Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1868-11-04
SensatIonalism in Science.

"Sensationalism in science" con
tinues to form a series Of interesting
papers in the Belgraria Ndgaziae.-
The latest one is upon daylight, and
it advances the following curious the
ories
"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 and other planets just as (and
no more THAI 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 it 50?
Ascend in balloon, aud what do
we find ? Do heat and light increase
in intensity as we rise in the air near
est to the sun? BY no means. Six
miles up all heat is gone. The ther-
mometer is at zero, and hOar frost
gathers upon every cord of the rig
ging of the air ship. How can this
be, if heat comes down to us in di-
minishing force from the sun? If
that were true, heat ought to in
crease rapidly as we ascend nearer to
the sur, the source of it. Even
light, though exceeding pure-the air
being there free from the aqueous el-
cment-Is less intense in those airy
attitudes. Look up from the car of a
balloon into the abyss of the sky above
and what do we see y bright daz-
zle comes from the spot of the heav-
ems where the sun Is; but he is shorn
of his rays. All around the sky over
head Is of deep azure, like the col
or of Prussian blue-a well known
sign of light imperfectly developed;
Just as we see in the flame of a can
die or gas Jet, at the part OF lmper-
feet combustiou-or. to take a better
example. Just as the blue fash of the
electric machine becomes yellow or
white light when the power of the
machine is increased. There Is lit
tie light in the air at these attitudes
the moment the prism, by the gyra-
tions Of the car, Is inclined always
from the direct rays OF the sun, there
IS no spectrum at all. ManlfestIy,
then, neither heat nor light comes to
us from the sun IN the manner sup
posed-namely, travelling down to us
through the empty waste of space,
and decreasing with the square of the
distance. For, if tins were the fact,
both heat and light would increase
rapidly with the lessening distance
as we ascend-whereas light dimin-
ishes, and heat wholly disappears
q Calmly considered, these facts OF
themselves not only upset the com
mon theory, hut suggest the true one.
Heat and light are generated, spring
into existence, within the sphere of
our own planet. No heat or light in
the wastes Of space. Heat there can
be none, seeing that the thermom
falls to zero only six miles above the
earth's surface.
And light, too, evidently fades
away in a thin luminosity III these up
per regions where the terrestrial gas
es. the exhalations of the solid earth
become atLeuuated-where probably,
metre into pure hydrogen, and into
that most subtitle subIimation OF mat
ter we call ether, which is present
even IN the vacuum Of an air pump.
The daylight, say is the off
| spring Of our own planet I'm mpregna-
ted-so to speak-by the solar orb.
! Our heat and light are generated
within the domain of earth itself
+ i cosmical force. which we cali grav-
! itation or attraction-and which Is
more or less Inherent in all matter,
comes from the sun and that force
or influence becon es light and heat
when it enters an acts upon the at
mos phere-the gaseous and ethereal
/ envelope which surrounds the plan
cts.