Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1868-11-06
Heat AMI Light.

THE established doctrine is that heat
and light are propelled from the solar orb
out equally into all parts of surrounding
space, and fall upon earth ana other plan
cts Just as land no more than) they do
upon any waste part of the sky. And
these rays of heat and light, we are told,
decrease rapidly alike in number and in
power, diminishing with the square of the
distance from their source, the sun. But
Is II sof
Ascend in balloon and what do we
find2 DO heat and light increase in in
tensity as we rise in the air nearest to the
sum- BY no means. Six miles up all heat
Is gone. Tho thermometer Is at zero, and
hoar-frost gathers on every cord of the
rigging Of the air ship. How can this be,
If heat comes down to us in diminishing
force from the sunP II that were true,
heat ought TO increase rapidly as we ascend
nearer to the sun, the source of II. Even
light, though exceeding pure-the air be-
ing there free from the aqueous element
is less intense In those airy attitudes
Look up from the car of the balloon into
the abyss of the sky above, and what do
We seeS A bright dazzle comes from the
spot of the heat ems where the sun Is but
he is shorn of his rays. All around the
bhy ONcfhtuu ID Vi uttp dIuIt, hkt but
color of Prussian blue-=a well known sign
OF light imperfectly developed; just as we
see in the fame of candle or gas Jet, at the
part of imperfect combustion-or, TO take
better example, Just as the blue flash OF
the electric machine becomes yellow OF
white light when the power of the machine
Is increased There Is little light in
the air at those attitudes; the moment
the prism, by the gyratlons of the car, is
inclined always from the direct rays oi
the sun, there is no spectrum at all. Man.
ifestly, then, neither heat nor light comes
to us from the sun in the manner supposed
namely, travelling down to us through
the empty waste OF space, and decreasing
with the square of the distance. For, II
this were the fact, both heat and light
would increase rapidly with the lessening
distance as we ascend-whereas light di-
minishes, and heat wholly disappears
Calmly considered, these facts of them.
selves not only upset the common theory
but suggest the true one. Heat and light
are generated, spring into existence, with.
In the sphere of our own planet. Nc
heat or light in the wastes of space. Heat
there can be none, seeing that the ther
mometor falls to zero only six miles
above earth's surface. ftt' ..
And light too, evidently fades away in
thin blue luminosity in these upper re.
gions where the terrestrial gases, the ex
halations of the solid earth, become atten
uated-whore probably metre into, pure
hydrogen, and into that most subtle subli.
nation of matter which we call ether
which Is even in the vacuum of an air.
pump. usEtfft # Ls8Ea lC
The daylight, I say, is the offspring OF
l.. Il. 4.
by the solar orb, Our heat and light
are generated within the domain of earth
itself A cosmical force, which we call
gravitation or attraction-and which II
more or less inherent in all matter--comet
from the sun and that force or influence
becomes light and heat when 1t enters and
acts upon the atmosphere-the gaseous
and ethereal envelope which surrounds
the planets. BelgraVtG Md0dsiHe.