many years, so that the cycle of relative
positions is complete in about eighty-eight of the shorter periods of
variation, we would have such results as we see in Mira. Twice in each
revolution of the double planet its two members and their sun would be
in conjunction, and we would have great brilliancy and whiteness until
the metallic elements began to volatilize in increased proportions;
then an era of wide absorption bands and redness, gradually increasing
to a maximum after its periods of greatest light, and then slowly
diminishing as the double planet advanced in its rotation; and,
finally, as it again approached conjunction, the brilliant hydrogen
illumination, subsequently followed by the gradually darkened spectrum,
and so on, while the large outer planet by its various positions
would first relatively retard and then accelerate the variation
until its grand cycle was complete. The permanent disappearance for
years, if true, may be due to other causes, which will be referred
to in considering the phenomena of new and temporary stars. Many of
the irregular variables may doubtless be similarly explained,--our
own sun, in fact, being a variable with a period of about eleven
years,--and doubtless the apparent irregularity in most cases is
due to lack of sufficient time for observation. Those stars which
are in fact really irregular in their variation owe their changes,
doubtless, to the same causes which produce new stars, so called,
and "suns in flames," which will be next considered.
Among the countless stars of heaven a great catastrophe seems
occasionally to occur. A star bursts out into sudden flame, to all
appearance, or a great fixed star appears where no star had ever been
seen before. In Professor Proctor's article, "Suns in Flames" ("Myths
and Marvels of Astronomy"), we will find an extended discussion of
these wonderful phenomena. The astronomer Tycho Brahe described the
one which appeared in 1572 as follows: "It suddenly shone forth in
the constellation Cassiopeia with a splendor exceeding that of stars
of the first magnitude, or even Jupiter or Venus at their brightest,
and could be seen by the naked eye on the meridian at full day. Its
brilliancy gradually diminished from the time of its first appearance,
and at the end of sixteen months it entirely disappeared, and has never
been seen since. During the whole time of its apparition its place in
the heavens remained unaltered, and it had no annual parallax, so that
its distance was of the same order as that of the fixed stars." Tycho
described its changes of color as follows: first, as having been of a
bright white; afterwards of a reddish-yellow, like Mars or Aldebaran;
and, lastly, of a leaden white, like Saturn. In 1604 a first-magnitude
star suddenly appeared in the right foot of Ophiucus. "It presented
appearances resembling those shown by the former, and disappeared
after a few months." Many other cases are cited by astronomers, and
in 1866 "a star appeared in the Northern Crown, the observations of
which threw great light on the subject of so-called new stars. In
the first place, it was found that where this new star appeared there
had been a tenth-magnitude star; the new star, then, was in reality
a star long known, which had acquired new brilliancy. "When first
observed with this abnormal lustre, it was shining as a star of the
second magnitude. Examined with the spectroscope, its light revealed a
startling state of things in those remote depths of space. The usual
stellar spectrum, rainbow-tinted and crossed by dark lines, was seen
to be crossed also by four exceedingly bright lines, the spectrum of
glowing hydrogen.... The greater part of the star's light manifestly
came from this glowing hydrogen, though it can scarcely be doubted
that the rest of the spectrum was brighter than before the outburst,
the materials of the star being raised to an intense heat. The maximum
brightness exceeded that of a tenth-magnitude star nearly eight hundred
times. After shining for a short time as a second-magnitude star,
it diminished rapidly in lustre, and it is now between the ninth
and tenth magnitudes" (Appleton's Cyclopædia). Of this new star,
Professor Ball says, "Another memorable achievement in the early part
of Dr. Huggins's career is connected with the celebrated new star that
burst forth in the Crown in 1866. It seemed a fortunate coincidence
that just at the moment when the spectroscope was beginning to be
applied to the sidereal heavens a star of such marvellous character
should have presented itself.... The feature which made the spectrum
of the new star essentially distinct from that of any other star
that had been previously observed was the presence of certain bright
lines superposed on a spectrum with dark lines of one of the ordinary
types. The position of certain of these lines showed that one of the
luminous gases must be hydrogen.... The spectroscope showed that there
must have been something which we may describe as a conflagration
of hydrogen on a stupendous scale, and this outburst would account
for the sudden increase in luminosity of the star, and also to some
extent explain how so stupendous an illumination, once kindled, could
dwindle away in so short a time as a few days." It will be seen that
these new stars leap suddenly into great brilliancy: it is a matter
of a few hours only. After remaining a very short time in this stage
of abnormal incandescence, they gradually die out again in lustre and
revert to their original condition; they are not consumed either in
body or atmosphere.
Several theories have been advanced to account for these remarkable
phenomena; see "Suns in Flames," by Professor Proctor. One is, in
effect, that by some sudden "internal convulsion a large volume of
hydrogen and other gases was evolved from it, the hydrogen by its
combination with some other element giving out the lines represented
by the bright lines, and at the same time heating to a point of
vivid incandescence the solid matter of the star's surface.... As the
liberated hydrogen gas became exhausted the flame gradually abated,
and with the consequent cooling the star's surface became less vivid
and the star returned to its original condition;" which, by the way,
it never could have done if its atmosphere had been exposed to such a
disintegration, without the construction of an entirely new atmosphere
precisely similar to the one just destroyed. The process would be one
of simple combustion. It requires the evolution of enormous volumes
of hydrogen from within the planet, and of other enormous volumes of
something else, by which to burn it up and yet not burn up the original
hydrogen envelope. This other element could not have previously
existed outside the solar body and contiguous thereto, or it would
have burned up the ordinary hydrogen envelope of the sun long before,
as well as the metallic vapors floating therein. Both these mutually
hostile gases must have come from within, and this is manifestly
impossible, as we should thus have explosion and solar destruction,
but not combustion. There is no reason to believe that hydrogen,
the lightest of elements, could have remained occluded within the
solar mass, to the exclusion of the heavier metals, if disassociated,
and if held combined no such sudden liberation could occur. Besides,
such convulsion would be impossible in any sun at all resembling ours,
as any further liberation of gases from internal condensation must be
due to solar contraction, hence gradual, and not sudden. Moreover,
such liberation of hydrogen gas from within would show its spectrum
loaded, at its earliest eruption, with absorption bands; and, finally,
the convulsion presupposes as great an activity, and consequently as
great a difficulty, before the phenomenon as the phenomenon itself
presents; for such vast disturbance of mass would be more difficult
to account for, and require more energy to produce, than the results
themselves. Moreover, the whole mass of the star appeared to increase
equally in temperature, as shown by the spectrum, and, if produced by
an internal convulsion, this must have extended to, if not proceeded
from, its core; so that while the combustion of hydrogen might have
ceased in a very brief time, the intense heat of the solar mass could
not have been dissipated for thousands of years. It would, in fact,
have disrupted the whole orb.
Another theory is that this vast incandescence was caused by the
"violent precipitation of some mighty mass--perhaps a planet--upon
the globe of that remote sun, by which the momentum of the falling
mass would be changed into molecular motion; in other words, into
heat and light." This theory is no more plausible than the other,
since it fails to account for the enormous volume of hydrogen, with
bright lines, as a result of such contact; while Professor Proctor
very clearly shows that such contact would have been preceded,
necessarily, by repeated partial grazings, as the outside body
repeatedly passed in swifter and closer passage by the sun in its
gradually approaching orbital revolutions, and that the increase
of light and heat must have been measured by years instead of by
hours. The same difficulties exist in the supposed passage of the star
through nebulæ or star clouds, of which Professor Proctor says, "As
for the rush of a star through a nebulous mass, that is a theory which
would scarcely be entertained by any one acquainted with the enormous
distances separating them.... All we certainly know suggests that the
distances separating them from each other are comparable with those
which separate star from star." In fact, no tenable theory has been
advanced which will cover the phenomena. Professor Proctor describes
a star which flamed out in 1876. At midnight, November 24, a star
of the third magnitude was noticed in the constellation of the Swan;
its light was very yellow; its brilliancy rapidly faded. On December
2 it was equal to a star of the fifth magnitude only, and the color,
which had been yellow, was now greenish-blue. "The star's spectrum
at this time consisted almost entirely of bright lines. December 5 he
found three bright lines of hydrogen, the strong double line of sodium,
the triple line of magnesium, and two other lines. One of these last
seemed to agree exactly in position with a bright line belonging
to the corona seen around the sun during total eclipse." The star
afterwards faded away gradually until quite invisible to the naked
eye. It will be noticed that none of the above elements--sodium,
potassium, or magnesium--are such as would combine with hydrogen
to produce the phenomena in question. Professor Proctor concludes,
"This evidence seems to me to suggest that the intense heat which
suddenly affected this star had its origin from without." He suggests
possible meteoric flights; but meteoric stones themselves are separated
in space by enormous distances, and these, if converged in orbital
flight, would present the same phenomena of successive grazings as
a small planet approaching under like circumstances, and by their
gradually increasing incandescence we should certainly have other
elements visible in the spectroscope besides those observed. And these
meteoric bodies, if projected into the sun, would pass in a very brief
time through the hydrogen envelope, producing only local phenomena,
so that their first blow would be manifested in volatilization of the
outer portions of the mass and broad absorption bands, and consequent
redness of the planet, exhibiting great heat, but not great light. In
such case the bright lines of hydrogen, if they appeared at all, would
only be visible as an after-consequence, and not at the earliest moment
of conflagration,--that is, the star might grow from red to white,
but by no possibility the reverse. It is, however, characteristic
of these new stars that their first flash, as it were, is into the
incandescence of directly glowing hydrogen, with its bright lines,
then through a series of gradually increasing sun-spots, and finally
a slow return to their original condition and apparent magnitude. It
is obviously a surface phenomenon of the solar atmosphere, primarily,
then followed by consequences involving only the outer surface of the
solar core, but with no observable permanent change in the character
or constitution of the mass of the sun itself. These characteristics
are invariable, and the sequence of phenomena is the same in all the
cases observed.
CHAPTER VII.
TEMPORARY STARS, METEORS, AND COMETS.
What, then, is the probable cause of these terrific conflagrations,
as they appear to us? Take an ordinary electric induction machine,--a
Holtz or a Wimshurst,--and, if the surrounding air is moist, as we
operate it we will find that the results are poor, the sparks short
and relatively few; but let us take the machine into another room
in which the atmosphere is dry and crisp. A wondrous change will
occur, and instead of a current which could scarcely flash across
a few inches of space, we will now have so great an increase of
energy that its tension will even cause the spark to perforate and
destroy the glass walls of the heavy Leyden jars in which it is
condensed. The vast realms of space, with their attenuated vapors,
are the field in which the planetary electric generators operate,
and into which, likewise, myriads of suns constantly pour their
light and heat. We may consider this space, according to the popular
view, to be uniform in constitution and density throughout all its
parts,--that it is, in fact, like a vast, silent, and motionless dead
sea. But this cannot possibly be true, any more than throughout the
vast compass of our own atmosphere; for while some parts of space are
peopled by millions of solar systems, others, as we can plainly see,
so far as telescopic vision extends, are comparatively vacant. Far
more electricity is being abstracted (so to speak) in some parts of
space than in others, and far more heat and light are being poured
back to restore the equilibrium in some than in others. We have
already seen that the temperature at the exterior surface of the
terrestrial atmosphere is estimated to be more than two hundred
degrees higher than in the realms of open interplanetary space;
hence there must be currents,--currents of rotation like cyclones,
vortical currents like whirlwinds, currents of transmission like our
land- and sea-breezes and the trade-winds,--and, in fact, all space
must be in a state of constant displacement and replacement, and, if
visible, we should see it like a vast room filled with smoke, in which
currents of every shape and direction and of all velocities would be
manifest. Such currents could throw nebulæ during their condensation
into rotation which could never rotate of their own motion, or gather
to centers of aggregation vast whirling clouds of spatial matter,
and in the spiral nebulæ we may see many such movements of rotation in
apparent active progress. Of these we read in Appleton's Cyclopædia,
"They have the appearance of a maelstrom of stellar matter, and are
among the most interesting objects in the heavens." In Professor
Nichol's splendid work ("The Architecture of the Heavens," 1850)
we may see magnificent engravings of these wonderful phenomena,
from the drawings by Lord Rosse, and no one can study these figures
without realizing the presence of vast currents in space.
In the great spiral nebula in the constellation Canes Venatici (see
illustration in Chapter XII.) we perceive that the tail of the smaller
nebula has been drawn into the outer convolution of the great spiral,
against the radial repulsion of the latter nebula, as we can see by
its curvature. This can only be due to a tremendous inflowing current
in space. Were the deflection due to gravity the trend would be to the
center and not to the outer convolution of the larger nebula. Professor
Nichol says, "The spiral figure is characteristic of an extensive
class of galaxies." Not only in the spiral, but in other forms of
nebulæ we may observe these currents of space, so that we cannot fail
to perceive that they exist, and we should even conclude, a priori,
that these must exist.
In the elongated linear nebula in Sobieski's Crown, illustrated
above, its length is deflected into irregular curves apparently due
to counter-currents of space. These gaseous nebulæ, Flammarion says,
"appear like immense vaporous clouds tossed about by some rough winds,
pierced with deep rents, and broken in jagged portions." It may be
said generally that every sun, as it drifts through space, must leave
a wake of increased electric potential among the molecules which
line its pathway. Beyond the limits of every vortex extend radial
or tangential, polar or equatorial, streams of space, and these
must extend without limit until deflected or neutralized by other
conditions. Throughout all space, just as in our own atmosphere,
but vastly more slowly, there must be an infinitude of movements in
every direction,--movements in lines, circles, vortices, ellipses and
irregular curvatures, and of all possible varieties of mass and volume.
Suppose, now, a sailing vessel lighted with incandescent lamps,
the electrical currents for the support of which are derived from
the chemical action of sea-water on multiple pairs of suitable
metallic plates arranged to extend downward as a galvanic battery
into the ocean as the ship sails along, and that these plates,
by the chemical action of the sea-water at ordinary, temperatures,
should furnish a sufficient current to properly light the vessel. If
the constancy of such current depended on the average temperature
of the sea-water, at, say, sixty degrees Fahrenheit, we should find
that, on suddenly crossing into the Gulf Stream, with a temperature
twenty degrees higher, the energy of the battery would be rapidly
increased and the lights would glow with increased brilliancy until,
on emerging from the Gulf Stream at its opposite side, the original
status would be gradually restored. If these distant solar systems,
in their drift through space, should encounter a corresponding stream
under an increased molecular tension, more highly heated, for example,
or charged with electrical potential by the surrounding solar systems,
or otherwise, we should expect a similar result to ensue,--that the
currents would be increased suddenly, both in quantity and intensity,
and all the phenomena of "blazing" stars be revealed in the precise
order in which we see them. Professor Proctor seems to have had
some such idea of space vaguely in his mind when he says, in his
"Familiar Essays," "One is invited to believe that the star may have
been carried by its proper motions into regions where there is a more
uniform distribution of the material whence this orb recruits its
fires. It may be that, in the consideration of such causes of variation
affecting our sun in long-past ages, a more satisfactory explanation
than any yet obtained may be found of the problem geologists found
so perplexing,--the former existence of a tropical climate in places
within the temperate zone, or even near the arctic regions. Sir John
Herschel long since pointed to the variation of the sun as a possible
cause of such changes of climate." In confirmation of the view that
such changes may be due to the passage of a solar system into or
through such a "Gulf Stream" of space, we quote the following from
Professor Proctor's "Suns in Flames:" "It is noteworthy that all the
stars which have blazed out suddenly, except one, have appeared in
a particular region of the heavens,--the zone of the Milky Way (all,
too, in one-half of that zone). The single exception is the star in
the Northern Crown, and that star appeared in a region which I have
found to be connected with the Milky Way by a well-marked stream
of stars; not a stream of a few stars scattered here and there, but
a stream where thousands of stars are closely aggregated together,
though not quite so closely as to form a visible extension of the Milky
Way.... Now, the Milky Way and the outlying streams of stars connected
with it seem to form a region of the stellar universe where fashioning
processes are still at work." In just such regions of potential energy
should we look for such currents in space, as, on our own earth,
the Gulf Stream and the trade-winds, as well as cyclones and other
atmospheric movements, find their origin under precisely parallel
circumstances,--to wit, the outpour upon and direct precipitation of
increased quantities of heat at the tropics or other local centers
of such development. The effects of such an increase of quantity and
potential in an electrical current are clearly illustrated in the
device previously referred to, in which electrolytic decomposition
was effected in a pail of water; we find it also in the burning out
of the brushes and commutators in dynamo-electric machines and in
telegraphic apparatus during thunder-storms and the like. Allowing a
solar system a drift through space only equal to that of our own, which
has a relatively slow movement, it would traverse such a "Gulf Stream"
of space seven hundred thousand miles wide in a single day. But it may
not even have passed through; it may merely have grazed the margin of
such a current; for the motions of solar systems are not controlled by
the same forces as those upon which their electrical energies depend.
Professor Ball, in his chapter on the great heat-wave of 1892, says,
"Towards the end of July an extraordinarily high temperature, even
for that period of the year, prevailed over a very large part of the
North American continent. The so-called heat-wave then seems to have
travelled eastward and crossed the Atlantic Ocean; ... a fortnight
after the occurrence of unusually great heat in the New World there
was a similar experience in the Old World.... This discussion will at
all events enable us to make some reply to the question which has often
been asked, as to what was the cause of the great heat-wave.... It is,
however, quite possible that certain changes in progress on the sun
may act in a specific manner on our climate.... It cannot be denied
that local, if not general, changes in the sun's temperature must be
the accompaniment of the violent disturbances by which our luminary
is now and then agitated. It is, indeed, well known that there are
occasional outbreaks of solar activity, and that these recur in a
periodic manner; it is accordingly not without interest to notice that
the present year has been one of the periods of this activity. We
are certainly not going so far as to say that any connection has
been definitely established between a season of exuberant sun-spots
and a season remarkable for excessive warmth; but, as we know that
there is a connection between the magnetic condition of the earth
and the state of solar activity, it is by no means impossible that
climate and sun-spots may also stand in some relationship to each
other." These local deviations are doubtless due to planetary positions
with reference to the sun, but more general variations must depend upon
the constitution of such parts of space as the solar system may occupy;
but even then they will be but temporary, since the sun's volume will
rapidly expand or contract so as finally to restore the normal emission
of solar heat, as will be further explained later on in this work.
There are other causes also, readily conceivable, for such increased
electrical action; for instance, in that thickly-peopled region of
space, two solar systems adjacent might easily have their exterior
planets so related to each other as suddenly, at their points of
nearest approach, to cause one or more to direct an abnormally large
electrical current into the sun of the adjacent system; this would
correspond in electric energy, in fact, to a violent "perturbation"
in its orbit by the action of gravity produced by a neighboring
planet or system. No reversal of polarity could take place between
these planets under these circumstances, any more than between the
earth and the moon. In some portions of the Milky Way, doubtless,
suns blaze by dozens across the sky at night, and by day as well,
to which, in our more solitary skies, we are strangers. Revolving
in perfect harmony, perturbations must nevertheless be frequent, and
to what limits they may there be confined we shall never know until
we realize the extent of these galaxies and the relative contiguity
of their solar systems to each other. It is enough to show how such
variations may occur; in what particular way they do occur does not
affect the question of their origin. Even if such increased energy
were to continue by permanently increased planetary action, it is not
necessary to suppose that a corresponding permanent increase of light
and heat would result on the part of the sun, for its density is such
(only one-fourth that of the earth) that, under the tremendous force
of its gravity (twenty-seven and one-tenth times that of the earth),
its constituents cannot be maintained in solid form, but must be,
as before stated, either liquid or gaseous, and perhaps in part
both. Now, as it has been computed that the sun, by contraction to
its present density, would have evolved its present light and heat
for a period of millions of years, it is obvious that any increase in
its present volume, without increase of mass, would produce precisely
opposite and compensated results, so that the sun could receive from
outside sources as much heat as would expand its present volume
to that at the initial point of such assumed condensation without
increased emission of light and heat. The sun is thus, in effect,
a self-compensating machine, and its passage through a region of
increased electrical generation would first manifest itself in
a vast increase of brilliancy, due to higher incandescence of its
hydrogen envelope; this, in turn, would be communicated to the deeper
structures of the sun, producing increased volatilization and dark
absorption bands, and finally to the whole solar mass, expanding
its volume in proportion to the heat absorbed. Hence we should see
precisely the phenomena that we do see in flaming stars or so-called
new stars. We find such compensations all through nature, and it is
simply in accordance with her universal laws that they occur. It is a
singular circumstance that the catastrophe which is foretold in the
biblical record as the termination of all human life on earth, for
the present cycle, at least, should be almost literally in accordance
with the phenomena characteristic of such an increase of solar energy,
and one produced in some such manner. If the temperature of the solar
atmosphere were rapidly raised by increased planetary action to a
point which would reverse the lines of hydrogen from dark to bright,
say to a brightness eight hundred times that of the normal, as in
the case of the temporary star cited, though the heat would not, of
course, be increased in any such proportion, yet the heavens would be
indeed rolled up as a scroll, and all life would be extinguished in a
very brief period. But the planets would continue to roll along their
orbits, the integrity of the earth's mass would still be intact, and
after a few days or weeks the sun would begin to decline in brightness,
the volatilized vapors would slowly recede within the solar atmosphere,
and the temperature would gradually fall again to its normal, leaving,
however, a lifeless world to roll on its way henceforth, but as bright
and cheerful in all its possibilities, when the former conditions had
gradually become restored, as before. Perhaps some distant astronomer
in the neighborhood of Sirius--if we shall have travelled so far away
by that time--might send a note to the morning papers to announce
that the temporary star near Alpha Centauri had again receded to the
tenth magnitude. In due time--perhaps a thousand years--all would be
ready for a new development of life, and the cycle would continue as
before. Perchance, too, in some deep abyss, or buried far beneath
the surface, some germs of life might still continue to exist;
and from these, like the seeds resurrected from buried mummies,
a new life might again begin, guided along once more through vast
ages in a progressive ascent from development to development until,
in some new and strange forms, the higher types of life might again
appear. To these there would indeed be revealed a new heaven and a
new earth. Who knows how many such cycles of life may have come and
gone on earth, in which, like the dwellers of Jerusalem, new peoples
have built new cities, one above another, upon the unknown graves of
the past? In the words of Tennyson,--
"A wondrous eft was of old the Lord and Master of earth,
For him did his high sun flame, and his river billowing ran,
And he felt himself in his force to be Nature's crowning race.
As nine months go to the shaping an infant ripe for his birth,
So many a million of ages have gone to the making man:
He now is first, but is he the last?"
Whatever the coming, the progress, or the going of life on earth,
the course of our solar system will go on the same, the processes of
creation unchanged and her mechanism unimpaired. It is obvious that
no such conditions could prevail in the return to unorganizable chaos
which must be the consequence of any possible planetary collisions
in space. No conceivable process of creation could return a system
disrupted into meteorites to an operative solar system again. Even
the nebular hypothesis contemplates nothing of that sort as, by the
wildest conjecture, ever possible. But with us the danger is far
distant. Professor Proctor says, in his article "Suns in Flames,"
"As Sir William Herschel long since pointed out, we can recognize in
various parts of the heavens various stages of development, and chief
among the regions where as yet nature's work seems incomplete is the
Galactic zone,--especially that half of it where the Milky Way consists
of irregular streams and clouds of stellar light. As there is no reason
for believing that our sun belongs to this part of the galaxy, but,
on the contrary, good ground for considering that he belongs to the
class of insulated stars, few of which have shown signs of irregular
variation, while none have ever blazed suddenly out with many hundred
times their former lustre, we may fairly infer a very high degree of
probability in favor of the belief that, for many ages still to come,
the sun will continue steadily to discharge his duties as fire, light,
and life of the solar system." The passage of our system through
gradually changing regions of space, as contrasted with streams
or vortices, could not affect our sun's light even temporarily, as
the contraction and expansion of its volume would fully compensate
for any such gradual or partial variation, and, by position, he is
far from likely to pass into any of those whirlpools or torrents of
space which seem to mark at irregular intervals the region of the
irregularly variable stars.
Allied in appearance to such stars which suddenly flame out in space,
but totally different in reality, are comets. These strangers to our
own system have excited the wonder and astonishment of mankind from
the earliest ages. They seem to defy all rules and all explanation;
but, when properly examined, they will fall inevitably into the
general scheme of the source and mode of solar energy which we
have endeavored to present. These bodies enter our solar system
from without. Appleton's Cyclopædia says, "Schiaparelli, to whom
the discovery is in part due, considers the meteors to be dispersed
portions of the comet's original substance,--that is, of the substance
with which the comet entered the solar domain." Professor Proctor,
"Meteoric Astronomy," says, "A word or two may be permitted on the
question of the condition of comets freshly arriving on the scene of
the solar system. It is assumed sometimes that the train of meteors
already exists when the comet first comes within the solar domain." In
the "Romance of Astronomy" (R. Kalley Miller, M.A.) it is said,
"In a sort of debatable territory between our own solar system and
the infinite stellar universe around we come upon these erratic
and anomalous bodies--the comets; some of which have accidentally
become permanent attendants upon our sun; others have only paid it a
single casual visit in the course of their wanderings through space,
and are not likely again to come within the range of its attracting
influence; while countless millions are doubtless scattered throughout
the realms of the infinite, whose existence will never be revealed
to human ken at all." Professor Helmholtz, in fact (see addendum
to his lecture on the origin of the planetary system), advanced the
idea in a speculative way, that our terrestrial life might have had
its origin in one of these meteoric bodies by the "transmission of
organisms through space." In Professor Proctor's article on comets
("Mysteries of Time and Space") he says, "The paths followed by
comets show no resemblance either to the planetary orbits or to each
other. Here we see a comet travelling in a path of moderate extent
and not very eccentric; then another which rushes from a distance
of two or three thousand millions of miles, approaches the sun with
ever-increasing velocity until nearer to him than parts of his own
corona (as seen in eclipses), sweeps around him with inconceivable
rapidity, and makes off again to where the aphelion of its orbit lies
far out in space beyond the most distant known planet,--Neptune. Some
comets travel in a direct, some in a retrograde path; a few near the
plane of the earth's orbit, many in planes showing every variety of
inclination. Some comets regularly return after intervals of a few
years; some after hundreds of years; others are only seen once or
twice, and then unaccountably vanish; and not a few show by the paths
they follow that they have come from interstellar space to pay our
system but a single visit, passing out again to traverse we know not
what other systems or regions.... When we have said that these objects
obey the law of gravity, we have mentioned the only circumstance--as
it would appear--in which they conform to the relations observed in
terrestrial and planetary arrangements. And even this law--the widest
yet revealed to man--they seem to obey half unwillingly. We see the
head of a comet tracing out systematically enough its proper orbit,
while the comet's tail is all unruly and disobedient.... The fact,
then, is demonstrated that two of the meteor streams encountered by the
earth are so far associated with two comets as to travel on the same
orbits. We may not unsafely infer that all the meteor systems are in
like manner associated with other comets. Nor is it very rash to assume
that all comets are in like manner associated with meteor systems."
Concerning the influence of gravitation of the planets, the same
author says ("Meteoric Astronomy"), "Now, the circumstances under
which a comet approaching the sun on a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit
can be thus affected must be regarded as exceptional. The planet's
influence must, in the first place, be very energetically exercised;
in other words, the arriving comet must pass very close to the planet,
for under any other circumstances the sun's influence so enormously
outvies the planet's that the figure of the cometic orbit would be
very little affected. Moreover, the planet's attraction must produce an
important balance of retardation. The planet will inevitably accelerate
the comet up to a certain point, and afterwards will retard it; the
latter influence must greatly exceed the former. To show how greatly
the comet must be retarded, it is only necessary to mention that the
actual velocity of the November meteors when they cross the orbit
of Uranus is less than one-third of the velocity with which Uranus
himself travels, but their velocity at the same distance from the
sun, when they were approaching him from some distant stellar domain,
exceeded the velocity of Uranus in his orbit in the proportion of about
seven to five.... It follows, not merely as a probable inference, but,
I think, as a demonstrated conclusion, that if the November meteors
came originally into our system as a comet travelling sunward from
infinity, then either that comet was very compact or else Uranus
captured only a small portion of the comet, the remaining portions
moving thenceforth on orbits wholly different from the path of the
November meteors.... No other planet than Uranus can have brought
about the subjection of this comet to solar rule." In his article on
comets he says, "It may be well here to consider a case in which some
active force (other than gravity) exerted by the sun seems to have
brought the destruction of a comet, or at least to have broken up
the comet into unrecognizable fragments." He refers to Biela's comet,
with an orbital period of six and two-thirds years, and a path which
was found to approach very near to the path of the earth. In 1832 the
comet crossed the earth's track several weeks before the arrival of
the earth at the same point without appreciable interference. On its
second return, in 1845-46, it was found to be divided into two comets
travelling side by side; in 1852 they reappeared, still divided,
and gradually diverging from each other. Since then they have never
reappeared, though diligently sought for at every period. Professor
Proctor adds, "It has been seen again, though not as a comet; nay, the
occasion on which it was seen in the way referred to was predicted,
and the prediction fulfilled, even in details. For a full account of
its reappearance--as a meteor stream--I refer the reader to my essay
on Biela's comet in 'Familiar Science Studies.'"
In Miller's "Romance of Astronomy" we read, "Encke's comet, which
possesses the smallest orbit of any connected with our system, is
sensibly drawing nearer and nearer to the sun at every revolution." In
Professor Proctor's "Cometic Mysteries," the author says, "We hear
it stated that the nucleus of a comet is made up of meteoric stones
(Professor P. G. Tait says--for unknown reasons--that they resemble
'paving stones or even bricks') as confidently as though the earth had
at some time passed through the nucleus of a comet, and some of our
streets were now paved with stones which had fallen to the earth on
such an occasion. As a matter of fact, all that has yet been proved
is that meteoric bodies follow in the track (which is very different
from the tail) of some known comets, and that probably all comets
are followed by trains of meteors. These may have come out of the
head or nucleus in some way as yet unexplained; but it is by no means
certain that they have done so, and it is by many astronomers regarded
as more than doubtful. The most important point to be noticed in the
behavior of large comets as they approach the sun is, that usually the
side of the coma which lies towards the sun is the scene of intense
disturbance. Streams of luminous matter seem to rise continually
towards the sun, attaining a certain distance from the head, when,
assuming a cloud-like appearance, they seem to form an envelope
around the nucleus. This envelope gradually increases its distance
from the sun, growing fainter and larger, while within it the process
is repeated and a new envelope is formed. This, in turn, ascends
from the nucleus, expanding as it does so, while within it a new
envelope is formed. Meanwhile the first one formed has grown fainter,
perhaps has disappeared. But sometimes the process goes on so rapidly
(a day or two sufficing for the formation of a complete new envelope)
that several envelopes will be seen at the same time,--the outermost
faintest, the innermost most irregular in shape and most varied in
brightness, while the envelope or envelopes between are the best
developed and most regular. The matter raised up in these envelopes
seems to have undergone a certain change of character, causing it no
longer to obey the sun's attractive influence, but to experience a
strong repulsive action from him, whereby it is apparently swept away
with great rapidity to form the tail. 'It flows past the nucleus,'
says Dr. Huggins, 'on all sides, still ever expanding and shooting
backward until a tail is formed in the direction opposite to the
sun. This tail is usually curved, though sometimes rays or extra
tails sensibly straight are also seen.'"
In "The Sun as a Perpetual Machine," Professor Proctor says,
"Take, again, the phenomena of comets, which still remain among the
greatest of nature's mysteries. We have reason to believe ... that
the nucleus of a comet consists of an aggregation of stones similar
to meteorites. Adopting this view, and assuming that these stones
have absorbed somewhere gases to the amount of six times their volume
(taken at atmospheric pressure), we may ask, What will be the effect
of such a mass of stones advancing towards the sun at a velocity
reaching in perihelion the prodigious rate of three hundred and
sixty-six miles per second (as observed in the comet of 1843), being
twenty-three times our orbital rate of motion?" Professor Ball says,
"One of the most important results of the great shower of 1866 was the
demonstration that the swarm of little bodies to which that shower
owed its origin was connected with a comet. The swarm was found, in
fact, to follow the exact track which the comet pursued around the
sun.... Of this connection between the cometary orbits and revolving
swarms of meteors many other instances could be cited. I may refer to
the remarkable lists published by the British Association, in which,
beside the name of the comet or the designation which astronomers had
affixed to it, the meteoric swarm with which the comet is associated
is also given.... On these grounds it appears to be perfectly certain
that the origin of the shooting stars which appear in swarms cannot
be disassociated from the origin of the comets by which those swarms
are accompanied." The author makes a distinction between such ordinary
shooting stars and meteorites, and attributes the appearance of the
latter on earth to masses thrown forth from some volcano somewhere, but
this has nothing to do with the special phenomena to be interpreted. It
may be said, however, that the presence of olefiant gas as one of
the occluded gases in a meteorite (four and fifty-five-hundredths per
cent., as stated by Professor Proctor, in his article "The Sun as a
Perpetual Machine"), and the remarkable fact, stated in the article
"Spectrum Analysis" in Appleton's Cyclopædia, that, in Winnecke's
comet of 1868, "the bands agree in position with those obtained as
the spectrum of carbon, by passing the electric spark through olefiant
gas, "would lead one to consider a cometic origin, for this particular
meteorite at least, to be highly probable. Professor Ball further says,
"There have been several instances in which a comet has approached
so close to a planet that the attraction between the two bodies must
have had significant influence on the planet, if the cometary mass
had been at all comparable with that of the more robust body. The
most celebrated instance is presented in the case of Lexell's comet,
which happened to cross the track of Jupiter. The effect upon this
body was so overwhelming that it was wrenched from its original path
and started afresh along a wholly different track." The same writer,
speaking of the tails of comets, says, "I have no intention to discuss
here the vexed question of the tails of comets. I do not now inquire
whether the repulsion by which the tail is produced be due to the
intense radiation from the sun, or to electricity, or to some other
agent. It is sufficient for our present purpose to note that, even if
the tails of comets do gravitate towards the sun, the attraction is
obscured by a more powerful repulsive force.... Nor do the directions
in which the comets move exhibit any conformity; some move round the
sun in one direction, some move in the opposite direction. Even the
planes which contain the orbits of the comets are totally different
from each other. Instead of being inclined at only a very few degrees
to their mean position, the planes of the comets hardly follow any
common law; they are inclined at all sorts of directions. In no respect
do the comets obey those principles which are necessary to prevent
constitutional disorder in the planetary system.... Now, all we have
hitherto seen with regard to comets tends to show that the masses of
comets are extremely small. Attempts have been made to measure them,
but have always failed, because the scales in which we have attempted
to weigh them have been too coarse to weigh anything of the almost
spiritual texture of a comet. It is unnecessary to go as far as some
have done, and to say that the weight of a large comet may be only
a few pounds or a few ounces. It might be more reasonable to suppose
that the weight of a large comet was thousands of tons, though even
thousands of tons would be far too small a weight to admit of being
measured by the very coarse balance which is at our disposal." In
the chapter "Visitors from the Sky," the same author says, "As such
a comet in its progress across the heavens passes between us and
the stars, those stars are often seen twinkling brilliantly right
through the many thousand miles of cometary matter which their rays
have to traverse. The lightest haze in our atmosphere would suffice
to extinguish the faint gleam of these small stars; indeed, a few
feet of mist would have more power of obstructing the stellar light
than cometary material scores of thousands of miles thick. It is
true that the central portions of many of these comets often exhibit
much greater density than is found in the exterior regions; still,
in the great majority of such objects there is no opacity, even in
the densest part, sufficient to put out a star. In the case of the
more splendid bodies of this description, it may be supposed that the
matter is somewhat more densely aggregated as well as more voluminous;
still, however, it will be remembered that the great comet of 1858
passed over Arcturus, and that the star was seen shining brilliantly,
notwithstanding the interposition of a cometary curtain millions of
miles in thickness. So far as I know, no case is known in which the
nucleus of a really bright and great comet has been witnessed in the
act of passage over a considerable star. It would indeed be extremely
interesting to ascertain whether in such case the star experienced
any considerable diminution in its lustre."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PHENOMENA OF COMETS.
From the extracts thus cited we may form a fairly clear idea of the
phenomena which comets present, and these facts represent about all
that we know of these mysterious objects. They approach the sun
in a nearly radial direction, thus cutting the planetary orbits
transversely. They approach the sun from all directions and at
all angles, without reference to the common plane in which all the
planetary orbits lie. They have no rotation on their own axes, as the
planets have, but, like an aggregated mass of meteorites or cosmical
dust, rush inward from the exterior realms of space, so that their
course is diametrically opposite that of the planets and the other
cosmical bodies which constitute our solar system. Such a body as a
comet, in fact, would present in its approach to our solar system very
much the phenomena of an approaching exterior sun, corresponding far
more closely in appearance and behavior to our own sun than to any
of the planets. Such a body could not generate positive electricity,
as the planets do, but, on the contrary, must have an electrosphere
of negative, or at least neutral, polarity. On its approach to our
planetary system the batteries of all the planets would be at once
turned upon the intruder, and it would be rapidly thrown into the
same state of active electrical polarity as the sun. The aqueous
vapor condensed around its nucleus by gravity in its approach through
space, or buried among the meteoric particles constituting the
comet, would be necessarily decomposed into its constituent gases,
just as in the case of the sun, by the positive electrical currents
from the planetary electrospheres, and the disassociated hydrogen
would form the negative electrosphere of the comet, glowing with its
own luminosity, by gaseous incandescence. "We should then observe,
during its continued approach to the sun, phenomena similar to those
which we might expect to manifest themselves during the approach
of a minute solar body towards the sun, characterized by a rapid
increase of velocity, due to attraction of gravity, and tremendous
mutual repulsion between the solar and cometic electrospheres. We
should see the luminous hydrogen and associated gases boiling upward,
and thence drawn forward from the nucleus by the combined gravity
of the sun's mass, that of the planetary masses, and the opposite
polarity of the planetary electrospheres, while they would be, at
the same time, repelled backward by the enormous repulsive force of
the negative electrosphere of the sun. As a result, we should find
these gases in a state of ebullition, forced forward under great
excitement and disturbance, boiling, eddying about, driven to and fro
in all directions until the sun's repulsive force had overcome the
different attractions, when these luminous clouds or envelopes would
be swept swiftly off to the rear, as by a powerful current of wind,
around the margins of the nucleus, and they would be seen to stream
backward from the sun as an elongated envelope or tail. New volumes of
gas would pour to the front, attracted from deeper depths, and these,
on reaching the cometary electrosphere, would be again repelled by
the solar activity and driven to the rear, while the gases thus driven
backward, themselves similarly electrified, would mutually repel each
other as they streamed backward around the margins of the nucleus.
Let us now see what these gases are: if they are such as appear
in the sun's electrosphere, we will know that such must be their
action; if, on the contrary, they are such as appear in planetary
electrospheres, we will find any such attempted explanation to be
a failure. Quoting largely from Dr. Huggins, Professor Proctor, in
his "Cometic Mysteries," says, "The spectrum of the brightest comet
of that year was partly continuous, and on this continuous spectrum
many of the well-known Fraunhofer lines could be traced. This made it
certain that part of the comet's light was reflected sunlight, though
Dr. Huggins considers also that a part of the continuous spectrum of
every comet is due to inherent light. On this point some doubt may
be permitted. It is one thing for special bands to show themselves,
for some substances may become self-luminous under special conditions
at very moderate temperatures; it is quite another thing that the
solid parts of a comet's substance should become incandescent. I
venture to express my opinion that this can scarcely happen, except
in the case of comets which approach very near to the sun. Besides
the continuous spectrum with dark lines, the photograph showed
also a spectrum of bright lines. 'These lines,' says Dr. Huggins,
'possessed extreme interest, for there was certainly contained within
this hieroglyphic writing some new information. A discussion of
the position of these new lines showed them to be undoubtedly the
same lines which appear in certain compounds of carbon. Not long
before Professors Liveing and Dewar had found from their laboratory
experiments that these lines are only present when nitrogen is also
present, and that they indicate a nitrogen compound of carbon,--namely,
cyanogen. Two other bright groups were also seen in the photograph,
confirming the presence of hydrogen,--carbon and nitrogen.' It is
worthy of notice that only a few days later Dr. H. Draper succeeded
in obtaining a photograph of the same comet's spectrum. It appeared
to him to confirm Dr. Huggins's statements, except only that the dark
Fraunhofer lines were not visible, the photograph having probably
been taken under less favorable conditions.... But the latest comet
has brought with it fresh news. Its spectrum is not like that given
by the comets we are considering. The bright lines of sodium are
seen in it, and also other bright lines and groups of lines which
have not yet been shown to be identical with any belonging to the
hydrocarbon groups, but probably are so.... The cyanogen groups are
not seen.... But it is manifest that this comet underwent important
changes.... In April was found simply a faint continuous spectrum; in
May the three bands associated with carbon were present, though faint,
while there was no trace whatever of the sodium band. On the contrary,
in June the nucleus of the comet gave a very strong and extended
continuous spectrum with an excessively strong bright line in the
orange-yellow identical with the well-known double sodium line of the
solar spectrum. On this ... it is necessary to conclude that during
the last fortnight of May the spectrum of Wells's comet had changed
in a manner of which the history of science furnishes no precedent."
It should be observed that the elements carbon and hydrogen closely
resemble each other, not only in their multifarious chemical
affinities and reactions, but in their electric polarities, and the
hydrocarbon compounds, like their constituents, carbon and hydrogen,
are electrically similar to each other, an example of this similarity
of the elements being found in the identical action of the carbon
arc and hydrogen envelope in the heating and lighting experiments
with electrical currents hereinbefore described.
We have already seen that carbon follows quite a different law from the
other concrete elements, in the fact that its electrical resistance
diminishes as the temperature rises; it also differs widely from
the other solid elements in its atomic heat, which has a value much
less than one-half the mean constant, which is 6.4. Of this matter of
specific heat, Professor Fownes, in his work on chemistry (Bridges'
edition), says, "Dulong and Petit observed in the course of their
investigation a most remarkable circumstance. If the specific heats
of bodies be computed upon equal weights, numbers are obtained all
different and exhibiting no simple relations among themselves; but if,
instead of equal weights, quantities be taken in the proportion of the
atomic weights, an almost perfect coincidence in the numbers will be
observed, showing that some exceedingly intimate connection must exist
between the relations of bodies to heat and their chemical nature; and
when the circumstance is taken into view that relations of even a still
closer kind link together chemical and electrical phenomena, it is not
too much to expect that ere long some law may be discovered far more
general than any with which we are yet acquainted.... Nevertheless,
this law must not be understood as perfectly general, for there are
three elements--namely, carbon, boron, and silicon" [these form a
single group of elements in chemical classification]--"which exhibit
decided exceptions to it."
Organic chemistry is substantially based upon the almost infinitely
interchanging relations among carbon-hydrogen radicals, supplemented
by a few other elements. According to Professor Fownes, "Organic
chemistry is in fact the chemistry of carbon compounds." The position
of carbon among the elements is something like that of camphor among
the oils, the latter being a volatile oil, but concrete in form. With
a concrete element having the peculiar character of carbon we can
well understand its universal chemical and electrical relationship
with gaseous hydrogen in the grandest operations of nature.
Cyanogen is an electrically similar compound of carbon with the
addition of nitrogen. Of these elements it will be seen that nitrogen
and hydrogen are found to exist also in the gaseous nebulæ, and with
the probable addition there of oxygen; but in comets the quota of
active oxygen must be sought for in the correlated planetary, and
not in the cometic, atmospheres, as is the case with the sun. Of
the presence of the vapor of carbon in comets Professor Ball says,
"This is a very singular fact, when it is remembered that carbon is
one of the substances essentially associated with life in the forms in
which we know it." Professor Huggins says, "Since that time the light
from some twenty comets has been examined by different observers. The
general close agreement in all cases, notwithstanding some small
divergencies, of the bright bands in the cometary light with those
seen in the spectrum of hydrocarbons justifies us fully in ascribing
the original light of these comets to matter which contains carbon
in combination with hydrogen."
We may learn something further of the constitution of comets,
perhaps, by considering the chemical reactions which their spectra
seem to indicate. The following extract is from a recent article on
the manufacture of illuminating gas: "Ammonia contains 82.35 parts
of nitrogen and 17.65 of hydrogen. It is not produced by a direct
combination, for nitrogen can be caught and wedded only by a hot and
skilful wooing. In the gas retort, at a temperature of 2200 degrees
and in the presence of lime, soda, or potash, it will combine with
carbon and form cyanogen, and then further combine with the alkali
to form a cyanide. There is steam in the retort, and, as nearly
as the gas chemists can make out, the nitrogen promptly divorces
itself, gives up the carbon to the oxygen of the steam, and, taking
the hydrogen to itself, becomes, for the time at least, a fixed, if
volatile, substance, but ever ready to enter into new alliances." It
will be remembered that in the comets examined by Professors Huggins
and Draper the spectroscope revealed both cyanogen and the double
line of sodium. The function of the sodium is readily understood,
as by its presence it enables the nitrogen in the cometic atmosphere
to combine with a part of the carbon of the gaseous hydrocarbons
which constitute this atmosphere, and thus produce the cyanogen. But
to effect this combination requires in the retort a temperature of
2200 degrees. If the combining temperature around the nucleus of a
comet is the same, it will show that the temperature of this comet's
nucleus must be very high, and, while many times less than that of
the sun's photosphere, it still clearly illustrates the powerful
character of the impact of the planetary electrical currents upon
the comet, and its tremendous repulsion by the similarly electrified
solar electrosphere. The second one of the above reactions, that
from cyanogen to ammonia, is due to the steam or aqueous vapor in
the retort. But in the case of the comet all the aqueous vapor and
its constituent oxygen have disappeared by electrolytic decomposition
long before the combining temperature of cyanogen has been reached;
so that the sodium, the hydrocarbons, and the cyanogen alone appear,
and the oxygen compounds are missing. But on the reversal of polarity
of this comet by contact with a planetary electrosphere, should such
ever occur, and its consequent assumption of positive electricity,
the oxygen would again appear, and, if the temperature had not yet
receded below that of the reaction which produces ammoniacal vapors,
we might expect, should a fragment of this comet enter our atmosphere
as a meteorite, to find ammonia as well as sodium as a constituent
thereof; otherwise the ammonia would be replaced by carbonic oxide
and carbonic acid, by the action of oxygen upon the hydrocarbons,
and water by the action of oxygen upon the hydrogen of the same,
at much lower temperatures than would suffice for the generation of
ammonia. The cyanogen would then perhaps remain as cyanide of sodium,
unless decomposed by contact with the meteoric metallic iron at a
high temperature, as occurs in the operation known in the arts as
"case-hardening." The presence of microscopic diamonds in meteorites
may be accounted for by a somewhat similar reducing reaction under
heat and the active force of the planetary and solar voltaic arc.
In the popular view comets are always associated with tails, but,
in fact, comets without tails are far more numerous than those to
which these appendages pertain; the tails, when such exist, are the
direct result of the repulsive energy of the solar electrosphere,
and are only manifested when their proximity to the sun has aroused
sufficient activity to swiftly sweep backward from the sun with
inconceivable velocity the gaseous matter concentrated in and around
the nucleus. As these tails owe their formation to the sun's repulsive
energy, they must always extend radially outward from the sun, and by
the self-repulsive energy of the diverse constituents of the tails
themselves these will be broken occasionally into two, four, or six
lateral strands, and (possibly by the attraction of the different
planetary electrospheres) curvatures may be apparent along the sweep
of the comets' tails corresponding, in effect, with perturbations
produced by gravity in the orbit of the nucleus. Of these various
phenomena, Professor Proctor, in his article on comets, says, "A very
large number of comets have no visible tails. When first seen in the
telescope a comet usually presents a small, round disk of hazy light,
somewhat brighter near the center. As the comet approaches the sun the
disk lengthens, and, if the comet is to be a tailed one, traces begin
to be observed of a streakiness in the comet's light. Gradually a tail
is formed, which is turned always from the sun. The tail grows brighter
and larger, and the head becomes developed into a coma surrounding
a distinctly marked nucleus. Presently the comet is lost to view
through its near approach to the sun; but after a while it is again
seen, sometimes wonderfully changed in aspect through the effects of
solar heat. Some comets are brighter and more striking after passing
their point of nearest approach to the sun than before; others are
quite shorn of their splendor when they reappear." This change of
aspect is not due to solar heat, but to the energetic repulsion of
the solar electrosphere. The force of gravity irresistibly impels
the comet forward to the sun's electrical vortex, and the change of
aspect is due to the repulsion of its entire stock of free gaseous
matter into space in case its supply is small, or to its increased
development and pouring forth in case the supply is large. It is
like the volatilization by a heated atmosphere of ammoniacal gas,
for instance, absorbed in water. The ebullition is vastly increased
by the heat, but if the entire stock of ammonia has been driven off
in its passage through the heated medium, it will emerge with the
residual water quiescent; otherwise, in a state of increased agitation.
The same author, in "Cometic Mysteries," says, "Repulsion of the
cometary matter could only take place if this matter, after it has
been driven off from the nucleus, and the sun have both high electric
potentials of the same kind." His further guess, however, that it is
analogous to the aurora, is wide of the mark; it is due, in fact,
to the mutual repulsion of their similar negative electrospheres,
the cometic electrosphere, however, being so much smaller than that
of the sun that the latter shows no appreciable disturbance, as
is the case, under similar circumstances, with the electrospheres
of the earth and moon. In the article last quoted it is said,
"There is a dark space immediately behind the nucleus,--that is,
where the nucleus, if solid, would throw its shadow if there were
matter to receive the light all round so that the shadow could be
seen." This presents, it is stated, a great difficulty. The author,
by a happy guess,--almost an inspiration, in fact, of which this
splendid writer and observer was so full,--suggests in a foot-note a
possible explanation, which, while not in itself correct, suggests an
analogous process very like what we actually see. "If the particles
forming the envelopes are minute flat bodies, and if anything in the
circumstances under which these particles are driven off into the
tail causes them to always so arrange themselves that the planes in
which they severally lie pass through the axis of the tail (which,
if the tail is an electrical phenomenon, might very well happen),
then we should find the region behind the nucleus very dark or almost
black, for the particles in the direction of the line of sight there
would be turned edgewise towards us, whereas those on either side or
in the prolongation of the envelopes would turn their faces towards
the observer." As a matter of fact, the envelope streaming backward
from the nucleus forms a hollow tube, the opposite sides of which
exhibit the same mutual repulsion as both exhibit towards the sun;
hence the phenomenon would be similar to that exhibited by blowing
into a closed bag of porous material covered with wisps of cotton, for
example, and the gases, in addition to their rush backward from the
sun, would also exhibit a radial rush outward from the longitudinal
axis of the tail. This is what we actually observe, and sufficiently
accounts for the phenomenon, be it altogether or only partially real,
and not merely, as that author thinks it may be, apparent. It is said,
in the same article, that "Bredichen has shown that where there are
three tails to a comet their forms correspond with the theory that
the envelopes raised from the head are principally formed of hydrogen,
carbon, and iron; but this ... seems open at present to considerable
doubt." At all events, these separate tails are self-repulsive, or
they would be merged into each other by the sun's repulsive energy;
in fact, they occupy the resultant of the direction produced by the
line of the sun's repulsion and those of their own mutually repellent
force,--that is to say, radial or divergent.
It must not be supposed that these tails are of insignificant
proportions. "When we see the tail of a comet occupying a volume
thousands of times greater than that of the sun itself, the question
naturally suggests itself, 'How does it happen that so vast a body
can sweep through the solar system without deranging the motion of
every planet?' Conceding even an extreme tenuity to the substance
composing so vast a volume, one would still expect its mass to be
tremendous. For instance, if we supposed the whole mass of the tail of
the comet of 1843 to consist of hydrogen gas (the lightest substance
known to us), yet even then the mass of the tail would have largely
exceeded that of the sun. Every planet would have been dragged from
its orbit by so vast a mass passing so near. We know, on the contrary,
that no such effects were produced. The length of our year did not
change by a single second.... Thus we are forced to admit that the
actual substance of the comet was inconceivably rare.... From what we
have already seen, it will be manifest that the formation of comets'
tails is a process of a very marvellous nature, apparently involving
forces other than those with which we are acquainted. The tail, ninety
million miles in length, which was seen stretching from the head of
Newton's comet nearly along the path which the retreating comet had
to traverse, must, it would seem, have been formed by some force
far more active than the force of gravity. The distance traversed
by the comet in the last four weeks of its approach to the sun under
gravity was no greater than that over which the matter of the tail,
seen after the comet had circled around the sun, had been carried in a
few hours. Yet we have no other evidence of any repulsive force at all
being exerted by the sun,--at least no evidence which can be regarded
as demonstrative,--and still less have we any evidence of a repulsive
force exceeding in energy the sun's attracting power." (Proctor.)
CHAPTER IX.
INTERPRETATION OF COMETIC PHENOMENA.
Now, curiously enough, we have in constant use in our laboratories a
little instrument called the electroscope, in which we have manifested
very clearly a repulsive force exceeding in energy the earth's
attracting power, and very greatly exceeding it. It is described in
"Electricity in the Service of Man" as follows: "If we rub a large
glass rod with a silk pad, we observe that it will attract light
bodies, then, after contact, repel them. During the process we may
notice a peculiar noise, and if the experiment be carried out in
the dark we may further notice sparks passing between the rod and
the rubber, and also that the rod becomes luminous. If we suspend
a pith-ball by means of a silk thread, on bringing the rubbed rod
near the pith-ball it will move towards the rod, touch it, and then
be repelled. If the glass rod be again brought near the pith-ball, it
will move away from the glass rod, and continue to be repelled until it
has been touched by some other body.... In order to ascertain whether
electricity is communicated by electrified bodies to non-electrified
bodies when brought into contact, let us suspend two pith-balls from
the same point of support by threads of uniform silk, and touch the
pith-balls with the rubbed glass rod. The balls fly from the rod and
also from one another. On bringing near them a third pith-ball or
any other light body, we find that, though they repel one another,
they are attracted by the light body, showing that they have become
electrified by contact with the rubbed glass rod. From this we
conclude that an unelectrified body may be electrified by contact
with an electrified body, and also that there is repulsion after
contact. There is mutual repulsion between two electrified bodies,
but there is attraction between a single electrified body and one
that is unelectrified." The mutual repulsion of these pith-balls
is the exact measure of the strength of electrification. Hung
side by side to the knob of a prime conductor of an electrical
machine, the mutual repulsion of the similar electrospheres of
these pith-balls drives them apart against the earth's gravity
and holds them extended, if the electrical tension be sufficient,
to their widest limit of divergence. It is, in effect, precisely
similar to the action of the solar and cometic electrospheres (see
illustration in a previous chapter, page 124), each being similarly
electrified and communicating with the other across a space which,
as before stated, is freely traversable by electric currents without
appreciable resistance. That such electrospheres are flaming with
heat does not interfere with such self-repellent action; in fact,
it intensifies it. In Professor Tyndall's "Lessons in Electricity"
we read, "Flames and glowing embers act like points; they also rapidly
discharge electricity. The electricity escaping from a point or flame
renders the air self-repulsive. The consequence is that when the hand
is placed over a point mounted on the prime conductor of a machine in
good action a cold blast is distinctly felt.... Wilson moved bodies
by its action, Faraday caused it to depress the surface of a liquid,
Hamilton employed the reaction of the electric wind to make pointed
wires rotate. The 'wind' was also found to promote evaporation."
Let us now apply these principles to the tails of comets. If
we conceive the sun and comet to be analogous to our pith-balls,
one enormously larger than the other, however, and hung by vaporous
conducting cords from the combined generating planetary electrospheres,
both sun and cometic nucleus surrounded each by a vaporous envelope,
and suspended so that they will hang from parallel cords, say a
dozen million miles apart, and with no currents of electricity as
yet in operation, we will find that the sun and comet will be simply
attracted towards each other by the force of gravity, so that their
suspending cords will converge. If the planetary electrical machines
now commence their rotations, and currents of electricity begin to pass
in quantity and intensity like those which pass between the earth and
the sun, both the solar and cometic pith-balls will become similarly
electrified, and their gaseous atmospheres, instead of drawing
towards each other, will become luminous and self-repulsive. The
atmosphere which surrounds the cometic pith-ball, by reason of
its great tenuity, will be driven backward with extreme velocity,
while the solar pith-ball electrosphere will be so little affected
that its repulsion will be imperceptible. All the gaseous matter,
however, of the smaller pith-ball will be forced off in a direction
opposite that of the larger one, and this repulsive energy will even
carry the pith-balls apart, causing the suspending cords to widely
diverge from each other, while the force of gravity of the earth
tends to bring them nearer together. If the gravity of the larger
pith-ball, however, was equal, relatively, to that of the sun, the
result would be that the solid pith-balls would be mutually attracted
by gravitation and only the electrified atmospheres, would be mutually
repelled. This experiment would present phenomena similar to those
we are now considering. (See illustration, page 211.)
In describing Newton's comet, with a tail ninety million miles long
projected backward both from the sun and the comet, when it disappeared
in the light of the sun, and exhibiting a similar tail, also ninety
million miles long, when, less than four days afterwards, it reappeared
from behind the sun, but with the tail now directed forward from the
comet, but in both cases extended radially outward from the sun, it
is obvious that this whole tail must have made a sweeping change of
direction of nearly one hundred and eighty degrees upon the nucleus
as its center. Professor Proctor says, "As Sir John Herschel remarks,
we cannot look on the tail of a comet as something whirled round
like a stick as the comet circles around its perihelion sweep. The
tail with which the comet reappeared must have been an entirely new
formation." It is true that a comet's tail cannot be conceived of as
being whirled round like a stick, but we can very readily conceive
of it as something like a flame composed of incandescent gases,
and it may very easily be blown round a stick; and this is precisely
what must happen in the case of a comet. Construct, for experiment,
a little apparatus consisting of a blow-pipe adapted to deliver a
current of air between two horizontal metal disks, say an eighth of
an inch apart, one perforated at the center to admit the nozzle of
the blow-pipe. By directing a constant current of air through the
latter, it will be deflected so as to blow radially outward in all
directions and in the same plane. Now take a stick with a flame on
the end of it, or a lighted candle, and with it approach this center
of repellent energy in the plane of the space between the disks and
along an ellipse representing the orbit of a comet. As the flame
approaches the improvised solar center it will be driven backward
from the wick of the candle almost along the line of its approach,
and as it passes around the center it will be constantly blown outward
in a radial direction until, when it recedes after perihelion, the
flame will be seen pointed almost directly ahead. At all times the
direction of the flame will lie along the radial lines prolonged
outward from the center through the wick of the candle, and it will
not be a new flame generated at every change of its direction, but
the same flame constantly forced outward by the repulsive force of
the central atmosphere in this case or the solar electrosphere in
the case of the sun. This experiment is an accurate and conclusive
exhibit of the phenomena of solar repulsion in its action upon the
tail of a comet. It is analogous in principle to the repulsion of
the pith-balls and the electric wind and (in application) to the
phenomena presented by comets in their movements to, around, and
from the sun. This repulsion is not operative in effect against the
wick of the candle,--that is to say, it is not the repulsion of the
nucleus which determines the direction of the tail, but the repulsion
by direct outblow of the sun, so to speak, upon the incandescent
gases of the tail itself. This fact clearly demonstrates that the
repulsion of like electrospheres is the cause of the phenomenon, and,
when once understood, the process is quite as simple as that of the
original formation of the tail itself, which no one disputes.
There is to be further considered the theoretical resistance of
space to the projection and deflection of such enormous volumes
of attenuated matter as appear in comets' tails. While it may not
be absolutely necessary to offer an explanation of this apparent
difficulty, in view of the fact that such projection and deflection
do actually occur, still, the well-known laws of the diffusion of
gases, in accordance with which any gaseous matter will traverse
any other gaseous matter with the same velocity as, and with no more
resistance than, in a vacuum, will show that this difficulty has been
much overrated, while for the twin difficulty, how to account for the
persistence of luminosity at such vast distances from its source, we
may quote from Professor Proctor, "Cometic Mysteries," who, in turn,
quotes as follows: "Comets travel in what must be regarded as to
all intents and purposes a vacuum. From Dr. Crookes' experiments on
very high vacua we may infer that there is very little loss of heat,
except by radiation." By "intents and purposes" we understand, of
course, as a cause of resistance, and certainly there is no reason to
believe that the attenuated vapors of space are sufficient in density
to cause any rapid diffusion of heat by convection, as contrasted
with that of radiation.
We have seen that comets of short period sometimes disappear, and
that their disappearance is frequently followed by the appearance
of trains of meteors. In other words, they have apparently lost
their cometic properties and become permanent adjuncts to our solar
system. A curious confirmation of this fact is to be found in the
character of the occluded gases which are contained in such meteorites
as sometimes fall upon the earth's surface. Of this Professor Proctor
says, "We have reason to believe that the nucleus of a comet consists
of an aggregation of stones similar to meteorites." Speaking of
the condition in which meteorites reach the earth, he says, "They
are known to contain as much as six times their own volume of gases
(taken at atmospheric pressure). In one of these meteorites recently
examined by Dr. Flight, the following percentages of various gases
were noted: Of carbonic oxide, 31.88; of carbonic acid gas, 0.12; of
hydrogen, 45.79; of olefiant gas, 4.55; and of nitrogen, 17.66." The
presence of olefiant gas at once suggests the hydrocarbons of the
cometic nucleus. The presence of this gas cannot be accounted for by
the passage of the meteorite through our atmosphere, nor can that of
hydrogen, and these are two characteristic gases, together with the
vapor of carbon, constantly found to exist in comets.
As before explained, the advent of a comet into our solar system
is that of a stranger, with electric polarity the opposite of
that of the planetary electrospheres and identical with that of
the sun. Under the combined influence of the solar gravity and
perturbation by the gravity of the planets these foreign bodies
tend to shorten their periods, and finally fall into the ordinary
array of the bodies which compose our own solar system. But when
this occurs they will, in turn, become contributors to, instead of
antagonists of, the energy of the sun; in other words, they must then
conform electrically to the condition of the family into which they
have married,--that is to say, the planets,--and a reversal of their
electrical polarity will take place. This reversal of polarity is no
novelty in the operation of electrical apparatus. In "Electricity in
the Service of Man" we read as follows of the Voss induction machine:
"This machine is exceedingly powerful in favorable weather, but has
an important defect in a tendency to self-reversal, which is apt to
occur at a stoppage. This defect can be produced in a Voss machine,
when desired, by holding a metal point to the positive brush K. The
two derived inductive circuits are beautifully manifested when this
machine is worked in the dark. A luminous stream is seen pouring
towards the collecting comb L on whichever side of the machine the comb
is positive." It will thus be seen that simple contact of a neutral
(or negatively opposite) body will reverse the electrical polarity
of this machine, or even the interruption of its motion will do so
at times. Possibly a similar reversal may be produced in a comet
by the contact in whole or in part of its nucleus with a planetary
electrosphere, since the action of gravity is entirely independent
of that of the attraction or repulsion of the electrospheres of both
planetary and cometic bodies. Such reversal of polarity in a comet
would at once extinguish its luminosity, and the generation of oxygen
would at once replace the prior generation of hydrogen, and herein
we may find explained the presence of carbonic oxide in large volume
and carbonic acid in small volume in the meteorite above referred to,
and of which gases Professor Proctor says, "It is quite certain these
gases were not taken up by the meteorolite during its flight through
the air." These aggregations of discrete meteoric bodies, loosely
adherent by mutual gravity alone, would be gradually torn apart by
planetary interference and dragged into streams of small bodies,
thenceforth traversing space in elliptical orbits around the sun,
just as do the planets and planetoids. Cyanogen, also, the deadly gas
so frequently found to exist in enormous quantities in the nuclei of
comets, would at once disappear, by double conversion into carbonic
acid, or oxide, and ammonia, or nitrogen, so that this danger, as
the result of a comet's possible approach to the earth's atmosphere,
may be dismissed from apprehension.
It will be seen that all the enormous difficulties in the phenomena
of comets find an explanation in the operation of the same universal
laws which we have endeavored to apply to the other sidereal bodies. In
conclusion, we may cite the following from Dr. Huggins: "Broadly, the
different applications of principles of electricity which have been
suggested group themselves about the common idea that great electrical
disturbances are set up by the sun's action in connection with the
vaporization of some of the matter of the nucleus, and that the tail
is probably matter carried away, possibly in connection with electric
discharges, under an electrical influence of repulsion exerted by the
sun. This view necessitates the supposition that the sun is strongly
electrified, either negatively or positively, and, further, that in
the processes taking place in the comet, either of vaporization or
of some other kind, the matter thrown out by the nucleus has become
strongly electrified in the same way as the sun,--that is, negatively
if the sun's electricity is negative, or positively if the sun's is
positive. The enormous disturbances which the spectroscope shows
to be always at work in the sun must be accompanied by electrical
changes of equal magnitude, but we know nothing as to how far these
are all, or the great majority of them, in one direction, so as
to cause the sun to maintain permanently a high electrical state,
whether positive or negative." The above speculations will have thus
become demonstrated facts (though not in the mode suggested by the
above writer) as soon as we clearly understand that, instead of the
sun's "enormous disturbances" producing "electrical changes of equal
magnitude," it is the electrical changes of equal magnitude which
themselves cause the sun's disturbances, and that the sun's negative
electrical polarity is permanently fixed by the opposite and positive
polarity of the planetary electrospheres, and that all these various
phenomena are but the normal expression of a single universal law,
and are all due to the constant interaction of planetary, solar,
and cometic electrospheres, in accordance with the well-established
principles of electrical science. If, however, we consider, as is
generally believed to be the case, the sun itself to be the sole
prime source of its visible energy, nothing but difficulty and vague
speculation can be looked for on every hand; but by relegating the
solar orb to its proper place, and taking as the starting-point the
true source of all energy,--to wit, the hidden forces embodied in the
vapors or gases of interstellar space,--the whole process and mode of
action will logically follow, and obscurity and difficulty together
disappear. This principle, properly understood, is a master-key which
will unlock every problem and interpret every enigma which the realms
of interstellar space can present.
CHAPTER X.
THE RESOLVABLE NEBULÆ, STAR-CLUSTERS AND GALAXIES.
When we come to consider the nebulæ, and endeavor to learn what part
electricity has to play in the phenomena presented by these singular
objects, we must recollect, in order to give them their due importance,
that they are neither few in number nor uniform in constitution. Of
the nebulæ, Professor Proctor ("Star-Clouds and Star-Mist") says,
"When the depths of the heavens are explored with a powerful
telescope a number of strange cloud-like objects are brought into
view. It is startling to consider that if the eye of man suddenly
acquired the light-gathering power of a large telescope, and if at
the same time all the single stars disappeared, we should see on the
celestial vault a display of the mysterious objects called nebulæ or
star-clouds exceeding in number all the stars which can now be seen
on the darkest night in winter. The whole sky would seem mottled
with these singular objects." As telescopes, with the advances of
constructive art, increased in power, these luminous clouds became
more and more clearly defined, and many of them became resolved into
clusters of stars, galaxies of suns like the Milky Way, of which latter
our solar system is a constituent part, but more distant from us than
the separately visible stars of that galaxy, and each separated from
the relatively adjacent clusters by intervals of space comparable only
with those which separate them from our own system. Of these glorious
star-clusters, says Flammarion, in "The Wonders of the Heavens,"
"In the bosom of infinite space, the unfathomable depth of which we
have tried to comprehend, float rich clusters of stars, each separated
by immense intervals. We shall soon show that all the stars are suns
like ours, shining with their own light, and foci of as many systems
of worlds. Now, the stars are not scattered in all parts of space
at hazard; they are grouped as the members of many families. If
we compared the ocean of the heavens with the ocean of the earth,
we should say that the isles which sprinkle this ocean do not rise
separately in all parts of the sea, but that they are united here and
there in archipelagoes more or less rich.... They are all collected in
tribes, most of which count their members by millions." Says Professor
Nichol, "System on system of majesty unspeakable float through the
fathomless ocean of space. Our galaxy, with splendors that seem
illimitable, is only a unit among unnumbered throngs; we can think
of it, in comparison with creation, but as we were wont to think of
one of its own stars. "Of these glorious star-clusters the same writer
says, "That no one has ever seen them in a telescope of adequate power
without uttering a shout of wonder." These mist-like star-clouds were
successively resolved, nebula by nebula, until science settled into
the belief that with telescopes of adequate power all nebulæ might be
so resolved, and the capacity of telescopes to thus resolve nebulæ
became a test of their power. But spectrum analysis finally entered
the lists with new methods of investigation, and the comparatively
tiny spectroscope at a single leap passed far beyond the utmost
limits of the highest telescopic vision, and at one blow struck the
whole category of nebulæ into two widely different classes,--those
composed of discrete stars grouped like the suns of our own Milky
Way, and exhibiting the characteristic spectra of such bodies, and
those composed of diffused gaseous matter not yet condensed into
suns, and showing the disconnected spectral lines of simple elemental
gases. The line of division was clear, direct, positive, and beyond all
dispute. Yet beyond these two classes further research has disclosed
certain vast nebulæ in which some portions exhibit true solar spectra
more or less modified and others true gaseous spectra, each apparently
merging into the other by gradations so faint and delicate that the
inference is irresistible that in these nebulæ we see the processes
of galactic and solar creation at various stages of their development.
Of these nebulæ, Professor Ball says, "In one of his most remarkable
papers, Sir W. Herschel presents us with a summary of his observations
on the nebulæ, arranged in such a manner as to suggest his theory
of the gradual transmutation of nebulæ into stars. He first shows
us that there are regions in the heavens where a faint diffused
nebulosity is all that can be detected by the telescope. There are
other nebulæ in which a nucleus can be just discerned, others again
in which the nucleus is easily seen, and still others where the
nucleus is a bright star-like point. The transition from an object
of this kind to a nebulous star is very natural, while the nebulous
stars pass into the ordinary stars by a few graduated stages. It
is thus possible to enumerate a series of objects, beginning at one
end with the most diffused nebulosity and ending at the other with
an ordinary fixed star or group of stars. Each object in the series
differs but slightly from the object just before it and just after
it." And of these composite nebulæ, he adds, "The great nebula in
Orion is known to be the most glorious body of its class that the
heavens display. Seen through a powerful telescope, ... the appearance
of this grand 'light stain' is of indescribable glory. It is a vast
volume of bluish gaseous material with hues of infinite softness
and delicacy. Here it presents luminous tracts which glow with an
exquisite blue light; there it graduates off until it is impossible
to say where the nebula ceases and the black sky begins."
With reference to these distant galaxies of apparently complete solar
systems like our own, the same principles must regulate the conversion
of this energy of planetary electricity into the energy of solar
light and heat as we see manifested in our own sun. The light of the
individual stars is sufficient evidence of this; but the question may
be asked, Is the electrical interaction between separate galaxies and
between different solar systems in the same galaxy universal, or are
these operations merely local? In other words, Is the source and the
mode of solar energy in accordance with a single universal law of and
between all created universes, or is it limited in effective energy
to the members of each individual solar system alone? The answer
is, that it is not less universal than the law of gravitation and
no more so. There is a prevalent popular fallacy that the force of
gravity is such that the movements, not only of solar systems, but
of whole galaxies, and of all the illimitable systems of galaxies,
are under its effective control, and that the whole universe of
boundless space acknowledges its overwhelming sway. But nothing can be
further from the truth. We know, of course, that the law is universal,
as expressed in the statement of its terms by Newton, but the mere
statement of the law itself, as applied to interstellar distances,
refutes the idea that solar systems and galaxies can rotate around
any common center by virtue of the attraction of gravitation as a
controlling force. The universality of the law itself has even been
doubted. Professor Ball says, "In the first book about astronomy which
I read in my boyhood there was a glowing description.... I allude to
the discovery, or the alleged discovery, of a certain 'central sun'
about which it was believed or stated that all the bodies in the
universe revolved.... It was too good to be true. No one ever hears
anything about the central sun hypothesis nowadays.... It must be,
then, admitted that when the law of gravitation is spoken of as being
universal, we are using language infinitely more general than the
facts absolutely warrant. At the present moment we only know that
gravitation exists to a very small extent in a certain indefinite
small portion of space. Our knowledge would have to be enormously
increased before we could assert that gravitation was in operation
throughout this very limited region; and even when we have proved
this, we should only have made an infinitesimal advance to a proof
that gravitation is absolutely universal."
Anyone who chooses may prove for himself that the force exercised by
gravitation between the multitudinous suns of our own galaxy, the Milky
Way, and our earth must be quite infinitesimal, and totally unable to
control the motions of our own solar system in a definite orbit through
universal space. We know that the law which regulates the intensity of
light at various distances is the same as the law of gravity,--that
is to say, the proportion is directly as the mass and inversely as
the square of the distance. We know also that the stars which compose
the Milky Way are similarly constituted, generally considered, to our
own sun, and that under similar circumstances the emission of light,
roughly speaking, will vary according to the magnitude of these distant
suns. Now, if any one will stand, at the darkest hour of the night,
when the moon is absent and the sky perfectly cloudless, when the
"Stars that oversprinkle all the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight,"
and sweep with his gaze all the concave hemisphere of the sky, and
then compare the light which is radiated around him with the gorgeous
effulgence of the noonday summer sun, he can pretty closely compare
the relative attraction of gravity which all those distant suns
together can exercise upon our earth with that of our own sun. Under
control of the latter, the earth sweeps around in her orbit at the
rate of about twenty miles per second; all these suns could not give
our solar system even a minute fraction of that. Of this starlight
Professor Ball says, "The sun certainly must receive some heat by
the radiation from the stars; but this is quite infinitesimal in
comparison with his own stupendous radiation." Any such attraction,
of course, could not control the motions of our solar system, and
much less that of many of the others.
"The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one,
But the light of the whole world dies when the day is done."
We can also demonstrate the fact mathematically by an exceedingly
rough calculation, which, however, will be sufficient for our
purpose. Of the Milky Way, which comprises only the stars of our own
sidereal system, Professor Ball says, "One hundred million stars are
presumed to be disposed in a flat circular layer of such dimensions
that a ray of light would require thirty thousand years to traverse
one diameter." (The most recent estimates make the number of the
stars which compose the Milky Way several times one hundred million,
occupying a correspondingly greater amplitude of space. The number in
any case is sufficiently stupendous.) Our solar system is located in
space at the apex of a vast transverse cleft, and nearly at the center
of this disk. Let us leave out of consideration the lower half of the
Milky Way, as we look upward on a starlit night, and conceive this
galaxy to extend only across the midnight sky above us like an archway,
with fifty million suns, visible and invisible, exposed in the field
of our vision. The nearest of all the fixed stars to us is that known
as Alpha Centauri,--not visible, however, in our northern skies. This
star is about two hundred and thirty thousand times as far from our
sun as is the earth. If of the same mass as our sun, it must exert
upon us an attractive force of gravity one fifty-three-billionth
that of our own sun. Next in distance is the star No. 61 of the
constellation Cygnus. This may be three times as distant, and is
certainly not less than twice. The light of the former will reach
the earth in three and one-quarter years; that of the latter in not
less than six and one-half years, perhaps much more. These are our
nearest stellar neighbors. While the former will attract us with only
one fifty-three-thousand-millionth that of the sun, the latter will
attract us with less than one two-hundred-thousand-millionth that of
our sun. Conceive, then, a square pyramid extending radially upward
for three thousand times the mean of these distances to the upper
probable limits of the Milky Way, a light-distance of fifteen thousand
years, and that this pyramid expands according to the squares of its
distances, so that it will contain within it, equally distributed,
all the stars (fifty million) of the upper half of the disk of the
Milky Way; the sum total of all these attractions could not reach one
twenty-millionth part of that of our sun upon the earth. If we continue
to pile galaxies, in the same perpetual recession, behind each other
to all infinity, we still could not engender sufficient attractive
force to control the observed movements of the multitudinous stars of
space. The very statement of the law of gravitation itself disproves
it; for if we multiply orbs and systems according to any principle
of aggregation that we know of in the way of distribution of such
systems, or anything possible, with due regard to their own mutually
interacting movements in space, we could never reach the inside limits
of such a sphere of control, because the piling up of orb behind orb
adds but an infinitesimal fraction to the force of gravity, for as
the orbs themselves multiply in distance progressively by hundreds,
their relative attractions inversely diminish by ten thousands. No
possible increase of suns directly in mass could compensate for such
an inverse ratio of squares, even if all intergalactic space were
peopled with suns, instead of being, in fact, like a vast ocean, with
a few small clusters of islands scattered here and there throughout
its illimitable extent.
Of these vast realms of space, Professor Ball asks, "Is our sidereal
system to be regarded as an oceanic island in space, or is it in
such connection with the systems in other parts of space as might
lead us to infer that the various systems had a common character? The
evidence seems to show that the stars in our system are probably not
permanently associated together, but that in the course of time some
stars enter our system and other stars leave it, in such manner
as to suggest that the bodies visible to us are fairly typical
of the general contents of the universe. The strongest evidence
that can be presented on this subject is met with in the peculiar
circumstances of one particular star. The star in question is known
as No. 1830 of Groombridge's catalogue. It is a small star, not to be
seen without the aid of a telescope.... We shall probably be quite
correct in assuming that the distance is not less than two hundred
billions of miles.... The velocity is no less than two hundred miles
per second.... The star sweeps along through our system with this
stupendous velocity.... The velocity being over twenty-five miles a
second, the attraction can never overcome the velocity, so that the
star seems destined to escape." Of the star Alcyone he says, "Doubtless
that star is thousands of billions of miles from the earth; doubtless
the light from it requires thousands of years--and some astronomers
have said millions of years--to span the abyss which intervenes
between our globe and those distant regions." And yet these stars,
these galaxies, and even all the nebulæ we see or ever shall see, are
merely in the vestibule of space; we have scarcely even yet lifted the
outer curtain at the entrance of those vast realms. That the popular,
but pseudo-scientific, idea of a series of ever-widening concentric
orbits, increasing at every new expansion by an inconceivable ratio,
is incredible we can well understand, and it is a satisfaction to
know that such a wild hypothesis finds no warrant in the dicta or the
demonstrations of science. And it is in the failure of gravity to
control over the intervening space which lies between those vastly
distant centers that we may hope to find the inklings of a more
far-reaching law, by which nebulæ like that of Orion crystallize out
into separate star systems, just as in the rocks, whether igneous,
metamorphic, or sedimentary, we find the attraction of cohesion yield
to that of crystallization, until the whole cleft rock blazes with
countless garnets in the schist and quartz crystals in the gneiss,
or reveals the yellow specks of olivine in volcanic ejections.
We shall find in the processes concerned with the development of living
things the workings of a similar great law, perhaps the same. Wherever
there is the possibility of life, there we find life. There seems to
be an all-pervading vital tension, so to speak, an energizing force,
which drives the evolution and ascent of life forward and upward by
successive leaps, as it were, from type to type, from race to race,
and even from nation to nation. In this universal forward movement
we may dimly discern the primordial creative and developing impulse,
constantly acting, but manifesting visible change only at intervals
as gathering forces accumulate and equilibrium is disturbed. It
manifests itself in all the fields of nature,--vital, chemical,
molecular, molar, systemic. It is the ever-acting, eternal past,
present, and future, the macrocosm and the microcosm, the panurgus,
the Brahma, the Ancient of Days, and cannot be silenced or evaded:
"They reckon ill who leave me out,
When me they fly I am the wings."
R. Kalley Miller, in his "Romance of Astronomy," says, "It would be
hopeless to attempt expressing in ordinary language the vast distance
at which these clusters of stars are situated from us. If we were to
reckon it in miles, or even in millions of miles, figures would pile
upon figures till in their number all definite idea of their value
was lost. We must choose another unit to measure these infinitudes of
space,--a unit compared with which the dimensions of our own solar
system shrink into absolute nothingness. The velocity of light is
such that it would flash fifteen times from pole to pole of our earth
between two beats of the pendulum. It bridges the huge chasm that
separates us from the sun in little more than eight minutes. But the
light that shows us these faint star-clusters has been travelling
with this frightful velocity for more than two million years since
it left its distant source. We see them to-day in the fields of our
telescopes, not as they are now, but as they were countless ages before
the creation of man upon the earth. What they are now who can tell?"
The movements of solar systems through space are unquestionably
controlled by some wider law than that of gravitation, and it still
remains for science to seek its hidden principles and discover its
mode of operation. We know that some stars travel alone, like the
star already noted, No. 1830 of Groombridge's catalogue; that others
travel in pairs, like the double star Mizar and its companion Alcor;
and others in groups, like the stars Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and
Zeta, of the constellation Ursa Major; that we are driving towards
the constellation Lyra and leaving behind us Sirius and its fellows,
and that many, if not all, of the stars whose motions we can measure
have a rapid movement through space, but under what control, in accord
with what hidden harmony, and under what general plan they move,
we do not know; but the laws of electrical action of the circling
planets upon their central suns, and of these upon space, we can
readily account for by the similar operation of the same laws within
our own solar domain; and we know by the similar terms of the ratio
of distribution of light that this is commensurate in extent with the
law of gravity, and operates in a like proportion of energy over all
intervening distances; so that wherever our sun presents a visible
point of light, there it is pouring its energy into space, and every
sun we can see, every galaxy, every star-cluster, nay, every nebula,
is likewise pouring into the interplanetary space of our own solar
system its proportionate quota of energy. The very fact that we can
see the star shine is itself the fullest evidence that this is so,
and evidence also that the law of gravitation there, too, is still
in force, operating over these same distances, and with the same
proportionate energy.
Knowing all this, we can read with a new light the grand vistas
of the skies, with their starry denizens, and claim them all as
parts of our own family; and the mutual interchange of attractive
energy and of light and heat will not fail between us until those
inconceivable distances shall have been reached which human knowledge
can never span and where speculation fails; and even there, from out
those dark abysses,--dark to our human eyes,--the call will still
faintly reach us, and our response will reach them also, though we
shall never have tangible evidence that such mutual ties continue to
exist. Industriously our planets gather their mighty energies from
the surrounding springs of space, as one dips water from a crystal
stream; we hand it over to our sun, and he, the royal high-priest,
sprinkles it in glittering diamond-sprays over all those countless
suns and their subject worlds, and they are baptized with an eternal
baptism into our common brotherhood and we into theirs. Our familiar
planets, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, the earth, and even our little moon,
seem to raise their voices and take actual part in the councils of
almighty power, to move about as perpetual benefactors, gathering and
spreading beneficence abroad, instead of cowering, a hapless few,
like storm-stayed travellers, around the dying embers of our poor
old sun, passive recipients of the light and heat and life which we
have been taught to believe are slowly sinking into ashes and fading
away in eternal darkness and death. One swift glance into these
boundless truths is better for the human soul than the slow passage
of whole hopeless centuries, which leave as their inevitable legacy
on earth a vast and final catastrophe, in which everything that gave
us light and heat and being must perish forever. Has it, indeed,
come to this, that the last word which science has to offer is,
"After us the deluge"? By no means. We have merely been endeavoring
to measure the right hand of God by weighing and measuring a single
isolated one of his countless multitude of suns.
It is as though one standing beside a great water-wheel should estimate
its power and rotation by measuring the width and depth of the buckets
and calculating the weight of water which its thirty-two receptacles
contain, saying, "at its present rate in so many seconds it will cease
to move." But we take him to the water-gate, and show it wide open;
to the great dam above it which contains cubic miles of water; and
still beyond that to the mighty fountains bursting forth with their
rush and roar from the rock-ribbed fastnesses of the eternal hills,
and pouring their unfailing flood-tide down forever and ever. And we
do not pause even here: we show him the vapors rising from the spent
water again, condensing into clouds, pouring down in torrents of rain
among the hills, and that these continuously feed the sources of the
fountains, which in turn supply the wheel almost to bursting. And so
it is with the glorious mechanism of the heavens.
The source of solar energy is not to be found in the sun itself,
but in his environment; and he himself, in all his glory, is but the
king, crowned with gold, blazing with rich apparel, and scattering
benefits among his satellites, not from his own private treasury,
but who himself is enriched by the mighty tribute with which his
willing subjects continually endow him, and to whom alone he owes
all his pride and power and wealth and magnificence, and which he, in
turn, so freely expends, transmuted in form alone, in the perpetual
improvement and welfare of his domain. He is the faithful ruler,
but not the creator; the beneficent monarch, but not the god.
CHAPTER XI.
THE GASEOUS NEBULÆ.
When we reach the irresolvable nebulæ, we unquestionably have
approached the creative period of solar systems and in many cases
of whole galaxies. These are multifarious in form, but all can be
reduced to a few comprehensive types. In determining the question
as to whether these irresolvable nebulæ were composed of distinct
stars like the Milky Way, but too distant to be resolved from their
mist-like light into discrete stars by the most powerful telescopes,
or whether they were gaseous in constitution,--that is, composed
of diffused gaseous elements not condensed into solar bodies,--the
spectroscope became the final and infallible test. Of this instrument,
thus used, Professor Proctor, in his "Star-Clouds and Star-Mist," says,
"A very few words will explain the whole matter to readers who remember
the three fundamental laws of this new mode of investigation,--viz.,
that, first, light from a burning solid or liquid source gives the
rainbow-colored streak of light commonly known as the prismatic
spectrum; secondly, when vapors surround such a source of light, the
rainbow-colored streak is crossed by dark lines; and, thirdly, when the
source of light is gas, there is no longer a rainbow-colored streak,
but merely a finite number of bright lines." Dr. Huggins selected for
investigation the small planetary nebula in the Dragon. He says, "When
I had directed the telescope armed with the spectrum apparatus to this
nebula, I at first suspected that some derangement of the instrument
had taken place, for no spectrum was seen, but only a short line of
light. I then found that the light of this nebula, unlike any other
extra-terrestrial light which had yet been subjected by me to prismatic
analysis, was of definite colors, and therefore could not form a
spectrum. A great part of the light is monochromatic, and so remains
concentrated in a bright line occupying a position in the spectrum
corresponding to its color. Careful examination showed a narrower and
much fainter line near the one first discovered. Beyond this point,
about three times as far from the first line, was a third exceedingly
faint line. From the position of one of the bright lines it is inferred
the gas nitrogen is one of the constituents of the nebula; another line
indicates the existence of the gas hydrogen in that far-off system;
the third line has not yet been associated with any known terrestrial
element, though it is near one belonging to the metal barium, and
still nearer one belonging to oxygen; a fourth line occasionally seen
belongs to hydrogen." Professor Proctor says, "Dr. Huggins examined
a large number of the planetary nebulæ (so called), obtaining in
each case a spectrum which indicates gaseity. In some cases only one
line could be seen, in others two, more commonly three, and in a few
instances four. When these lines were seen they invariably corresponded
in position with those already described. The single line sometimes
seen corresponded with the brightest line of the three; and when a
second line was visible, this also was no new line, but agreed with
the second brightest line in the three-line spectrum. The fourth line
was seen only in the spectrum of a very bright, small, blue planetary
nebula, but was later observed in other cases, and especially in the
great Orion nebula." At this time the latter was not visible, but when
Dr. Huggins had opportunity to examine it, he says, "The telescopic
observations of this nebula seem to show that it is suitable to a
crucial test of the usually received opinion that the resolution of
a nebula into bright stellar points is a certain indication that the
nebula consists of discrete stars." Professor Proctor says, "A simple
glance resolved the difficulty. The light from the brightest part of
the nebula--the very part which under Lord Rosse's great reflector
blazed with innumerable points of light--gave a spectrum identical in
all respects with that which Huggins had obtained from the planetary
nebulæ. Thus, what had been deemed boldness in Herschel--namely,
that he should have associated the wildest and most fantastic nebula
in the heavens with the circular and (in ordinary telescopes) almost
uniformly luminous planetary nebulæ--was unexpectedly confirmed." The
spectrum of this nebula has more recently been photographed by a long
exposure in the camera of the prepared plate. Of the result, Professor
Proctor thus speaks, "The nebula is seen to be in great part gaseous,
and, where gaseous, to shine in the main with the tints described
above; but parts of the nebula are not gaseous, and those portions
which are so are not all constituted in the same manner.... That
portion which is called the fish's mouth gives a continuous spectrum;
in other words, the same spectrum which we obtain from a star or a
star-cluster. This is the spectrum arising from a glowing solid or
liquid mass, or if from a gaseous body, then the gaseous body must be
in a state of great compression.... But the stars thus forming must
be immersed in the glowing gas forming the general substance of the
nebula.... It would be absurd to suppose that the nebula is a flat
surface; ... nebulous matter lies also, in all probability (certainly
one might fairly say), between us and the stellar aggregration as
well as on the farther side." Further, the same author says, "If,
as is probable, the luminosity of the gaseous portion of the Orion
nebula is accompanied by but a relatively small proportion of heat,
then the rays from the violet and ultra-violet part of the spectrum
are likely to give us much more complete information respecting the
constitution of these nebulous masses than can be derived from the
visible part of the spectrum."
In the recent work of Professor Ball, "In the High Heavens," that
author says, "There are, however, good grounds for believing that
nebulæ really do undergo some changes, at least as regards brightness;
but whether these changes are such as Herschel's theory would seem
to require is quite another question. Perhaps the best-authenticated
instance is that of the variable nebula in the constellation of
Taurus, discovered by Mr. Hind in 1852. At the time of its discovery
this object was a small nebula about one minute in diameter, with a
central condensation of light. D'Arrest, the distinguished astronomer
of Copenhagen, found in 1861 that this nebula had vanished. On the 29th
of December, 1861, the nebula was again seen in the powerful refractor
at Pulkova, but on December 12, 1863, Mr. Hind failed to detect it
with the telescope by which it had been originally discovered.... In
1868, O. Struve, observing at Pulkova, detected another nebulous spot
in the vicinity of the place of the missing object, but this also
has now vanished. Struve, however, does not consider that the nebula
of 1868 is distinct from Hind's nebula, but he says, 'What I see is
certainly the variable nebula itself, only in altered brightness and
spread over a larger space. Some traces of nebulosity are still to be
seen exactly on the spot where Hind and D'Arrest placed the variable
nebula. It is a remarkable circumstance that this nebula is in the
vicinity of a variable star which changes somewhat irregularly from
the ninth to the twelfth magnitude. At the time of the discovery in
1861 both the star and the nebula were brighter than they have since
become.'... It must be admitted that the changes are such as would
not be expected if Herschel's theory were universally true. Another
remarkable occurrence in modern astronomy may be cited as having
some bearing on the question as to the actual evidence for or against
Herschel's theory. On November 24, 1876, Dr. Schmidt noticed a new star
of the third magnitude in the constellation Cygnus.... The brilliancy
gradually declined until, on the 13th of December, Mr. Hind found it to
be of the sixth magnitude. The spectrum ... exhibited several bright
lines which indicated that the star differed from other stars by the
possession of vast masses of glowing gaseous material.... September 2,
1877, it was then below the tenth magnitude and of a decidedly bluish
tint. Viewed through the spectroscope, its light was almost completely
monochromatic, and appeared to be indistinguishable from that which
is often found to come from nebulæ.... It would seem certain that
we have an instance before us in which a star has changed into a
planetary nebula of small angular diameter.... Professor Pickering,
however, has since found slight traces of a continuous spectrum, but
the object has now become so extremely faint that such observations
are very difficult.... For the nebular theory we require evidence
of the conversion of nebulæ into stars." And not, it may be added,
of stars into nebulæ.
Of the irregular nebulæ, Professor Proctor says, "It may well
chance, as long since suggested by Professor Clark, of Cincinnati,
and as more cautiously hinted by Dr. Huggins, that in the varieties
of constitution observed in the irregular nebulæ, and the evidence
such varieties afford of progressive changes, we may find not merely
direct evidence of the development of suns and sun-systems from the
great masses of nebulous matter, but even what would be a far more
important and impressive result,--actual evidence of the development
of so-called elements from substances really elementary, or, at any
rate, one stage nearer the elementary condition than are our hydrogen,
nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and so forth. The peculiarity of the spectral
indications of the presence of nitrogen and hydrogen in the nebula,
that only one line of nitrogen and two or three lines of hydrogen are
discernible, instead of a complete spectrum of either element as seen
under any known conditions, seems suggestive of what may be called
a more elemental condition of hydrogen and nitrogen." Whether this
be so, or whether these peculiarities are due to self-obscuration, or
mutual reversal of the familiar lines due to the enormous disturbances
of the nebular mass which must exist, it is certain that there is one
terrestrial substance, at least, which acts invariably, in combination
and chemical affinity, as a simple element in inorganic chemistry,
but which is, in fact, compound,--to wit, the hypothetical radical
ammonium, which is closely allied with the simple alkaline metals
potassium and sodium, forming with them a single group; and yet,
while the others have always remained as fixed, primitive elements,
the hypothetical element ammonium alone is a composite substance
consisting of hydrogen and nitrogen, two of the invariable gaseous
constituents of all these nebulæ. In comets we find, vaguely expressed,
an occasional strongly marked sodium line, and also the spectrum of
carbon; in these gaseous nebulæ we find, as yet, no trace of carbon,
and this element is so closely allied to hydrogen in its chemical
affinities and reactions as to suggest that it may be the same element
or some alloy of it, or in some allotropic form, as we find to be the
case with other simple elements under special conditions. In organic
chemistry--the chemistry of organic life--we find almost innumerable
compound radicals which act as simple elements in combination, but
which we can combine and separate into their constituents at will;
to all intents and purposes, in their various reactions, they behave
as elemental substances, and were it not that our analyses are able to
resolve them, as the spectroscope resolves the nebulæ, we might well
believe that here also we were dealing with simple primary elements. It
is almost certain that great discoveries in this field of chemistry
are not far distant, which will recall with wondering surprise the now
universally exploded fallacies of the "Philosopher's Stone" and the
"Universal Solvent." Indeed, we may find in the electrical energies
of the planets and the self-repulsive force of the electrospheres
of the earth and moon possible grounds for investigating anew some
of the abandoned tenets of astrology, in the hope that the light of
science may disclose some basis, at least, for what, at one time,--and
for nearly all time, in fact,--was the universally accepted belief,
not only of the ignorant, but of those the wisest and most learned of
their day and generation. If the planets by their position can cloud
the sun, nearly a million miles in diameter, with spots, or shed the
brilliance of the aurora borealis over all our skies, may they not
also cloud the embryonic intellect, or charge it with energies for
a career of prosperity or of disaster? May not the unseen currents,
or the electric storms around us, or the vast electrical phenomena
of the sun as well affect the sprouting germs of the husbandman or
some abnormally rapid development of an insect pest as the light,
the warmth, the moisture, or the cold, which, to our coarser vision,
are alone apparent? Fancy and fallacy revel luxuriantly where science
fails, but truth existed long before science was systematized, and the
supercilious condemnation of once generally accepted views without
examination is merely pseudo-science, and scarcely a single grade
higher in the scale than ignorant superstition itself. And every
new advance in knowledge requires a new overhauling of abandoned
material, just as a new advance in metallurgical knowledge enables
us sometimes to work over again our once-rejected mining dumps
with decided profit. Indeed, science itself is but a collection of
observed facts reduced to system, and among the shrewd and practical
miners there is a well-known saying, "The ore is where you find it,"
which has frequently put scientific assertion to the blush.
A study of the beautiful mezzotint plates, from the drawings of
the Earl of Rosse, contained in Professor Nichol's splendid work,
"The Architecture of the Heavens," will clearly disclose the forms, as
revealed by a powerful telescope, of many of these gaseous nebulæ. Of
such nebulæ, Appleton's Cyclopædia says, "nebulæ proper, or those
which have not been definitely resolved, are found in nearly every
quarter of the firmament, though abounding especially near those
regions which have fewest stars. Scarcely any are found near the
Milky Way, and the great mass of them lie in the two opposite spaces
farthest removed from this circle. Their forms are very various,
and often undergo strange and unexpected changes as the power of the
telescope with which they are viewed is increased, so as not to be
recognizable in some cases as the same objects." An example of this
is shown in Plate X. (Figs. 1 and 2) of Professor Nichol's work,
which gives a greatly enlarged view of those shown in Figs. 1 and 2
of Plate IX. (For Fig. 2 of Nichol's Plate X., see illustration of
nebula with double sun, in previous chapter.) Professor Nichol says,
"In every instance examined, save one, the planetary nebulæ are nebulæ
with hollow centers." The inference which this writer makes, that such
a planetary nebula consists of "a grand annular cluster of stars,"
has been since disproved by the discoveries of the spectroscope,
but the telescopic form remains true, and still awaits further
interpretation. While the irresolvable nebulæ seem to seek some
retired spot in space for their processes, like certain animals
when incubating, this rule is not universal. Of this, Appleton's
Cyclopædia says, "The density of nebular distribution increased with
the distance from the galactic zone for the irresolvable nebulæ,
but diminished with that distance for the clusters.... There is not a
gradual condensation of nebulæ towards two opposite regions, near the
poles of the galactic zone, but the nebulæ are gathered into streams,
nodules, and irregular aggregations such as we find in the grouping
of stars.... Between stars and nebulæ their arrangement follows the
law of contrast. There are two remarkable exceptions to this law,--the
Magellanic Clouds. In these, where stars of all orders, from the ninth
magnitude to irresolvable stellar aggregations, are as richly gathered
as in the galactic zone, nebulæ of all orders are also gathered richly,
even more so than anywhere else over the whole heavens." In the same
work, article "Nebula," it is stated of the planetary nebulæ, "There
are several which have perfectly the appearance of a ring, and are
called annular nebulæ.... Some appear to be physically connected in
pairs like double stars. Most of the small nebulæ have the general
appearance of a bright central nucleus enveloped in a nebulous
veil. This nucleus is sometimes concentrated as a star and sometimes
diffused. The enveloping veil is sometimes circular and sometimes
elliptical, with every degree of eccentricity between a circle and a
straight line. There are some which, with a general disposition to
symmetry of form, have great branching arms or filaments with more
or less precision of outline. An example of this is Lord Rosse's Crab
nebula. Another remarkable object is the nebula in Andromeda, which is
visible with the naked eye, and is the only one which was discovered
before the invention of the telescope. Simon Marius (1612) describes
its appearance as that of a candle shining through horn. Besides the
above, which have comparatively regular forms, there are others more
diffused and devoid of symmetry of shape. A remarkable example is the
great nebula in Orion, discovered by Huygens in 1656.... The great
nebula in Argo is another example of this class."
The number of nebulæ recognized in all the heavens is upward of five
thousand, and new ones are being constantly discovered. Of these
objects, Professor Nichol says, "The spiral figure is characteristic
of an extensive class of galaxies. Majestic associations of orbs,
arranged in this winding form, with branches issuing like a divergent
geometric curve from a globular cluster." These nebulæ, however, are
not associations of orbs; they are gaseous nebulæ apparently in process
of evolution. This author (Professor Nichol) presents views of such
spiral nebulæ either foreshortened to the view, so as to form a long
ellipse, or with the convolutions of the spiral apparently raised from
the horizontal plane into a conical form, and showing the black streaks
of space which lie between the convolutions, others seen in side view,
others in front, and, in fact, presented to the eye in every position
for observation. The author wrote before the days of the spectroscope,
and that he should conceive these vast objects to be spirals made
up of blazing suns like our Milky Way--vast galaxies, in fact--was
an inevitable conclusion at that time; but we now know that these
spiral nebulæ are gaseous, are apparently in process of manufacture,
and we can see them in their different stages of evolution, and
may perhaps learn something about the processes by which solar
systems and galaxies of suns are formed. Of one of these strange but
exceedingly instructive objects, Professor Ball, in his work "In the
High Heavens," says, "Fig. 3 represents one of the famous spiral nebulæ
(that of Canes Venatici) discovered many years ago by the late Earl of
Rosse. The object is invisible to the naked eye. It seems like a haze
surrounding the stars, which the telescope discloses in considerable
numbers, as shown in the picture. When viewed through an instrument
of sufficient power, a marvellous spectacle is revealed. There are
wisps and patches of glowing cloud-like material which shine not
as our clouds do, by reflecting to us the sunlight. This celestial
cloud is no doubt self-luminous; it is, in fact, composed of vapors so
intensely heated that they glow with fervor. As I write, I have Lord
Rosse's elaborate drawing of this nebula before me, and on the margin
of this stupendous object the nebula fades away so tenderly that it
is almost impossible to say where the luminosity terminates. Probably
this nebula will in some remote age condense down into more solid
substances. It contains, no doubt, enough material to make many
globes as big as our earth. Before, however, it settles down into dark
bodies like the earth, it will have to pass through stages in which
its condensing materials will form bright sun-like bodies. It seems
as if this process of condensation might almost be witnessed at the
present time in some parts of the great object. There are also some
very striking nebulæ which are often spoken of as planetary. They
are literally balls of bluish-colored gas or vapor, apparently more
dense than that which forms the nebula now under consideration. Such
globes are doubtless undergoing condensation, and may be regarded as
incipient worlds." Of these spiral nebulæ it is said, in Appleton's
Cyclopædia, "Many of them had been long known as nebulæ, but their
characteristic spiral form had never been suspected. They have the
appearance of a maelstrom of stellar matter, and are among the most
interesting objects in the heavens." Of their spectra it is said,
"The bright-line spectrum is given by all the irregular nebulæ hitherto
examined and by the planetary nebulæ." That is to say, these nebulæ
are gaseous in constitution, and have not yet reached the stage of
solar condensation which marks the existence of individual suns.
CHAPTER XII.
THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS: ITS BASIS AND ITS DIFFICULTIES.
"There sinks the nebulous star we call the Sun,
If that hypothesis of theirs be sound."--Tennyson.
While the nebular theory of Laplace is now the generally accepted
scientific hypothesis of the formation of our solar system and of
all solar systems, it finds its strongest support in the mode in
which it seeks to account for the heat and light of the sun,--that
is, that the central orb, gradually condensing down from an original
volume as large as the orbit of Neptune, at least, after disengaging
the planetary rings, continued to condense to its present volume,
and still so continues, the molecular motions arrested by condensation
under gravity reappearing in the form of the energy of light and heat,
and that this process of degradation will continue until, finally,
the sun becomes a solid inert mass, incapable by further condensation
of exciting the ethereal undulations in space which constitute heat and
light, when the whole process will finally cease, the sun will die out,
the planets continue to rotate in darkness, and the whole machinery be
left running through an eternal night, like a vast mill in the hands
of a negligent watchman (or rather no watchman at all), left to run
itself alone, dark, empty, lifeless, and deserted, through the long and
silent watches of the night. While the source and mode of solar energy
set forth in this work are to be as readily accounted for if we accept
as valid Laplace's nebular hypothesis as by any other theory, yet
such basis is not essential for its support; for while the planetary
rotations and the central sun are the necessary consequence, according
to Laplace's hypothesis, of their mode of formation,--are, in fact,
just what we actually find them to be under any hypothesis,--electrical
generation and transformation will proceed just the same whether the
planets and sun were formed originally in one mode or in another. But,
since this generally accepted hypothesis accounts for the light and
heat of the sun, to a certain extent at least, and for a certain
relatively brief period, while no other hypothesis has been able to
sufficiently account for it at all, and while this hypothesis also
finds both support and contradiction in many observed phenomena of
our solar system, it may well occur that this hypothesis itself,
based upon the necessity of accounting for the sun's light and heat,
and which latter afford it its strongest basis of support, may,
if the basis upon which the theory rests be found to be otherwise
explicable, still remain as an end, while originally presented only
as a means, and thus be held as an obstacle to the acceptance of the
widely different interpretation of known facts herein presented, in
the absence of any other hypothesis capable of explaining the same
facts in accordance with this presentation of planetary electrical
generation and the solar transformation of this energy into light
and heat. Herbert Spencer mentions an instance of such perversion of
means into an end as occurring during the agitation for the repeal
of the corn laws in England, which extended over many years, during
which organized efforts were made to influence Parliament. A permanent
commission was established, with official head-quarters permanently
located in London, with clerks, secretaries, higher officers, and
all the paraphernalia of a first-class establishment. The purpose of
this institution was to act in behalf of the popular interests upon
Parliament by every available means to secure this great reform. After
years of effort, he says, a clerk one day rushed, breathless, into the
office from the House of Commons and shouted, in accents of despair,
"We are ruined; the bill has passed!"
The nebular hypothesis, while generally accepted in lieu of a better
one, has no actual primary basis beyond that of mere assumption. Of
it Professor Ball says, "The nebular theory ... seems, from the
nature of the case, to be almost incapable of receiving any direct
testimony." We have already quoted from Professor Newcomb that it
must be accepted, with all its difficulties, until a different and
sufficient explanation of solar energy shall be presented. As set
forth in Appleton's Cyclopædia, the theory is as follows: "Assuming,
for the sake of the argument, a rare, homogeneous, nebulous matter,
widely diffused through space, the following successive changes will,
on physical principles, take place in it: 1, mutual gravitation of
its atoms; 2, atomic repulsion; 3, evolution of heat by overcoming
this repulsion; 4, molecular combination at a certain stage of
condensation; followed by, 5, sudden and great disengagement of heat;
6, lowering of temperature by radiation and consequent precipitation
of binary atoms, aggregating into irregular flocculi and floating in
the rarer medium, just as water when precipitated from air collects
into clouds; 7, each flocculus will move towards the common center of
gravity of all; but, being an irregular mass in a resisting medium,
this motion will be out of the rectilinear,--that is to say, not
directly towards the common center of gravity, but towards one or
the other side of it,--and thus, 8, a spiral movement will ensue,
which will be communicated to the rarer medium through which the
flocculus is moving; and, 9, a preponderating momentum and rotation of
the whole mass in some one direction, converging in spirals towards
the common center of gravity. Certain subordinate actions are to
be noticed also. Mutual attraction will tend to produce groups of
flocculi concentrating around local centers of gravity and acquiring
a subordinate vortical movement. These conclusions are shown to be in
entire harmony with the observed phenomena. In this genetic process,
when the precipitated matter is aggregating into flocculi, there will
be found here and there detached portions, like shreds of cloud in a
summer sky, which will not coalesce with the larger internal masses,
but will slowly follow without overtaking them. These fragments will
assume characteristics of motion strikingly correspondent to those of
the comets, whose physical constitution and distribution are seen to
be completely accordant with the hypothesis." During this process,
it is further stated, successive rings of nebulous matter will be
thrown off and left behind, which are supposed to have coalesced
into planets and their satellites, and the motion of rotation will
become more and more rapid as condensation proceeds, until, finally,
the last planet, Mercury, will be left behind in annular form,
and the sun will then become the central orb of all the planets,
and condensation afterwards will proceed without further delivery of
planetary rings. Professor Ball says, "If we go sufficiently far back,
we seem to come to a time when the sun, in a more or less completely
gaseous state, filled up the surrounding space out to the orbit of
Mercury, or, earlier still, out to the orbit of the remotest planet."
There is nothing in the actively developing nebula illustrated on
the following page which shows the slightest analogy, either in
structure or the forces at work, to what is demanded by the nebular
hypothesis. On the contrary, these radiating, spiral convolutions,
springing from a center and extended, with interstratified dark spaces,
out to the periphery, are entirely incompatible with that theory. There
have not, so far, been observed in all the heavens any gaseous
nebulæ which lend the slightest support to the nebular hypothesis. We
should expect to find, if it were true, that many of the nucleated
planetary nebulæ show exterior concentric rings of luminous matter,
clearly defined, two, three, or a dozen in number, left behind by the
contracting volume of the nebula, and coalescing into planets, and,
within, the glowing disk from which new external rings are about to be
left as a residuum. On the contrary, these nebulæ gradually fade away
towards their margins, and imperceptibly disappear in the blackness
of space. If they terminated abruptly, we might suppose that here,
at least, was the orbit of a newly forming planet, but the regular
and delicate gradation of luminosity from maximum to zero shows that
no such sudden breaking off has occurred. In all these nebulæ we find
every definitely marked structure to exhibit the operation of combined
forces of gravity and internal repulsion nearly equally balanced,
but each acting independently of the other. These phenomena are as
universal as the forces of cohesion and repellent polarity in the
"attraction particles" of cell-life which determine the segmentation,
growth, and development of the living organism. We find here the
primal modification and differentiation of material structure under
the stress of directly opposite and interacting primitive forces,
and it is doubtless the same whether in a cell or a system. It is
not a residuum, but the vis a tergo.
It is well known that there are many and great difficulties involved
in the nebular hypothesis. As for the genesis of comets, it will be
at once seen that the theory will only account for such comets as
never venture much beyond the orbit of Neptune, as well as those which
have an orbital plane nearly coincident with that of the planets. But
most comets come from illimitable space, far, far beyond Neptune's
circle and at all angles to the plane of the planetary orbits; and we
have already seen that a disk of space of the diameter of Neptune's
orbit and half as thick (see Proctor's "Familiar Essays") would,
to contain all the matter of our solar system equally distributed,
have a density of only one four-hundred-thousandth that of hydrogen
gas at atmospheric pressure,--that is to say, such a volume of the
lightest substance we know of would make four hundred thousand solar
systems like our own. This author inquires if such a mass could,
under any circumstances, rotate as a whole, and adds, "Has it ever
occurred, I often wonder, to those who glibly quote the nebular theory
as originally propounded, to inquire how far some of the processes
suggested by Laplace are in accordance with the now well-known laws of
physics?" But the great primal difficulty is in the first assumption
of the theory, which is not only entirely gratuitous, but physically
impossible. It is that this great plasma of nebulous material--in
the case of our own solar system not less than six thousand million
miles in diameter--should have in someway become aggregated into
a homogeneous mass of the requisite tenuity, complete and perfect,
and ready for the succeeding stages of the process, in which, however,
the law of gravity has hitherto had no active operation whatever; for,
if gravitation existed and operated therein, such homogeneous mass
could never have been formed, nor ever existed even if formed. The
very forces which alone could have brought this vast mass together
must have been the identical forces which afterwards broke it up into
the sun and planets, and the operation of the same force must have
prevented its original formation at all. According to the theory, it
was like a horse-race, in which all the participants stood silent and
motionless until the judge cried, "Go!" But the judge was the great
creative force itself, and if the fiat reached to this extent, the
same power could just as readily--nay, far more readily--have shot the
sun and planets forth into rotation, as children scatter dough-balls,
instead of holding in abeyance the control of universal law so as to
(as a humorous writer speaks of the operations of a child in his
investigation of a watch) "see the wheels go round." This is not
nature's plan, so far as human knowledge goes. Of course these masses
gathering to this great nebulous center, if acted upon by gravitation,
would have at once condensed around the center as a nucleus, and
if rotation ever commenced, it must have commenced then, millions
of years, doubtless, before the outlying masses had even got within
hailing distance. When masses of people assemble at a camp-meeting,
the first comers take the best places, and the late arrivals have to
circulate around in the woods; they do not all gather in a circle
and then make a grand rush. That would be fair, perhaps, but it is
not nature. And this, unquestionably, is how, if ever formed at all,
these nebulæ must have formed into systems.
The fact that the orbital planes of very many of these asteroids are
greatly inclined to the common planetary plane, and still more greatly
inclined to one another, points almost unerringly to the existence
during their stage of formation of some powerful force either of
internal repulsion or external attraction. That no sufficiently large
body could have been present to exercise such attraction so far outside
the general planetary plane is self-evident, and if there had been
such source of attraction, while the orbital planes of the asteroids
might have been deflected from the common plane, they could not have
been forced apart so as to differ largely among themselves. Certainly
nothing pertaining to the nebular hypothesis could have produced any
such effects under any conceivable circumstances, and especially at
so late a period of its progress, after all the principal planets had
been completed. The only alternative is self-repulsion, and this could
only have been due to the causes and their mode of operation already
described in this work. In a modified degree these planes exhibit the
same irregular orbital deflections as are so conspicuously visible in
the orbits of comets, and they must have been unquestionably produced
in the same manner. The barren bands or stripes in the area occupied by
these asteroids, like the dark or vacant rings of the planet Saturn,
may have been largely affected by the perturbing attraction of the
neighboring planet Jupiter; but certainly no influence of that great
planet (himself in the common planetary plane) could have operated
to cast these forming planetoids into planes of diverse inclinations
among themselves or to that of his own. On the contrary, his whole
force must have been exerted to bring them into the closest harmony
with his own orbital movements.
Omitting discussion of the technical difficulties in the application
of the nebular theory to demonstrated facts, which may be found in
the books, we may again repeat that this theory is not essential to
account for the heat of the sun, which finds its real source elsewhere,
while, nevertheless, the theory in itself is not incompatible with
the views which we have endeavored to present and demonstrate. Certain
phenomena, however, have been considered in prior quotations in this
work which may aid us to roughly indicate the successive processes by
which the evolution of solar systems and galaxies may be explained on
another basis which requires no violent assumptions to be made and no
suspension of any of nature's universal laws. The same operations which
we see around us at the present time in our own system, if extended to
the dimensions of a nebular aggregation, would probably present the
same phenomena as those we find partially disclosed in the gaseous
nebulæ, particularly the spiral, and these would naturally determine
the final production of solar systems such as our own. The gaseous
nebulæ, not spiral, and the mixed nebulæ also, would fall into their
appropriate categories in the same general plan, and a consistent
mode of formation would be presented from the beginning to the end
of the different processes.
It should be observed that the spiral required by Laplace's nebular
theory is essentially a centripetal spiral. The spiral nebulæ we see in
the heavens, however, are centrifugal spirals. This is clearly shown
in Plates XV., XII., and the frontispiece of Nichol's "Architecture
of the Heavens," as well as in Plates XIII. and XIV. Plate XV.--the
open spiral--is directly contradictory of any phenomena which
could occur in accordance with the nebular theory of Laplace. The
frontispiece shows the only form which such a nebula could assume
at any stage of its career,--that is, a close spiral with nearly
circular convolutions. But while this particular form is not only in
entire accordance with the hypothesis which we are about to suggest,
being in fact one of the later and necessary stages in its progress,
any such spiral as that shown in Plate XV. is utterly out of the
question in the application of the nebular theory of Laplace or in
any of the more recent modifications thereof.
The only hypothesis by which the various phenomena can be adequately
explained must almost certainly be based upon the combined action of
gravitation and electrospheric repulsion. We find in the corona of
our own sun such phenomena manifested in the most striking degree,
even in a completed system, and we can well understand that during
the early stages of systemic development such phenomena would vastly
transcend anything which we could now hope to observe around our
own sun. We see this repulsion still more highly developed in the
formation of the tails of comets. While these coronal rays are not
visible to a distance of more, perhaps, than five million miles
from the sun's disk, we have seen that the tail of Newton's comet
was shot forth to a distance of ninety million miles in a few days,
as it were in a moment, by the tremendous electrical repulsion of the
solar electrosphere, and that this enormous tail, which, if composed
of hydrogen gas alone (it was, of course, enormously more attenuated),
would have contained a mass much more than equal to the weight of the
sun, was swung around over an arc of one hundred and eighty degrees,
giving a radial sweep of the tail over a distance of two hundred
and eighty millions of miles in less than four days. And the tails
of many other comets have largely transcended in dimensions that of
Newton, above cited. We have learned much of the laws which regulate
the development of storms, cyclones, whirlwinds, water-spouts,
and other vortical phenomena in the atmosphere of our own earth,
and can readily apply these principles to phenomena of vastly greater
magnitude. We know that the matter of comets' tails is self-repulsive,
as shown in multiple tails, as well as that it is repelled by an
adjacent similarly electrified electrosphere,--that of the sun, for
example,--as with pith-balls in the familiar class-room experiments;
so that we can gather a very fair and complete idea of the processes
of nature when dealing with such phenomena on a vastly more extended
scale, in which our moments are measured by millions of years and our
miles by the almost infinite distances of sidereal and nebular space.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GENESIS OF SOLAR SYSTEMS AND GALAXIES.
The processes of development of a solar system from the diffused
elemental matter of space may then be roughly sketched as follows,
premising that each stage may have possibly extended over vast periods
of time, and the whole, perhaps, not been completed for millions of
years. With the processes of creation time is as nothing.
The area of space in which a solar system is about to be developed has
hitherto maintained its molecular constituents in a state of gradually
increased unstable equilibrium, whether such augmented instability
may have been induced by a gradual rise of temperature from emission
of the solar energy of other galaxies, by gradual diffusion from
constantly operative centers, from currents or vortices of space,
or by some primal inherent constitution of space itself, with
constantly increasing tensions relieved by successive discharges,
of which analogous instances are found in various other processes
of nature, as, for example, ovulation, fission, and gemmation in the
reproduction of life, regularly recurring epileptiform convulsions,
regularly repeated spark discharges from electrical machines, or the
ebullition of viscous fluids with their slowly recurring bursting
bubbles. At some focal point of this area a rupture of tension will
finally occur, induced by some sudden current or vortical movement,
as we see sometimes in a pool of water gradually reduced in temperature
below the freezing-point, when its whole surface, by the passage of a
breath of wind even, will be suddenly flashed into crystals of ice. At
this point of space there will be instituted a rapid expansion among
the molecules and a consequent fall of temperature, followed by an
inrush of the vaporous material surrounding this center of agitation,
and a vortical movement will be established, with currents of spatial
matter attracted to this vortex in constantly increasing streams. The
molecular tensions will be successively unlocked as the circles of
agitation continue to widen, and a condensed nucleus will form,
rotating upon its axis and exhibiting the combined phenomena of
gravity and centrifugal force. As the nucleus continues to increase
in mass and density its temperature will constantly rise, while its
speed of rotation will gradually diminish as its volume increases,
and the aqueous vapors of space, as they gather around this rotating
center of attraction, will be forced outward by centrifugal action
and the heat of the nucleus, and form vast attenuated clouds,--not
necessarily visible, however, to human sight,--and these clouds, in
their various stratifications and disturbances, will gradually come
to partake of the rotatory movement of the center, such movements,
however, gradually fading away as they recede in space and in
density. The cyclonic movements of these clouds of aqueous vapor
upon themselves, but principally against the surrounding gases of
space still under tension, will generate enormous quantities of
electricity, which flash like thunder-clouds as they approach each
other, with incessant streams of lightning and rolls of thunder. The
growing and heating central nucleus is thus thrown into a state of
high electrical opposite polarity, and its own constituent elements
become self-repellent, just as we see in the sun's corona and in the
phenomena of comets. The electrical tension of the central mass will
gradually grow higher and higher, until a vast stream or streams
of incandescent nebulous matter (for with double suns they may be
multiple, or the internal repulsion may even cause division of the
nucleus itself) will be suddenly driven outward in a radial direction
along the lines of least resistance,--that is to say, in the plane of
equatorial rotation, where centrifugal force is most effective. We
can readily understand the self-repellent force of such an enormous
mass of cosmical matter by considering that, in our own completed
system, the repulsion of the solar electrosphere drove forth the tail
of Newton's comet, as before stated, to a distance of ninety million
miles, and whirled it around a semicircle of this radius in less than
four days. Our most distant planet, Neptune, is only thirty times
this distance from the sun, and we see during every solar eclipse
the coronal structure glowing to a distance of more than a million
miles from the sun's disk, and the radial streamers driven forth
five million miles, and even farther. (See illustrations of solar
corona in Guillemin's "The Heavens.") The vast stream of radiating
nebulous matter thus forced out by solar repulsion will likewise
be acted upon with equal energy by its own internal self-repellent
force. If we conceive a stream of water thrown vertically upward by
a powerful force-pump, in which every drop of the fluid is endowed
with tremendous self-repulsive energy, we should find an analogy
to the phenomenon in question. We can see an example of this in the
"Crab Nebula," illustrated in a previous chapter. The stream, acted
upon by gravity downward, by the force of ejection upward, and by the
internal force of repulsion both transversely and upward, would assume
a pyriform shape, narrower beneath, largely swollen about its middle,
and thence gradually decreasing in diameter to its termination in
a rounded tuft, in advance of which would be driven forth detached
sprays and wisps, while filaments and outlying parallel strands would
mark its entire ascent, except towards its point of ejection, where
the primal force which drove it out is greatly in excess of those
of gravity and self-repulsion. It will be seen at a glance that
these phenomena are precisely those which we observe in a comet's
tail. (See illustrations of many comets having these characteristics
in Guillemin's "The Heavens," Lockyer's edition.)
Suppose, now, that this stream of water or the tail of a large comet
were gradually wrapped around its point of emission by the rotation of
this nucleus upon its axis. A spiral would form, very open or flaring
at first, but gradually growing closer and more circular as the force
of gravity drew its convolutions downward upon the interstratified
clouds of aqueous vapor occupying, in compressed layers, the spaces
between the adjacent coils of the spiral. There would be a composite
action of forces observed: gravity would attract the convolutions
and their interstratified layers of cloud equally, according to
their densities, while the central repulsive force would repel the
convolutions of the spiral along the same lines of force, but would
not act at all upon the strata of clouds, and the force of internal
self-repulsion would also tend to disrupt the convolutions of the
spiral by expanding them outwardly. The outer convolution, however,
would have no backward thrust from any internal repulsion beyond,
while, within, gravity and solar repulsion would be more equally
balanced, so that the outer coil would be relatively compressed in
its rotation against the next inner convolution, and its ratio of
distance would not be maintained. We find this exemplified in the
case of Neptune's, orbit in our own system. The inner convolution
would also be abnormal, since the primal force of ejection must have
been sufficient to carry the outward thrust of the whole spiral,
and in consequence its flare would offer much greater resistance
to the deflection of rotation, and it would have a more radial
direction than those beyond. We shall find that the planet Mercury,
and the inner convolution which was eventually reabsorbed into the
solar mass, exhibit these phenomena. Between the outer and these inner
convolutions the curve of the spiral would be approximately regular,
with a fixed ratio of increase. In the planets of our solar system
this ratio is that produced by constantly doubling the preceding
number, the series being 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, etc. In other solar systems,
however, the ratio may be quite different. In this abnormal flare of
the inner convolution is doubtless to be found the rational basis of
Bode's empirical law of planetary distances, in which the arbitrary
number 4 must be added to each term of the above progression, making
the series 4, 7, 10, 16, 28, etc. The inner coil between Mercury and
the sun was drawn into the solar mass on the disruption of the spiral,
leaving, from the abnormally radial curvature of the inner portions
of the spiral and its absence from the series, a vacant place which
must be represented by the relatively fixed increment to be added to
each term of the series.
As the convolutions of the spiral become more and more compressed
towards each other and more and more flattened against the
interstratified cloud-layers, the force of internal repulsion becomes
more and more active in its tendency to disrupt the spiral, since its
forces are more direct and concentrated along lines nearly at right
angles to the force of gravity. During the formation of the spiral
we can easily conceive that--like a stream of water shooting over a
cascade, or the multiple tails of some comets, or even a whole comet,
as, for example, Biela's, which was split up into two separate bodies
by this force--some convolution, perhaps a single one of the series,
will be laterally divided into a large number of nearly parallel
strands, mutually held apart by their internal self-repulsion, and
with cloud-layers interposed between these lateral strands. Such a
series of small planets as these would finally produce we find in the
belt of our asteroids, the bulk of the convolution, probably, for the
most part, however, scattered in space, since their aggregate mass is
so small, and possibly, in part, coalesced into the mass of Jupiter,
to which Mars, by his position, may also have contributed.
Not only may a whole convolution be thus split up, but along the
spiral at many points the outer margins may be thrust outward,
forming partially detached parallel strands, which may thus coalesce
to form the satellites of the completed planets; while at the outer
extremity of all, where the backward thrust of self-repulsion is
wanting, enormous wisps, sprays, and tufts of nebulous matter would
be driven entirely forth into the illimitable realms of outer space,
but not necessarily, or even probably, into the space of other systems,
which are so enormously distant; and there, in those unoccupied realms,
they will remain to gyrate "in the solitude of their own originality,"
in the form of comets, until, at long intervals, they may chance
to revisit the scenes of their earliest youth, to warm their frozen
limbs for a brief period at the old and well-remembered parental fire,
or finally, worn out with toil and travel, "come home at last to die."
Driven forth from the society of their fellows by their own unbalanced
energies, these anarchists of the sky may form loose aggregations,
granulated about multitudes of self-constituted minor centers; but,
cut loose from all effective solar control during their period of
coalescence, they must forever lack the consolidated form and complex
organization of their prosperous and rotund brethren, the planets and
their satellites, or even the tiny asteroids, who stayed home and,
like the little pig, had bread and butter for breakfast.
The disruptive energy of internal repulsion, as above stated,
increases in force as the convolutions of the spiral become more
and more compressed and the spiral becomes more and more circular in
form. Suddenly the coils of the spiral will be burst asunder, and this
will occur along that particular radial line of gravitation where the
central nucleus acts with its most effective force. The disruption will
be simultaneous, as a general rule, in accordance with the principles
which control ruptures of tension of bodies in a state of unstable
equilibrium, and which we see exemplified in multiplied centers of
crystallization, the simultaneous formation of mud-cracks, the Giant's
Causeway, and other like phenomena. Each convolution will now become
a detached open ring, one of its broken extremities, however, being
millions of miles farther from the central nucleus than the other. What
occurs when a cometic body, negatively electrified, impinges upon the
positive electrosphere of a planet, or when an electrical induction
machine like Voss's is touched by an oppositely electrified body,
will now necessarily occur with these disrupted convolutions. Their
connection with the negatively electrified nucleus being broken,
a reversal of electrical polarity will ensue from contact with the
adjacent positively electrified clouds of aqueous vapor, and, instead
of self-repulsion, mutual attraction will now prevail along the length
of each of the open rings. Held apart from the central nucleus by
the interstratified cloud-layers, and acted upon by the double force
of gravity and internal attraction, the component elements of these
open rings will rapidly lose their luminosity and heat, and coalesce
by a retrograde movement down the lines of their direction, thus
approaching the sun along the segment of an ellipse, the nucleus, or
sun, occupying one of the foci, the eccentricity of the ellipse being
measured by the differential between the nearest point of the open
ring and the part of the convolution which lies directly opposite and
beyond the sun. In other words, the form of the spiral will determine
the eccentricity of the ellipse, subject to perturbations, however,
of various sorts. During this stage of coalescence from an open ring
into a sphere, these bodies will take on, by cooling and condensation,
their planetary forms; and as the forming spheres, by the retreat
of their masses down the lines of approach to the sun, advance,
their forward and nearer extremities will be more powerfully acted
upon by gravity than those parts in the rear, and a forward plunge
or axial movement of rotation will be set up. Viscous matter,--pitch,
for example,--molten by the sun's heat and flowing down a steep roof,
exhibits a similar forward movement, the outer layers tending to roll
over the inner ones in convoluted folds, the adhesion to the roof of
the under surface corresponding to the retarding pull of the sun's
attraction. In like manner are produced rotating eddies in streams
of water having crooked channels, eddies of air under water-falls,
and other analogous atmospheric disturbances. During the stage of
coalescence of the planetary spheres the adjacent clouds of aqueous
vapor will condense around them, and their hitherto diffused electrical
energies will be concentrated by rotation in currents of enormous
quantity and potential directly upon the sun, and a disassociation
of the elements which compose these watery vapors will ensue, the
result of which will be the deposit of hydrogen gas as an atmospheric
envelope around the sun's body, and of oxygen around and through the
bodies which constitute the planets. These gases will be disassociated
in their combining proportions, two volumes of hydrogen at the sun
for one volume of oxygen, distributed according to their relative
electrical energies among the planets. This nascent oxygen will
rapidly combine with the consolidating elements of the planets and,
interpenetrating their solidifying bodies, form the vast mass of
oxides which we find to constitute the bulk of our terrestrial mass,
the residue, mechanically commingled with the condensed ever-present
nitrogen, forming the planetary atmospheres. The condensation of volume
of the planets will give rise to great elevation of temperature,
while their currents of electricity, poured into the sun, will, by
their passage through its enormously compressed hydrogen atmosphere,
produce intense heat, and this, rapidly communicated to the solar
core within, will raise its temperature to that of the sun as we now
see it, and permanently maintain it in that state of incandescence.
During the stage of coalescence of the planetary bodies, outlying
strands of the spiral will follow the course of their adjacent masses
in a nearly parallel movement, and will gradually coalesce into smaller
bodies more directly under the influence of the gravity of their own
adjacent planets, by their proximity, than of that of the sun. These
bodies will thus rotate as satellites around their planets, and the
forward shift of their centers of gravity, by their advance along
their lines of coalescence, may result in a permanent displacement,
of which we see an example in the moon, which constantly presents the
same face to the earth, while having an axial rotation of its own with
reference to the sun. (In this case the action of gravity may have been
assisted, however, by the mutual repulsion of the lunar and terrestrial
electrospheres forcing the atmosphere and moisture of the lunar mass to
its opposite side and maintaining it there, where it would remain as a
buffer against rotation.) In some cases we might find certain outlying
strands of a convolution which, perturbed by external influences,
may have been delayed in its conversion into spherical form, and this
subordinate strand, pyriform itself, as it must have been, in shape,
would thus form a spiral of minute discrete bodies, probably like the
nucleus of a comet, finally assuming the shape of a series of rings,
and rotating like a satellite around the neighboring planet, the inner
and outer strands more attenuated and the middle ones more condensed,
as we find to be the case with the rings of Saturn.
In the original spiral we have seen that, as a whole, it was of
necessity pyriform in shape. The planets formed therefrom would thus be
found to increase in size from within outward to a maximum, after which
they would again decrease, but not to the original minimum, while the
extreme outer planet would also be unduly enlarged by increment from
partially dissipated terminal filaments, gradually attracted thereto
from surrounding space. There is such an undue enlargement of the
planet Neptune, and this, with its relatively compressed orbit, before
alluded to, renders it almost certain that Neptune is in reality the
outermost member of our planetary system. We find this gradation of
size to be the case in our solar system, except where the series has
been broken by the multitudinous separation, from violent internal
repulsion, of one of the convolutions into parallel strands showing
all sorts of perturbations, this being the convolution which occupied
the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and which, by the
coalescence of these numerous parallel strands into small planetary
bodies, has filled the space with a belt of asteroids hundreds and
perhaps thousands or even tens of thousands in number. It is probable
that a law regulating the ellipticity of planetary orbits can be
deduced from a consideration of the principles which have governed
their inception, and with these are doubtless closely related those
laws of Laplace which have demonstrated that "in any system of bodies
travelling in one direction around a central attracting orb, the
eccentricities and inclinations, if small at any one time, would always
continue inconsiderable." (Appleton's Cyclopædia, article "Planet.")
We have thus traced the genesis of a solar system from its earliest
stages forward through its various changes until, complete and in
working order, it is ready to be sent on its eternal course, either
alone or as one of a vast congeries of similar systems, like the
Milky Way. (See frontispiece for illustration of a series of types of
development from a straight-tailed comet, through different curvatures,
and spiral nebulæ of less and less divergence, until nearly circular,
and finally terminating in a complete solar system.) These processes
of creation may be isolated, or they may flash a hundred million solar
systems into being together, as crystals flash forth in the rock;
but, when once formed, they go forth each as eternal as space itself.
But can we not go back one step farther still in the progressive
stages of creative energy? Whence came these powerful agencies by
means of which all those distant regions became peopled with suns and
worlds? The great source of all is to be found alone in space,--the
so-called "empty space." But it is far from empty; all through it
are diffused the attenuated vapors which, condensed, constitute our
suns and planets, and all that is, or ever shall be, gaseous vapors,
which are held poised, with their opposite tensions of cohesion and
expansion, like the Prince Rupert drops which glass-blowers make
for toys,--a little bulb of glass, chilled as it falls, molten,
in a vessel of water. From one extremity projects a long, crooked
stem, scarcely thicker at the end than a horse-hair, spun out from
the molten glass as it hung from the glass-blower's rod. The bulbous
body is as large, perhaps, as a nut; you can beat it with a hammer and
it will not break; it is the hardest in structure of all glass. Now,
wrap this bulb up in a thick handkerchief, or you may be injured; hold
it firmly, and break off the very tiniest tip of the long stem three,
four, or even six inches from the bulb. There is a sudden shock; open
your handkerchief, and lo! instead of the solid bulb, there is only a
loose mass of white powder. If you put the bulb in a heavy glass vessel
full of water and break off the tip of the tail, it will shatter the
vessel into fragments. What is the explanation?--it is, of course,
well known--simply that the molecules of glass were instantly arrested
in their motion of adjustment as the glass was suddenly chilled by the
water, and the molecular motion of shrinkage was arrested, leaving
the individual molecules under a tremendous strain of position in
their endeavor to reach their true places. They are rigidly fixed
in this position of unstable equilibrium, one balancing the other;
but let a single molecule be displaced,--a fragment so tiny that
the eye can scarcely see it,--and the molecules, thus thrown out of
mutual support against each other, must now rearrange themselves from
the ruptured rigid mass, and, like a row of stood-up bricks, each of
which thrusts the other forward, with a sudden explosive force the
molecules assume their true position of stable equilibrium, but it
is at the cost of the whole structure. To this same cause we owe the
explosive force of our gunpowder, nitroglycerin, and all explosives;
the molecules are held in unstable equilibrium, and the tension once
relieved at a single point, be it ever so infinitesimal, the molecules
of the whole mass rearrange themselves with explosive energy. Strange
that so harmless a substance as glycerin, by the mere replacement of
an atom of nitrogen gas, should develop the energy of dynamite under
a trifling molecular shock.
So, also, the aqueous and perhaps other vapors of all space, attenuated
though they be, and perhaps by reason of this very tenuity itself,
as shown by the experiments of Professor Crookes with attenuated
gases when acted upon by electricity, are held in the same state
of unstable equilibrium. We know the potency of this instability
from the terrific explosive combination of the gases which combine
to form aqueous vapor. We may again refer to one of the well-known
experiments of Professor Crookes with simple atmospheric air. Enclosed
in a cylindrical glass vessel, the electric spark passed freely; as
it became more rarefied under an air-pump, new phenomena appeared,
until, at a stage of high rarefaction, the molecules of these gases
were driven forward by the electric current with such energy as
first to raise the temperature of the opposite side of the cylinder
to a red heat, then to melt, and finally to perforate the glass. The
explanation is that the movements of closely aggregated molecules
mutually interfere with each other; as they gain elbow-room by being
reduced in number, they act with more directness, and consequently
with more force: it is the difference between men fighting in a
crowded room and out in an open field. It is possible that these
molecular tensions of space, by the ready unlocking of the forces with
which they are charged, may even aid in the rotation of the planets
by acting upon their electrospheres in their drift through space,
as charged thunder-clouds react upon each other, or the molecules of
atmospheric air, in moderately high vacua, under electrical excitement,
act upon the walls of the containing vessel, as in the experiments
of Professor Crookes and others. The riddles of nature are like those
of the sphinx,--they have more than one meaning.
The tensions of the aggregated molecules of space are thus
counterbalanced only so long as all space is equally occupied and
a state of perfect quiescence exists in its every part. A molecular
disturbance in one part is immediately communicated to adjacent parts,
and finally to all. With the first movement, gravity asserts itself,
for gravity exists and must exist in all parts, and must actively
manifest itself whenever the perfect mutual balance of space is
disturbed and a center of energy developed, and co-ordinately with
the action of gravity begins that of electricity. Movements among
the molecules are converted into movement of mass; centripetal motion
begets condensation, this begets sensible heat and vortical movement;
then come the phenomena of electrical generation by moving contact with
the gases of space, then repulsion and disassociation of the elements
of the aqueous vapors, combination of simple into compound elements;
and, the balance once disturbed, the state of unstable equilibrium
is forever destroyed, and all space henceforth must exhibit constant
change. There are whole segments of space absolutely blank, so far as
visible systems are concerned, which seem to have been exhausted, for
the present æons at least, to supply material for the vast adjacent
galaxies which extend along their borders; see illustrations in
Proctor's "Essays on Astronomy," article "Distribution of the Nebulæ."
It need not be supposed that such stage of perfect and universal
quiescence ever existed in fact; it is like the Nirvana of the Buddhist
philosophers,--a subjective and not an objective condition. We can
have no knowledge of the existence, even, of material things, save
from their phenomena, the manifestation of interchanging forces,
upon which rests our threefold basis of knowledge, perception,
cognition, and comparison. We know nothing of matter, except as
affected by internal or external force, nor of force itself, except
as it acts in one mode or another upon matter. All beyond this is,
for us, without form and void.
Progressive change has always, doubtless, been the universal law of
creation, and the great ocean of space is, and ever has been, and
ever will be the highway through which perpetually plough the great
caravels which bear the fortunes of creative energy, laden with life
and light and heat, in their eternal progression. The creative impulse
once given, if it, too, was not primeval in the eternal past, must
have gone on from development to development, like the transmission
of life, from age to age and from realm to realm. "The mills of the
gods grind slowly;" in these vast areas time is absolutely nothing;
the processes we see are but as the dip of a swallow's wing compared
with an inconceivable futurity; but all our energies, and all the
energies of planets and suns and systems and galaxies, and of whatever
other and wider created forms may stretch onward to infinity, came
forth from the ocean of space, and to this ocean all these energies
continue to return again in ceaseless circuit.
Can we indicate any relationship of periodicity for the genesis of
solar systems from space? There is a remarkable example of a somewhat
similar periodicity in organic life for the rupture of tensions,
so common that its analogous character and perfect regularity are
scarcely even thought of. Among the highest species of mammalia we
find that, in a state of health, whether resident of the heights
of the Andes, the deserts of Africa, the jungles of India, or the
most densely populated centers of London; among rich or poor, high
or low, idle or industrious, virtuous or vicious, ancient or modern,
civilized or barbarous, black, white, red, or yellow, the ovum of the
mature female rises to the surface of the ovary, and at intervals,
almost uniform, of twenty-eight days, organic excitement ensues, the
enclosing vesicle is ruptured, and the ovum escapes. The remarkable
feature is not that these processes continuously succeed each other;
but that under such diverse conditions and opposite circumstances, and
with two separate ovaries operating at the same time, simultaneously or
successively, this almost miraculous interval of no more and no less
than twenty-eight days between the successive ruptures of tension and
their attendant phenomena, should constantly persist. For its ultimate
cause we must look back to the vis a tergo to which we have already
alluded; and there may be, and doubtless is, a similarly acting remote
cause which regulates the periodical development of solar systems or
of galaxies, periods of intense activity, followed by intervals of
exhaustion and recuperation, and again succeeded by another period
of activity, and so on perpetually, for space is perpetual, infinite,
and inexhaustible.
It will be observed that the processes above roughly sketched are
somewhat similar to those observed in the formation of so-called
water-spouts, which usually terminate in dissipation in the atmosphere,
or else in terrific thunder-storms, but which occasionally reach
a sufficient energy of rotation to spin their central nuclei down
towards, or even to, the surface of the sea, or, in desert regions,
to that of the ground. There is no analogy with the theoretical and
"assumed" primal mass of attenuated plasma of the nebular theory,
or with its slow initial rotation, with the successive casting off
of rings of nebulous matter. It may sometimes happen, however, that
the repulsive electrical energy of the central nucleus may throw off
its external envelopes with sufficient force to drive them entirely
beyond the effective limit of its attractive forces, as occurs
in the formation of embryonic comets as above described; in such
case the nebula will be a variable one, with successively repeated
aggregations and successive outbursts, periodical like the active
stages of volcanoes; and, even when the nucleus has already presented a
continuous solar spectrum, its energies may be thus expended, or more
gradually, and finally dissipated like the electricity of a highly
charged Leyden jar exposed to a moist atmosphere.
As a bottle of strongly effervescing liquid may blow itself empty,
when suddenly opened, by the mutually repellent energy of its
contained molecules, so if such a phenomenon were manifested in
a radial direction from a central point, the repelled spray would
show itself as a nebulous ring with a hollow center. An example of
this sort is shown in the multiple-tailed "Catherine-wheel" nebula
(Fig. 4 of a previous illustration). If such an annular nebula
should become ruptured into two portions by internal repulsion,
the electrical polarity of the smaller fragment would be reversed,
and the two arcs would separately coalesce and consolidate into a
sun and a single planet, forming a solar system like that of Algol,
which has been already described. Otherwise, the nebula would probably
retrograde and disappear, by diffusion, into space again. We may
expect to find abortive efforts of nature here, as we so constantly
find them elsewhere, not merely in inorganic matter, but even among
the processes of life.
In Professor Proctor's article ("Essays on Astronomy") on
the square-shouldered aspect of Saturn, he mentions a hitherto
unexplained circumstance of the earth's atmosphere--the curious fact
that the barometrical pressure of the earth's atmosphere is somewhat
higher between the poles and the equator than immediately over the
latter, as might be supposed to be the case. This is a phenomenon of
mutual repulsion similar to those manifested in the operations above
described. The rotation of the earth on its axis forces the terrestrial
atmosphere, by its centrifugal motion, in undue proportion, around
the equatorial belt, causing the same sort of atmospheric thinning at
the poles which we see in the solar photosphere at its corresponding
parts. At the same time the highly electrified atmosphere, by its
mutually repellent action, tends to force this swollen equatorial ring
backward toward the poles. The resultant of these two repulsions is an
area of maximum density part way between the poles and the equator. It
is probable that this self-repellent equatorial swell may play some
part in the sun's atmosphere, in extending, and also in limiting,
the areas of eruptive sun-spots outward from his equator.
While the nebulæ are more distant than many of the discrete stars
revealed to us by the telescope, there is no reason to suppose that
they are more distant than the star-clouds into which are merged
the separate stars of the Milky Way, or the star-clusters seen in
other portions of the sky. We know, in fact, that this is not so,
for our telescopes show brilliant stars in very many cases which are
components of the nebulæ themselves; and the fact that the nebulæ
can be seen as having visible form, and not as mere points of light,
is itself conclusive as to their relative distances. Hence we need
not be surprised to learn that these forming spirals will result each
in the production of a single solar system, and not a galaxy of suns,
as was once supposed. Were such the case it would be impossible for
us to observe the structure of the nebulæ at all, as their distances
would be far too vast. Of the forms of the gaseous nebulæ Guillemin
asks, "Is the spiral the original form of those gaseous matters,
the condensation of which may give, or has given, birth to each
individual of this gigantic association?" The same author says of
these apparently regularly formed nebulæ, "It is impossible not to
recognize in them so many systems." Many of the spiral nebulæ were
formerly supposed to be globular aggregations of nebulous matter only,
and their spiral character came as a great surprise with the use of
more powerful telescopes; and many--nay, most--of these apparently
globular nebulæ have totally changed their appearance when viewed
with instruments of higher power, while the spirals have become more
and more pronounced in character with every increase of telescopic
vision. Of one of such apparently globular nebulæ Guillemin says, "The
center is like a large globular nebula with a very marked condensation,
whence radiate branches arranged in the form of spirals. In several
points of these branches other centers of condensation are noticed. Sir
John Herschel had classed this among the nebulæ of rounded, globular
form, doubtless because the central nebulosity was the only one
revealed by his telescope." The formation of the sub-centers in
this nebula (which is between the Great Bear and Boötes) should be
particularly noted in connection with the coalescence of planets as
above described. In a note to Guillemin's work, Professor Lockyer
says, "The proper motion of nebulæ has not yet been inquired into,
because everybody, looking upon them as irresolvable star-clusters,
thought them infinitely remote. Now, however, that we know they are
not clusters of stars, properly so called, it is possible that they
may be much nearer to us than we imagine."
In connection with the double-sun spiral nebula shown in the preceding
illustration, Guillemin says, "We have noticed nebulæ accompanied
by systems of double or multiple stars, placed in a manner so
symmetrical in the midst of the nebulosity that it is impossible to
doubt the existence of a real connection between the stars and the
nebulæ." And Flammarion says of these apparently globular nebulæ,
when under the observation of more powerful telescopes, "In the place
where pale and whitish clouds gave out a calm and uniform light, the
giant eye of the telescope has discerned alternately dark and luminous
regions,"--that is to say, they reveal the operation of the opposite
forces of attraction and repulsion, and are spiral. While gaseous
nebulæ may be of any conceivable form, the direction and operation
of the forces which will determine their character as solar systems
must be similar, just as with the forms of organic life, and the only
nebulæ which reveal a distinct systematic development in harmony with
a working solar system are the spiral. There is no difficulty whatever
in tracing such a nebula through all its formative stages, as we have
done, and we can, in fact, see painted on the background of the sky
every step of the shifting tableau through which such forms must pass.
By the nebular hypothesis the whole course of development, of
necessity, is rigidly forward to its culmination; but by employing
the analogies presented to us in other operations of nature, we
can readily account for variations, haltings, ineffectual efforts,
uncompleted processes, and even reversals and redistributions into
other secondary sources of energy. They equally comprise the agencies
for the production of a single solar system or of a myriad, just as we
see the vortical water-spouts or sand-storms either single, double,
or multiple; they are flexible, as are all the processes of nature,
and require no violent assumption of a prior physical basis known to
us "ne'er before on sea or shore." They also account for the deviation
from the normal of the orbits of Neptune and Mercury, for the formation
of the asteroids and Saturn's rings, for the different eccentricities
and inclinations of the orbits, for the forward axial rotation of
the planets and their satellites, and even for their perturbations
and abnormalities; they furnish a basis for Bode's empirical law,
for the distribution of the planets in size, for the origin of comets
and meteor streams, for Kepler's laws, for the equal and permanent
relation of eccentricities and inclinations, and for the fixed axial
position of the moon with reference to the earth; they account for the
free oxygen in the planetary and free hydrogen in the solar atmosphere,
they employ the variation of volume of the sun as a regulator instead
of an independent generator of light and heat, and they are in entire
conformity with the established principles which govern the electrical
generation of active forces, their transmission to the sun, their
transformation into light and heat, and their return to the regions
of space, where they continue to act with potential energy to all
eternity, as they must do if space itself is eternal; and we surely
know that, if anything whatever is eternal, space must be so. This
great ocean--the home, the domain, the workshop of creative energy--is
the last retreat of the human intellect; here it may find rest, and
here alone. While solar systems may afford in their circling planets
a possible dominion for finite life, and in their suns their daily
bread; in the infinite and all-embracing realms of space, filled with
the potentialities of all created forms, thrilled with the impulses
of all creative force, is to be found the unfailing source of all,
the dominion of the eternal architect, before whom nature bends the
obedient knee, waits to hear his mighty voice, or swiftly runs to do
his royal bidding.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY.
"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth for ever."--Bible.
Thus, as we have seen, through countless future ages will the sun,
with his incandescent envelope of hydrogen, and the planets, with their
life-sustaining atmospheres of oxygen, fulfil their appointed times
and courses. But if we could conceive that all atmospheres, solar
and planetary, were suddenly blotted out and forever annihilated,
so that these great orbs thenceforth rolled along as they do now,
but only as black globes in an ocean of space of Stygian darkness,
new atmospheres would at once begin to be formed, and these would
soon again surround the sun and planets, precisely like those which
now exist.
Sweeping along in darkness, the force of gravity would gather around
each of these bodies vast accumulations of aqueous vapor and other
gases condensed from the attenuated matter of surrounding space. The
planets, by their axial rotations, would again generate from these
regions, newly occupied as the system drifted along through space,
electrical energy of enormous quantity and potential. Earth would again
hear the mighty mandate, "Let there be light," and from her poles to
her equator the skies would blaze with brush-light auroras. Suddenly,
with a mighty leap, the pent-up currents would flash across to their
opposite electric pole, the auroras would gradually die away, and
instantly the molecules of hydrogen would begin to sift out at the
solar and those of oxygen at the planetary terminals. The electrical
currents driving their furious pathway through the rapidly gathering
hydrogen envelope, the sun would first begin to faintly flicker with
hazy, nebulous light; the light would gather intensity, and soon
flash and glow with energy; the solar nucleus within would become
intensely heated and liquefied or partially volatilized, and again
the solar streams of incandescent heat and light would radiate forth
on every side; the commingled gases, oxygen and nitrogen, would once
more surround each planetary globe, and we should have a new solar
envelope just as we now see it, and new planetary atmospheres like our
own; and then, and not till then, would the opposing generative forces
permanently counterbalance each other and electrolytic decomposition
become practically stationary, except to compensate for the slight
variations constantly liable to occur in the complicated running of
the mechanism. So the mutilated crustacean re-grows his lost claws,
and so our own gaping wounds are healed by the great vis medicatrix
naturæ. The most stable of all things is mutually balanced instability;
perhaps there is no other form of stability.
The "Nebular Hypothesis" of Laplace concerns itself only with the
aggregate matter of which our solar system is composed, and the force
of gravity, including cohesion, ignoring the action of the equally
powerful force of repulsion. But there is another nebular hypothesis
much older than that of Laplace and far more scientific, for it
utilizes both the force of gravity and cohesion and the radiant force
of repulsion in the generation of our solar system. We refer to what is
known as the Mosaic cosmogony. Whatever the origin of this magnificent
narrative may have been, whether written down by Moses originally,
or by him derived from the sacred learning of Egypt, with which he
was fully acquainted, or by the Egyptian scribes drawn from Ethiopia,
and still further back from the sacred traditions of India, it bears
internal evidence, when properly rendered from the Hebrew record, of a
knowledge of these stupendous phenomena (which no human eye could ever
have beheld) which is most remarkable. The commonly accepted versions
do not clearly bring out the full meaning of the original,--indeed,
it would have been impossible for the earlier translators to have
done so,--but when critically and etymologically rendered, very
surprising coincidences with the succession of events as they must
actually have occurred, and the principles involved in the successive
stages of creation, will be found in nearly every part of the record.
This record is embodied in the first chapter and first three verses
of the second chapter of Genesis. The Hebrew was long believed to be
an original, if not an inspired, language, but it is now well known to
have been a derivative or root language, made up much like the English,
and, like it, having the meanings of its words primarily determined
by those of the root-stems from which they have been formed. The
roots of these Hebrew words are to be found among the languages of
many older peoples, and nearly all of them have now been traced to
their immediate origin. Another source of error is in the so-called
Masoretic pointing, which was not introduced for a thousand years
after the time of Moses, and which has often changed the signification
of the older words, and even the form of the words themselves; but
by critical researches the roots and their combinations have been
isolated, so that we are now able to possess a much mere accurate
knowledge of the Mosaic record than was possible in former times,
for, of course, no original copies have come down to us. It is not
a reconstruction of the record which has been made, but a careful
editing by means of the derivation and true signification of the
words used, and by careful comparison among the most ancient versions
accessible to modern research. The English version, while imperfect
in its rendering of this ancient narrative, is not to be considered
by any means a false translation, but it largely errs in failing to
give the full radical meaning of the words employed in the original.
As an illustration of this indefiniteness of rendering in the ordinary
English version let us consider the opening sentences of the narrative:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of
the deep."
In the "beginning" of what? Does it mean the beginning of our own solar
system? or of all systems? or of all space? or of Jehovah (for He has
not yet been mentioned or described)? or of the Aleim themselves,--that
is, did the work begin as soon as the forces began? and did the latter
originate spontaneously, or otherwise? What "God" is meant? Is it
Jehovah, or Aleim, or some other God not yet mentioned or described? If
we will take every name in the Bible which is translated God (and it
may be any of these according to the English rendering), we will have
legion. We shall even find that the same word which is translated "God"
was applied by Jehovah on one occasion to Moses. "Created"? What is
meant by this word? Was the creating a creation out of nothing? out
of something pre-existing? or something coexisting elsewhere? Was
the creation a direct or an indirect one? by the use of the forces
of nature, or by overriding the forces of nature? Was it a physical
creation by an inconceivable action of mere thought, or will? and if
so, was this thought, or will, God himself, or one of his attributes
or powers only? "The heaven"? What heaven? Was it that to which the
virtuous are supposed to go after death? or was it some more physical
heaven? Was the heaven the atmospheric heaven, the interplanetary
heaven, the heaven of interstellar space, or that more extended
heaven which lies beyond our knowledge? Was the heaven one of these
which He created, or did He create all the different heavens of all
the solar systems and nebulæ at the same time? "Without form"? Was
the earth without any form at all? or merely without its present
form? or without some particular form not mentioned? If the earth was
a physical structure it must have had some form; what was it? "And
void"? Was the earth void like a soap-bubble? or void like a ray of
light? or a vacuum? If it was empty, what was it that was empty? How
could the heaven and earth be void after they had been brought into
existence? "Darkness was upon the face of the deep"? What deep? Was
it the sea not yet created? or the earth, which is anything but a
"deep"? was it the atmosphere? or all space? If the latter, did
all other systems of space wait for their light on ours? or did we
wait on theirs? are there no new systems now forming, and none to be
formed hereafter? If all space is meant, where was its outside, or
its face? and what occupied the intervening regions? was it a physical
face or the face of a vacuum? Were these statements to be accepted by
faith or reason? If the former, was it a faith which could only have
come from the experience of after-ages? or was it based on the ipse
dixit of Moses? What was the basis of faith when the record was first
written? was it from generally accepted tradition or by revelation? Is
the record anonymous or does it reveal the name of its author? If to
be endorsed by knowledge and reason, why should not the narrative be
strictly and accurately translated, even at the expense of conciseness
and elegance of diction, in order that the exact force of every word
shall be fully felt and recognized? If the record is from divine
revelation, it is still more essential to know precisely what was
revealed; otherwise we are no better than idolaters; we are worse,
in fact, for we have changed and falsified the landmarks of religion,
and bear false witness against God Himself. We must not interpret
Genesis by records made long subsequently; it must speak for itself
or not at all.
When construed in accordance with the exact definition of the words
themselves quite a new and strange light is thrown upon the history of
the events thus recorded. The great importance of a strict construction
of the translation and fidelity to the original is emphasized by
the fact that the same word was never used in this record to express
a different sense in different parts, nor were two different words
ever used in different places to express the same meaning. It is,
therefore, necessary to give every word of the original its exact
fulness and force. The basis of the following critical translation is
to be found in "Mankind: their Origin and Destiny" (Longmans & Co.,
London, 1872), but a careful comparison has been made with other
accepted authorities, and the root-meanings of the separate words
have been carefully traced out, so that many necessary changes will
be found to have been made in order to bring out the precise sense
of the original. There is no actual literal, critical, etymological,
and scientific rendering embraced in a single translation known to us,
and which is complete in itself; but that which follows will be found,
it is believed, to give every word its particular etymological shade
of meaning, and to employ the same word in the same place, for the same
purpose, and with the same signification as it was understood to have,
in its original form, when first recorded. The specific root-meanings
of the most important words used are further explained in detail in
a separate section below.
The use of Aleim, "the powerful Forces," in the plural, followed by
the verb in the singular, is a Hebraism, and indicates the collective
character of the forces as specially energized, sent forth, and
directed by Jeove (Jeova or Jehovah is the Chaldaic form of the word,
the original Hebrew being Jeove), who does not appear by name in this
narrative, though, as we shall see, specially delegated power from
some higher source is that characteristic which is most emphasized
throughout the record. These forces are personified, as is usual in
ancient records (and, indeed, in modern thought), but they are in
reality the "powers of God." The author of the work above referred
to says, "The idea of Moses was that there was a Supreme God ... and
that He only acts by means of his agents called Aleim, the Gods,
in the plural and indefinite number, or embassadors, or voices." The
ancient belief in the unity of all forces in one creative individuality
is also most clearly shown in some of the oldest Vedaic hymns of India
(see Max Müller, "The Veda"). "Self (Atman) is the Lord of all things,
Self is the King of all things. As all the spokes of a wheel are
contained in the nave and the circumference, all things are contained
in this Self; all selves are contained in this Self. Brahman (Force)
itself is but Self."
Of the religion of the ancient Egyptians (see "Evolution and
Christianity," by J. F. York) it is said, "The chief theological
characteristic of this first of all known civilized religions is
the doctrine of the Divine Unity. As M. de Rougé says, 'One idea
predominates, that of a single and primeval God; everywhere and
always it is one substance, self-existent, and an unapproachable
God.'" The Egyptian cosmogony, as the fragments have come down to us
(see Professor Arnold Guyot, "Creation"), is as follows:
1. The original gaseous form, and the darkness of matter.
2. The successive transformations.
3. Light, as the first step in this development.
4. The separation of the waters below from the waters above the
expanse.
5. Periods of development of indefinite length.
6. The sun, moon, and earth organized last.
The word Mlactou, which occurs several times repeated in the summing
up of this narrative, explains the character of Aleim most fully, as
specially energized and directed agencies or forces. This word never
has any other meaning. Even when applied to a king it was not a king
as a monarch, but as the specially directed agent of God. I. Samuel
xxviii. 17, "The Lord hath sent the kingdom out of thine hand;
... because thou obeydst not the voice of the Lord." When, in Exodus
xiii. 21 it is said that "Jeove went before them by day in a pillar
of a cloud," this is explained, in chapter xiv. verse 19, to mean that
this pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night was Mlac, a messenger,
or agent. It is translated "angel" in the English version, but it
was not a personal angel; it was a specially energized and directed
force. In the earliest times it was not the God of fire, or of force,
or of justice which men feared, but fire, or force, or justice;
the anthropomorphic conception came later with the generalization
of all fire, all force, or all justice. We say now that a malefactor
fears the law; what he really fears, however, is punishment. In this
record we are dealing with the primordial forces of God,--gravity,
electricity, attraction, repulsion, cohesion, vital force, etc., etc.,
but acting with special energy for a predetermined result. Of these
forces Dr. McCosh says, in his work on Christianity and Positivism,
"One God, with his infinitely varied perfections,--his power, his
knowledge, his wisdom, his love, his mercy; we should see that one
Power blowing in the breeze, smiling in the sunshine, sparkling in
the stars, quickening us as we bound along in the felt enjoyment of
health, efflorescing in every form and hue of beauty, and showering
down daily gifts upon us. The profoundest minds in our day, and in
every day, have been fond of regarding this force, not as something
independent of God, but as the very power of God acting in all action;
so that in him we live, and move, and have our being." In more rugged
and virile form this was precisely the old Mosaic philosophy, the
philosophy of the arcana of the Egyptian temples, and of the Vedaic
age of the Aryans of India. Where was the radiant center of this
unfailing search-light which has poured its broad belt of dazzling
brightness down to our day from those old, prehistoric ages?
So De Jouvencel, in his "Genesis according to Science," says, "We
should not place the works of nature on one side and nature on the
other. Nature is a work and not a person."
The word which in the English version is translated "rested," in the
concluding verses of the narrative, does not mean rested from fatigue,
but rested as a pendulum rests when it ceases to vibrate. Had the
word been rendered "came to a state of rest," it would have been far
more accurate and true to the sense of the original. What is meant is
that these pent-up forces had operated, under the guidance of Jeove,
to rupture a state of unstable equilibrium in the attenuated matter of
space, just as similar forces are now said to gather energy to produce
a volcanic eruption of the earth's crust, preceded by earthquakes and
other vast disturbances radiating from the center of rupture of these
tensions between the molecules of matter, accompanied by explosive
expansion and all the phenomena of disorganization and repulsion, and
succeeded by condensation, development, harmony, and final quiescence
of these specially energized and self-opposing forces in a newly
formed state of molecular equilibrium. To quote from Professor Guyot,
"God rests as the creator of the visible universe. The forces of
nature are now in that admirable equilibrium which we now behold,
and which is necessary to our existence." In "The Unity of Nature"
the Duke of Argyle says, "We strain our imaginations to conceive the
processes of Creation, whilst in reality they are around us daily."
The words which conclude the third verse of chapter ii. are also
imperfectly rendered in our English version, and this defect has led to
a popular misconception almost universal. They are construed to mean
"created--and made," as though marking a broad class distinction
between the different processes before described. From this the
inference has been drawn that while, for the more subordinate features,
the word rendered "made" indicated that these were stages in the
process of creation merely involving the use of coexisting materials,
in the grander features of the work it was supposed that there had been
a creation ab initio,--that is, out of nothing. Whole libraries have
been written on this theme; but the words used bear no such meaning;
on the contrary, they signify the exact opposite. There is, however,
a broad distinction between the interpretation of the two words;
but it is that the word which is to be rendered "fashioned like the
work of a sculptor" is narrower and not broader in significance than
the simple word "made;" so that the former is included in, but is
not generically distinct from, the latter. The word Bra means that
these portions of creation were fashioned with the care and artistic
skill of a sculptor, as contradistinguished from turning out the
productions in mass; this distinction does not relate to the origin,
but to the workmanship. However interstellar or primordial space
was formed, or when, if it ever was formed, there is nothing in this
record which excludes a pre-existent space substantially like that
which now is. What we see in the sky, among the nebulæ, are later
developments of like solar systems, in like manner, from the midst
of the substance of the same illimitable and eternal space.
But biology has an interest in this account of creation equally as
great as has cosmology. The word Bra is first applied to the formation
of the individualized substance of the heavens and the earth. They were
fashioned or carved out like a sculpture from something on which the
forces could operate. There was, of course, creation involved, but it
was a mental, not a physical process. When a sculptor has completed
his clay figure he has brought forth a great creation, perhaps, and
the "creation" is still his own, though the figure be cast in bronze
by hired workmen in the foundry, who execute the sculptor's will at
two dollars a day, it may be, each. Beyond this mental element there
is no more creation, in its widest sense, than when a boy "creates"
a new point on his pencil by guiding his hand and knife to sharpen it.
When the "diffused light" came, it is not said that it was "fashioned
like the work of a sculptor," or that it was even "made;" but that it
"came into existence." "Let there be light, and there was light,"
as the English version has it. But when the radiant energy of the
sun came to be formed, on the fourth day, it did not "come into
existence," nor was it "fashioned like the work of a sculptor;" it was
"made." The reason is that it was not a development from the preceding
"diffused light," but a new kind of light, made mechanically by the
electrolysis of aqueous vapor around the sun's body, forming a hydrogen
envelope, and by driving the furious torrents of electricity from the
planets through this atmosphere, while the auroral, "diffused light"
of the earth was gradually dying away during the process. Hence
there was no room for the word Bra, or for the word Iei (came into
existence) here; the word to be used was Osh. And when life was first
introduced,--vegetable life, the primal life,--the word used is not
Bra; this life was not "fashioned" or developed from other life. But
when animal life was afterwards introduced, the word used is Bra;
it was a refashioning. What was this life fashioned out of? It was
not "made;" it did not "begin to exist;" it was developed. In this
manner the earth was finally filled with animal life. Then came
the introduction of the human race. Here we again have the word
Bra, thrice repeated; but when this introduction of mankind was
first projected, and before it was executed, it was in these words,
"We will make [the root Osh] mankind;" or, in the English version,
"Let us make man." There seems here to have been a gradual ascent of
living organisms by development, almost precisely in accordance with
the most recent teachings of science. Two essentially different kinds
of light were successively produced, independently of each other;
the earlier kind "came into being," and the later "was made." The
substance or entity of the heavens and of the earth, generically,
"was fashioned." Three successive introductions of organic life not
essentially different from each other occurred; the first is described
thus: "Let the earth bring forth; ... and the earth brought forth,"
in the English version; or "There shall be made to grow; ... and there
was caused to arise suddenly out of the ground ... vegetation," as
more accurately rendered. The second form of organic life, in order of
time, the animal, was "fashioned." The third form, mankind, was also
"fashioned," and this was done long subsequently to the introduction
of the second.
If the word Bra had any signification of original creation it would
have been applied to the first creation of life, for it was far more
wonderful and original that there should be vegetable life which
grew and developed, which brought forth flowers and then fruit, which
formed germinative seeds, and from these successively and continuously
reproduced its multifarious species, than that animal life should
have been introduced long afterwards to repeat these same things
which vegetation had been, in all its forms, from the lowest to the
highest, already doing for untold ages,--from the third period of the
earth's long history to the fifth; and more especially still when we
consider that vegetable life and animal life, in their lowest forms,
have no positive line of division between them.
And if Osh, which is applied to the genesis of solar light, be capable
of the signification of original creation, then this word should have
been applied to the generation of the "diffused light" of the second
day, for the genesis of light is far more wonderful and original
than the subsequent production of sunlight, after the forming earth
had existed for two whole formative periods, from the second to the
fourth, under the constant illumination of this universally diffused
auroral light. If, on the other hand, the words applied to the first
generation of light and the first generation of life be held to mark
an original creation, then these words are never applied in this whole
narrative to the genesis of the entity of the heavens, or the earth,
or the sun and moon, or to animal life, or the life of man.
The radiant light and heat of the sun were not made until the fourth
day, while the introduction of vegetable life dates from the long
antecedent third day of creation. Prior to the development of the
sun's thermal light there could have been, as we have already shown,
no free oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere; and it is a remarkable
circumstance that vegetation, which is the only form of organic life
which could have existed and propagated its species in an atmosphere
composed of carbonic, nitrogenous, and aqueous vapors, devoid of
oxygen, is that particular form of life which has been selected for
this purpose, and its advent placed prior to the making of the sun. It
would have been far more reasonable (previous to our present knowledge
of these things) to have placed the formation of the sun in advance
of the introduction of life; it is surprising that this was not done,
unless we give to these "ancients" a knowledge of the principles of
natural science far beyond anything hitherto attributed to them.
In the same connection there is described a stage preparatory to and
leading up to the simultaneous development of the sun's light and
heat, and the sifting out of hydrogen around the solar core, and of
oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere, which is equally remarkable. The
"separation of the waters" described in verses 6 and 7 has never been
fully rendered into English, or even understood in the original, as
the words seemed meaningless in their literal sense until correctly
interpreted by the facts set forth in the present work.
We must first note that the separation of the waters of space to
two opposite foci, with an intervening space of attenuated matter,
and their condensation there into two entirely different bodies, was
the work of the second day, while the formation of the terrestrial
rain-clouds and seas, as connected together, was a work of the
third day, and was not accomplished until then, which was long
afterwards. These entirely different operations--different in time,
place, character, and circumstance--have always been confounded with
each other; but one is in reality systemic and the other merely local.
In verse 6 there was decreed an expanse or thinning (an attenuated
region) in the center of the waters, and a separation was made by
the formation of two "spots" (verse 7), one under the expanse and
the other above the expanse; the expanse was space, interplanetary
space. Professor Arnold Guyot, in his book on Creation, says, "It is
to be regretted that the English version has translated the Hebrew
word expanse by the word firmament.... The difficulties they [the
commentators] have created for themselves arose ... from depriving it
of its cosmogonic character and belittling it by reducing the great
phenomena there described to a simple modification of the terrestrial
atmosphere.... They forget that this thin covering of clouds is but
a temporary and ever-changing one, and that the clouds are in that
heaven rather than above it.... They forget that this is not the true
heavens in which are spread the sun and moon and stars.... This grand
day, so dwarfed and misunderstood, is the one in which are described
the generations of the heavens, announced by Moses, which otherwise
find no place in the narrative of the creative week."
The two foci of waters were the solar and terrestrial; around these
bodies were gathered by the attraction of gravity, and there condensed,
the aqueous vapors from the attenuated intervening matter of space; the
earth by its rotation generated the enormous electrical currents which
still continue; when these made their mighty leap across to the sun,
the diffused auroral light around the earth gradually disappeared,
hydrogen and oxygen began to be evolved at the opposite poles--the
sun and the earth--from the condensed envelopes of aqueous vapor
which surrounded them, the sun's hydrogen atmosphere was pierced,
as in the pail-of-water experiment described in an earlier chapter
of the present work, by the planetary electric currents, the sun
became incandescent, and pari passu the earth became fitted, by the
development of oxygen, for the abode of animal life. As taking part
in this great mechanical transformation, the sun was said to have been
"made;" it did not "come into being."
Just prior to the introduction of vegetable life--during the same
creative epoch, in fact, and for the support of which life it was
necessary--the waters under the expanse were condensed into rain-clouds
and seas, and there is a curious reference (verse 9) to the appearance
of the earth's dryness "as produced by the action of an internal fire;"
the gradual cooling of the earth by the radiation of its internal heat
of condensation into space would account for this appearance, and, in
connection with the diffused auroral light throughout the whole sky,
would doubtless have sufficed for the support of vegetable life.
In verse 16 the fixed stars (the suns of other systems) are referred
to, but in a parenthetical statement--almost deprecatory, in fact--that
"the dim and almost extinct lights" the same forces created also,
but when they were created is not stated in the record. The occasion
for this incidental remark is to be found in the preceding statement
that the two new luminaries, the sun and moon, were the two "superior
bodies in size of the starry lights." Having mentioned the stars in
this comparison, the author feels called upon to add that the latter
also had been similarly created,--that is, that they were not original
existences, and of course they are not, but they were not created at
that epoch, and are not said to have been.
In chapter ii. verse 4, which opens the second narrative (quite a
different history, by the way), Jeove appears Himself, joined with
the Aleim, and henceforth this personal connection is maintained;
the English version translates this composite word "The Lord God,"
which means the Master God; the correct reading is, however, the
"God of gods," or what we call the "God of the forces of nature,"
or the "God omnipotent."
In the whole Mosaic cosmogony there is nothing which can even
suggest a gradually closing nebulous mass; the element of rotation is
absent (and it would not have been understood by the people even if
presented); but, with this exception, the processes of development
are substantially in accord with what must really have taken place,
and in the order described. But it is, as before stated, absolutely
essential to understand the root-meanings of all the more important
words used in the original. A superficial translation is not only
meaningless, but misleading; whereas, when accurately understood,
the record is one of the most remarkable ever presented to human
intelligence. The words used were selected deliberately for their
specific shades of meaning, and, unless these are properly rendered,
to the uninformed the narrative will present a simple succession
of startling phenomena, while to the educated student each of these
changes carries within its verbal index its origin, its mode, and the
knowledge of the forces at work. To the one it is a dramatic spectacle
performed on the stage in front; to the other it is the same work
as seen behind the curtain, with all the intermoving mechanism (the
author's manuscript the sole guide), the interplay of complicated
forces, the triumphant successes, the rapt attention, and even the
sudden applause extorted at each wondrous climax from the skilled
actors themselves, who are at the same time unceasingly engaged in
working out the mighty drama of creation. One might readily believe
that the original author of this record was thoroughly acquainted
with the processes involved in the development of a solar system like
our own from the diffused primordial matter of space, substantially
as we have endeavored, in the present work, to deduce them from the
most recent investigations and discoveries of science.
Of the watery vapors condensed above the expanse of space many of
the ancient writers had a far more correct knowledge than had those
who translated these chapters from the original into the various
modern languages. In the Psalms we read, "Praise him, ... ye waters
that be above the heavens;" in the Song of the Three Holy Children,
"O all ye waters that be above the heavens." Theophilus speaks of the
"visible sky as having drawn to itself a portion of the waters of
chaos at the time of the creation." Saint Augustine says that the
firmament has been formed "between the upper and the lower waters,"
and quotes Genesis i. 6 and 7, as his authority.
Thousands of years ago, as far back as the days of the Pythagoreans,
and even long before, mankind was acquainted with the mariner's
compass, telescopic tubes, and glass lenses; they knew that the moon
receives her light by reflection from the sun, of the presence of
mountains and valleys on the lunar surface, that her day and night are
each a fortnight in length, that there were other planets known to the
Egyptians besides the seven known to the Greeks (the Brahmans reckoned
fifteen of them), that the sun is the center of our planetary system,
that the earth and the other planets revolve around it, that the earth
is round and rotates on its own axis daily, that weight is a principal
element in the maintenance of these rotations, that the fixed stars
are suns, and that the Milky Way appears white from the number of
stars which it contains. Kircher quotes from an ancient Syrian author
the philosophy of the sidereal system, dividing it into many layers
or spheres attached to orbits, each presided over by a spirit. In
the eighth sphere are placed the fixed stars, "still higher two other
layers of stars not less luminous, and of different sizes, the nebulæ
and the small stars of the Milky Way, and the whole is surrounded by
the celestial waters, which spread over the whole firmament, and which
compose the great sea of light and the boundless ocean." The sources
of all this wondrous knowledge can be traced back through Chaldea,
Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and, through the colony of Meroë, to India.
ROOT-MEANINGS OF THE PRINCIPAL WORDS USED IN THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE
OF CREATION.
Aleim ("corruptly called Elohim by the modern Jews, but always Aleim
in the synagogue copies") means the Strong Forces (or, by subsequent
impersonation, subaltern gods), operating to carry out the purposes and
execute the plans of Jeove. Al, the root, signifies Strong, strength,
a ram; Al-e means Strong in a personal sense; Aleim (plural) means
the Forces, the Strong-ones, the Powers, and in Egyptian mythology,
the subordinate, or executive, gods, the demi-urgi. Exodus vii. 1,
"And the Lord [Jeove] said unto Moses, See I have made thee a god
[Aleim] to Pharaoh; thou shalt speak all that I command thee."
Bra, carved, cut, fashioned like the work of a sculptor, gave a new
shape to, formed from unformed material. From Br, a knife; br-i,
to carve, to cut.
Brashit, in the commencement or beginning of individualized existence
(with the initial preposition b-). B signifies in; it (which is
related to at) signifies individualized existence; rash, a principle
or beginning, or a commencement.
At, connected with the Chaldaic, signifies substance, essence,
or individuality, "the thing itself" (Latin, ens); it is correctly
translated "individualized substance."
Eshmim, the combination of the preposition e with the substantive
shmim, the word signifying of the visible heavens, or the planisphere.
Artz, the earth in a state of aridity, or as a generalized expression
for the earth; ar signifies the earth, and the termination tz
intensifies the signification of drought, whiteness, aridity; in
contrast with this is adme, red earth, or productive earth or soil.
U- is a conjunction, signifying and or then, in the sense of succession
of time, something like our phrase "and then."
Teou does not mean "without form," nor does ubeou mean "and void," as
rendered in our English version, at least not in the ordinary sense
of these words. "Teou refers to extinct life, or to existence shut
up as in a tomb and in darkness, while u-beou refers to life which
is about reappearing, but still hidden in the egg or the ovary, and
waiting for the word which shall cause the dawn of creation to shine
upon it." These words are more properly rendered "tomb-like darkness
and undeveloped."
Eshc means darkness; not merely an intense darkness, but what may be
denominated a "thick darkness;" it is an enshrouding darkness which
compresses and hinders. It is precisely such a darkness as would be
produced by the interstratified cloud-layers between the convolutions
of a forming spiral nebula, or the cloud-strata surrounding the
earth before electrolytic decomposition of the aqueous vapors had
ensued. With the advent of the sun, in the narrative, this darkness
and the term which expresses it disappear.
Teou-m is the word above explained, with the termination -m,
expressing the idea of arrested, doubtful, indefinite, as applied to
all existence; the word "undifferentiated nature" properly interprets
its vagueness and general character of an abyss of being, in the
etymological sense of "nature" as the totality of things at that time
born or produced.
Rove means breath, in the sense of an expanding, liberating, or
developing spirit; its literal meaning is "the breath, the spirit
which dilates and frees."
Mrepht, brooded with incubating love; reph is composed of re, "to be
full of good-will, to be agreeable," and eph, "to cover, to protect,
to incubate, to brood."
Mim, the seeds of all beings, the waters. It is said, "the choice of
this letter m, to signify water [the alphabetical Egyptian letter m
is represented by the two undulatory lines which in the hieroglyphics
represent water], is connected with the Egyptian ideas of the cause
of the generation of living beings." Numbers xxiv. 7, "He shall
pour the waters out of his buckets, and the seed [zro] in the waters
[b-mim]." The latter word is plural in form, but both singular and
plural in sense.
Aour, diffused light; a light resembling the dawn, but quite distinct
from the light of the sun. The latter was not established until the
fourth day, and its advent is characterized by a new word, leair,
"to cause light to move above the earth."
Joum is day, generically, and lile night.
Rqiô, the expanse; atrqiô, the individualized substance of the
expanse. Space, in the opinion of the Egyptians, "not being a vacuum,
but a material substance, Moses could say, and was even compelled to
say, 'the substance of space, that which constitutes it.'"
Osh, made. This word first occurs in verse 7, and is there applied to
the making a separation between the waters or aqueous vapors condensed
around the earth and those condensed around some similar spot "above,
as regards the individuality of the expanse,"--to wit, the solar core
or nucleus,--to which, attracted by gravity from the attenuated vapors
of the space between, is due the subsequent establishment of the solar
light and heat, as in an electrical arc light, and the presence of
oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere. These processes, involving
the constitution of our atmosphere and of the sun's photosphere
and chromosphere, were not completed until two subsequent cosmical
periods had elapsed, from the third to the fifth. The word osh, in its
different combinations and inflections, is also used in verse 11, where
it signifies "making," as applied to fruit; "yielding" fruit, in verse
12; "they made," as applied to the sun and moon, in verse 16; "made,"
as applied to the entity of quadrupeds and higher animals generally,
in verse 25; "we will make," as applied to man, verse 26; "had made,"
as applied to "every entity of creation," verse 31; "had made," as
applied to the specially directed work as mlactou, chapter ii. verse
2; and finally, in the general summing up in verse 3 of the second
chapter, as an element in a compound substantive phrase "according
to the making-act," or "in accordance with the making of creation."
"Oshout," it is said, "signifies a manual operation, carried on
according to a previously conceived idea, or model."
We find a similar use of the substantive infinitive with a preceding
preposition in verse 21, chapter iii. "Ctnout is derived from tne,
a consoling word. Tnout, the infinitive of the conjugation Piel, adds
to the word the act of causing to be done, and of doing with care."
A similar construction, lraout, is employed in chapter ii. verse
19, translated in the English version, "and brought them unto Adam
to see what ..."; more literally, "as regards the act of seeing,"
or according to a vision, or show. That is, they were brought and
presented to his sight.
The object in writing these two words, bra and l-osh-out, together at
the very end of the narrative was to conclusively establish the fact,
beyond all possible doubt, that the whole work of creation was an
orderly and harmonious progression.
Mlactou, which word is used twice in verse 2 and once in verse 3 of the
second chapter, and not previously, is also introduced for specific
emphasis. It means that the whole preceding work of creation was, in
its nature, "the work of Mlac," a messenger, or a specially energized
and directed agency, sent to fulfil the appointed work of Jeove. Its
purpose was to forever prevent the belief that the work of creation
was due to mere natural forces, on the one hand, operating by chance;
and, on the other, that these forces were independent gods carrying
out their own purposes, and of their own will. It was set up as a
double barrier against rationalism on the one side and polytheism on
the other.
It may be incidentally added that the popular belief that "Adam was
created out of the dust of the earth" is not in accordance with the
original record. In the second narrative, chapter ii. verse 7, the
word ophr is rendered "dust" in our English version, but it does not
signify ordinary terrestrial dust at all; "its radical meaning is to
volatilize a substance, to sublimate it." The true signification of
the word used is analogous to a "material essence." The same word is
used in Numbers xxiii. 10 as a synonym for "seed;" it is said that
"the Septuagint version translates ophr by sperma."
The formation, described in the third chapter, of the female human
being out of one of the ribs of Adam, excised for that purpose (which
is a matter of almost universal popular belief), is not, in reality,
what is stated in the original. In verse 21 of chapter ii. the words
are rendered in our version, "And he took one of his ribs." What is
really said, however, is "And he brought out another one from his
sides." So the similar expression in verse 22 in reality signifies,
"caused to be made according to womankind the individualized substance
of his side."
The word translated "of his ribs" is precisely the same as is
subsequently used by the same writer (Exodus xxxvii. 27) to designate
the location of the supporting rings upon an altar of incense, and
is there rendered, "by the two corners of it, upon the two sides."
The defective translation is due to imperfect knowledge, at that
time, of the processes of organic development. The true signification
is that given in the "Institutes of Manu": "Having divided his own
sub-sistence, the Mighty Power became half male and half female."
The words rendered "help meet" in verses 18 and 20 have a far
higher meaning; "I will make him a help meet" should be translated,
"I will cause to be made for him an overseeing help as a guide,
an instructor, a revealer." And in verse 20 of chapter iii., "And
Adam called his wife's name Eve," the latter word is not translated;
the correct rendering is, "And Adam called the symbolic name of his
wife the female serpent-wise revealer, she who explains, points out
things, who instructs," for that is what the true root-meaning of Eve
signifies. The concluding words of this verse, "because she was the
mother of all living," are obviously mistranslated, for not only was
she not a mother at all, but she did not even conceive, as stated in
the next chapter, until she had left the garden finally. The true
signification is, "because she was the mother of all [spiritual,
see verse 22, as contradistinguished from animal and vegetable] life."
The female human being, the word translated woman, has the generic
root-signification of "flame," while, prior to Eve, that of the
Adamic man is the "red earth." As the male was formed from a material
earthly essence, the female was created one remove further from the
gross and material in the direction of the spiritual; and her powers
were distinctively subjective, those of intuition, while those of
the male were objective, those derived from instruction. Even in the
final curse (so called) the man turns back to the earth to earn his
subsistence, while the woman turns forward to the instruction of
the future men and women, the children; for the words, "In sorrow
shalt thou bring forth children," have left one word of the original
untranslated, and by supplying this the sense is entirely changed,
"and conceiving, and bringing forth, in sorrow shalt thou bring up,
care for, and train children." In those countries childbirth was
never attended with much pain or sorrow.
The obvious effect of the whole inspired or traditionary second
narrative is to clearly differentiate the contrasted faculties of
the two sexes, and the root-meanings of the words employed, whether
Moses himself perceived it or not, are a testimonial of the highest
possible character for woman, instead of being, as rendered in the
ordinary versions, a mark of inferiority, or even of degradation. In
the garden scene, when she partook of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge, she did not do it hastily or from mere temptation; it is
said that "she considered it attentively;" the same word being used
as was employed in the first narrative to mark the intense interest
and almost superhuman character of the consideration by the Aleim
of the work, as its successive stages appeared, which they were
delegated to perform, and which Jeove himself directed. The prize,
to her, far outweighed the penalty, and the aspiring sibyl dared to
lift the innermost veil in the adytum of the temple, and grasp the
lofty truths which made her as one of the Aleim. So fell Prometheus.
And then, no sooner had the flame-crowned seer won her precious prize,
than, woman-like, she turned and laid it before her husband, and he,
the innocent one, "did eat."
The serpent was not a mere snake, be it understood; it was the Egyptian
Typhon, the dark Spirit of doubt, the questioner, the tempter, the
eternal if, the why, whence, what, and whither?
It was her insatiable aspiration to reach the highest possible
limits of human knowledge which gave strength to her daring, and
not a childish fancy for an apple. All this, of course, is lost in
the translation. It is as though the national standard of a mighty
people had been disinterred from the remains of past ages, which had
been borne aloft at the head of mighty armies for centuries, and for
which thousands had gloriously died in battle in defence of a sacred
cause, and which now, its past history untraced, has been catalogued
as a brass bird of some sort mounted on a stick.
It is to be regretted that there is no plain, popular work by a
thoroughly capable scholar, without theological or anti-theological
bias, which treats of the origin, form, root-derivation, usage,
accurate signification, and construction of the comparatively few
words employed in the ancient narratives which compose the first
half-dozen chapters of Genesis, and, we may add, the book of Job;
something like those inestimable works which deal with the ancient
cosmogonic literature of Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, India, China,
Phoenicia, and Central America. Nothing of this sort is to be found,
at all events in a form accessible to the general reader, and such a
work, in small compass, would be of the highest importance to popular
instructors, to students, and to the public as well, for it would
throw a flood of light on these extremely valuable but, hitherto,
so illy-comprehended records.
THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE OF CREATION.
1. Aleim, the Forces, fashioned like the work of a sculptor, in
the commencement of individualized existence, the individualized
substance of the heavens and the individualized substance of
the earth.
2. And the earth was in tomb-like darkness and undeveloped,
and there was compressive hindering darkness on the surface of
undifferentiated nature. And the dilating and liberating Spirit
of the Forces hovered with incubating love on the surface of the
seeds of all beings, the waters.
3. Then Aleim said, There shall be a diffused light; and a diffused
light was.
4. And Aleim regarded with attention the individualized substance
of the diffused light, because good. And Aleim caused a separation
to be made between the diffused light and between the compressive
hindering darkness.
5. Then Aleim exclaimed for the diffused light, Day! and for the
compressive hindering darkness exclaimed, Night! And there was a
transition from light to darkness, and then there was a renewal
of light; First Day.
6. Then Aleim said, There shall be an expansion obtained by a
thinning in the center of the waters, and there was that which
caused a separation to be made by occupying a spot, the waters
according to the waters.
7. And Aleim made the individualized substance of the expanse,
and caused a separation to exist by the occupation of the spot,
of the waters which are under as regards the expanse of space,
and by the occupation of the spot, of the waters which are above
as regards the expanse of space; and it was so.
8. Then Aleim exclaimed for the expanse of space, The Heavens! and
there was a transition from light to darkness, and then there
was a renewal of light; Second Day.
9. And Aleim said, The waters which are underneath the heavens
will tend directly, in order to meet in it, towards a single spot
fixed upon for their meeting; and of dryness produced by the action
of an internal fire the appearance shall be made; and it was so.
10. Then Aleim exclaimed for the dryness, Earth! and for the spot
fixed upon for the meeting of the waters exclaimed, Seas! Then
Aleim looked attentively at it, because good.
11. And Aleim said, There shall be made to grow from the earth
a dwarf vegetation which can be trodden under foot, a maturing
plant causing to be sowed around it a seed, the strong and woody
substance of fruit making fruit after his kind whose seed is in
itself above the earth; and it was so.
12. And there was caused to arise suddenly and full of strength
a dwarf vegetation, a maturing plant sowing around it seed after
his kind; and the woody substance yielding fruit whose seed is
in itself after his kind. Then Aleim considered it, because good.
13. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then
there was a renewal of light; Third Day.
14. Then Aleim said, There shall be starry-lights in the expanse
of space of the heavens to separate between the duration of the
day and between the duration of the night; and they shall be for
signs, and for seasons, and for the days which make the year,
and for the repetitions of years.
15. And they shall be for luminous bodies in the expanse of
space of the heavens to cause light to move above the earth;
and it was so.
16. And Aleim made a double individualized substance, the superior
in size and excellence of the starry-lights, the individualized
substance which was the greater of the luminous bodies to represent
the rule of the day, and the lesser luminous body to represent
the rule of the night.
Of the dim and almost extinct lights [the stars] they made the
individualized substance also.
17. And Aleim established these individualized substances in the
expanse of space of the heavens to make light move above the earth.
18. And to be representatives of dominion during the day and
during the night, and to separate between the continuance of
diffused light and between the continuance of compressive hindering
darkness; then Aleim looked attentively at it, because good.
19. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then
there was a renewal of light; Fourth Day.
20. Then Aleim said, The waters shall bring forth a swarm of
swarming creatures having living breath; and that which flies,
the birds, shall be made to fly with strength and fleetness above
the earth in the space extended of the heavens.
21. And Aleim fashioned like the work of a sculptor the
individualized substance of those which are superior in size of
the gigantic reptiles and every individualized substance having
living breath, that moveth, which they had produced, swarming
from the waters, according to their kind; and every individualized
substance of flying thing with wings, after his kind. Then Aleim
looked attentively at it, because good.
22. And Aleim blessed these individualities by saying, propagate
your species and multiply yourselves, and fill the individualized
substance of the waters in the seas; and as for the flying thing,
it shall multiply itself on the earth.
23. And there was a transition from light to darkness, and then
there was a renewal of light; Fifth Day.
24. Then Aleim said, From the earth shall be brought forth the
living breath according to its kind, the quadruped, and the being
which moveth about, and the terrestrial animal according to its
kind; and it was so.
25. And Aleim made the individualized substance of the animal of
the earth according to his kind, and the individualized substance
of the quadruped according to his kind, and every individualized
substance that moveth about of red earth according to his
kind. Then Aleim regarded it, because good.
26. Then Aleim said, We will make mankind of a like order of
intellect with ourselves, and they shall extend their dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the heavens, and
over the quadruped, and over all of the earth, and over all the
moving beings that move about over the earth.
27. And Aleim fashioned like the work of a sculptor the
individualized substance of mankind in the exactness of a shadow
cast upon a wall; on this shadow Aleim carved the individuality;
male and female they fashioned the individualized substance.
28. Then Aleim blessed the individualized substance. And Aleim
said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
individualized substance of the earth, and subdue it, and extend
your dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of
the heavens, and over all life of the being which moveth about
over the earth.
29. And Aleim said, Behold I have given for you every useful
plant-substance yielding seed, yielding seed which there is over
the surface of all the earth, and every individualized substance
of tree which has in it fruit pertaining to a tree yielding seed,
yielding seed for you, it shall be for food.
30. And for all animal life of the earth, and for everything
that flies in the heavens, and for every being that moveth over
the surface of the earth which has in it living breath, every
individualized substance which is a green maturing plant shall
be for food. And it was so.
31. Then Aleim looked at every individualized substance which
they had made, and behold it was as good as possible. And there
was a transition from light to darkness, and then there was a
renewal of light; Sixth Day.
(Chapter ii.) 1. Then the finishing was made of the heavens,
and of the earth, and of all the orderly arrangement.
2. And Aleim [the Forces] finished on the seventh day the divinely
appointed and directed work which they had performed; and they
came again to a state of rest on the seventh day from all the
appointed work which they had done.
3. Then Aleim blessed the individualized substance of the seventh
day and sanctified it, because in it they returned to their
primitive condition from all the divinely appointed and directed
work which the Forces had fashioned like the work of a sculptor,
in accordance with the making of creation.
CHAPTER XV.
CONCLUSION. THE HARMONY OF NATURE'S LAWS AND OPERATIONS.
We have passed before us the different orders of celestial phenomena;
we have called down the denizens of the starry skies and placed them
on the witness stand, and we have interrogated them in the light of
the evidence which they have given before; we have compared their
different statements, and have found that in their testimony they
all finally agree. Instead of confusion, we find order; instead of
complexity, simplicity; instead of discord, harmony; and through all
we see the orderly progress of nature with uniform step, from stage
to stage, higher and higher, until at last she stands triumphant,
the handmaid of creative power, in the very center of the arch of
the universe. We have taken the simplest operations which we find
in progress around us, and have extended them to larger operations,
constantly keeping in view their relevancy and the facts which form
their sole support. Mere speculation has been excluded, and theory
has found its every step based on an established fact. In this way
we may hope to make place for further investigation in this field
by abler minds, and that the conclusions of science may then become
so well understood and so firmly established that to go back to the
"dead-and-dying" theories of solar energies will be like going back
to Ptolemy and Tycho for our astronomy.
We have considered the hypothesis which bases the energy of our
sun upon his inherent heat, upon combustion, upon the accretion
of meteoric streams, and upon his slow and gradual condensation
of volume; and have found that all these hypotheses, singly or
combined, fail to account for his energy through the vistas of the
past, during which we know he must have shone as he now shines,
and fail to account for more than a slow but inevitable decline,
in the relatively near future, into eternal darkness and death. We
have found that all these theories are alike, in that they recognize
the sun itself as the only source of his energy, that his enormous
emission of light and heat is almost entirely wasted in empty space,
and that this will go on with the same frightful waste until he has
squandered his whole patrimony and ends his melancholy career in the
poor-house or the dungeon. We have, however, seen that even this will
not save the wretched client, for he has already spent far more than
he ever could have received originally by inheritance, and far more
than he could have gained by gifts pitched in in bulk--like the poor
colored brother's potatoes--through the window.
We have therefore gone over the case anew, and have learned that
enormous electrical currents are constantly passing between the earth
and the sun, with practically no resistance, and this irrespective of
any hypothesis, actual or possible; and these facts have solved at the
outset one of the greatest conceivable difficulties,--to wit, that of
the transmission through space of such essential currents. Turning
our attention to the more recent advances in electricity and the
arts of electrical construction, we have found that induction
machines, as contradistinguished from the older friction machines,
operate in a manner strongly suggestive of the rotation of a planet
through space, and we learn that the electrical potential of the air
overhead increases constantly by an enormous multiplying number as we
ascend, proving great electrical action in the regions immediately
surrounding the earth, and which we have called the terrestrial
electrosphere. We have also found that sun-spots and solar storms
and other disturbances are at once reflected in our earth-currents,
and are followed immediately by great electrical disturbances here
and by extensive auroral displays at night. Experiment shows that
similar auroral displays may be produced with an electrical machine by
interruption of the current leading to its principal condenser, thus
demonstrating that the currents are from the earth to the sun, and not
the converse. We have also found that while the solar atmosphere is
largely composed of hydrogen gas, that of the earth and other planets
is largely composed of oxygen, and that these gases, the constituents
of water, are separately disengaged at the opposite electrical
poles by the electrolytic action of a powerful current of electricity
applied to the decomposition of aqueous vapors, in accordance with the
established electrical law that any fluid which will transmit a current
may be decomposed by it; hence we learn that our interplanetary space
contains attenuated aqueous vapors, which we have also learned to be
true from other sources. As our other planets, as well as the earth,
are found to be surrounded with an atmosphere of dilute oxygen, and
with aqueous vapors suspended in it, we know that their action upon
the sun must be similar to that of the earth, and that the congeries
of planets thus unite in their supply of electricity to the sun in
constant and enormous currents. Examining now the effects of passing
powerful electrical currents through a compressed envelope of hydrogen
gas surrounding a conductor, we find that great heat ensues, that the
hydrogen becomes highly incandescent, and that the metallic nucleus
within is raised to an extremely high temperature, and we also observe
the same effects when the current is transmitted through the separated
carbons of an electrical arc light. We have thus accounted for the
constant supply of the energy which, transformed into light and heat,
as in the last-mentioned experiments, the sun pours forth perpetually
into space. We have also learned that electrical induction machines
derive their electrical currents from the surrounding air, and also
that no electricity can be generated in, or transmitted through,
a vacuum, and hence we learn that the planets, by the rotation of
their electrospheres in contact with the attenuated vapors of space,
generate these powerful electrical currents with which the sun is
supplied, and that the sun merely restores to the ocean from which,
in another form, it was abstracted the light and heat which he emits,
and that, instead of all being wasted except that which falls upon the
planets, in fact that is the only part which actually, in one sense
at least, is wasted: all the rest is deposited in bank, but that is
"spent." The important generalization is thus arrived at, that the
true source of solar energy is to be found in the attenuated vapors of
space, and that the mode is that of the generation of electricity by
the rotating planetary electrospheres, its transference through the
aqueous vapors of interplanetary space to the sun, its passage under
resistance through the compressed hydrogen envelope, its transformation
there into light and heat, and its final emission or backpouring into
space again. The molecular motions which give rise to light and heat
in their passage through the vast distances of space are finally
retarded by and disappear as radiated energy in the restoration
or increase of the intermolecular tension of the vapors of space,
and these processes continue, and must continue, to all eternity,
if the sun exists and his planets continue to revolve in orderly
circuit around him. If there be any permanent degradation of energy,
it must be with reference to the total volume of infinite, or at least
indefinite, space, and not with reference to the relatively minute
spark of fire which we call the sun. We have also learned that the
moon's electrosphere is repelled by that of its neighbor, the earth,
and that whatever vapor and atmosphere it may have can exist only on
its opposite side; and we have also learned that, by reason of the
moon's peculiar axial rotation with reference to the earth, any other
arrangement of the lunar moisture and air, even if such were possible,
would have absolutely prohibited all life on that subordinate planet
at any stage of its existence whatever. We have applied the above
principles to the fixed stars, and have learned that, by the same law,
the resplendent star itself is proof conclusive that it, too, must
have planets rotating around it, and that these planets must have an
oxygen atmosphere and clouds of aqueous vapor like our own. We have
interpreted the double and multiple stars, and, by an extension of
the same law, explained their frequently contrasted or complementary
colors. The new stars which blaze up in sudden conflagration and
then die out have no secrets when this new light is turned upon them;
they, too, are but the faithful followers of the law; and the temporary
and variable stars likewise fall into their appropriate categories and
obediently move on with the procession. The comets,--the banner-bearers
of the sidereal hosts,--which from the earliest ages have defied
science to read their cabalistic legend, find it now "writ large"
and in plain English. Even the meteorites, the cosmical dust, the
unorganized débris of space, are found to be amenable to the same
law. When we turn in wider gaze to spy out the fantastic nebulæ on the
very outer fringe of visible things, after we have separated out the
star-clusters and organized galaxies of suns, we apply our touchstone
to the irresolvable gaseous nebulæ, and lo! their mystery dissolves
at a touch. We have even been able to picture the processes of the
creation of solar systems and whole galaxies of suns in which the
same law finds scope, and by its infinite and harmonious extension we
learn that nature moves with a comprehensive plan, and is uniform in
her infinite variety and eternal in her ceaseless activity. We have
been told that--
"The poem of the universe
No rhythm has nor rhyme;
Some god recites the wondrous song,
A stanza at a time."
But it is all a mistake; the loftiest strains which ever inspired
the soul of Mozart or of Beethoven had not the ineffable harmony,
nor the sweetest songs of the greatest poets the perfect rhyme,
ever repeated and ever varied, of the universe. Its orderly progress
is like the onward movement of a mighty army, and there is but one
grand commander, "but one God," and Nature, that showeth forth his
handiwork, "is his prophet." We have found that the "course of nature,"
the eternally youthful mother, is the same, whether in spinning a
tendril in the garden, in weaving a whirlwind in the atmosphere, or
in elaborating from the universal vapors of primordial space a solar
system or a galaxy. And it is not a convulsive, spasmodic nature that
we find; we do not love to associate great explosions, cataclysms,
the destruction of worlds, or the extinction of suns with our ideas
of nature. These seem not to be of nature. The nature we love is
the gentle mother, uniform in her operations, kindly in her ways,
beneficent in her results; the nature of the rain, the sunshine,
seed-time and harvest and the sprouting seed again; ever patient,
ever responsive, but in all as firm and steadfast as the foundations
of eternity itself. So we have found her. We have assumed nothing; we
have observed and endeavored to deduce from observation her systematic
plan, for this is the voice of her law, "the same yesterday, to-day,
and forever." To quote the words of Matthew Arnold, from out the
darkness of the past we seem to hear her say,--
"Will ye claim for your great ones the gift
To have rendered the gleam of my skies?
Race after race, man after man,
Have thought that my secret was theirs,
--They are dust, they are changed, they are gone!
I remain."
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe" ***
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