The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-11-01
SECRET OFTHE a URORA .BOBEALIs
nccen, Discoveries Explained.

The London Spectator has for some months
distinguished itself by series Of nstroi,, micaI
articles, combining full scientific Information
with popular interest. The latest is the fol-
lowing, published in that paper on October .,
and explaining aonle recent discoveries of i'm
nortance, tending to explain the true nature
of the Northern Lights:
Men of science have long folt that strange
secret lay hidden In the brilliant folds Of the
aurora. The magic arch, with It's pointed
strcaIners shifting silently but swiftly across
the heavens, pulsating mysterlOuslS is though
Illuminated by the fitfnlly cliangi1g glow OF
some concealed furnace, and rendered SIR
passingly beautiful by the brilliancy of its col
ors, had always had strange charms for men o.
thoughtful mind And gradually series Of la
boriols researches had revealed The laws which
associate this beautiful apparltion with dis
turbances affecting the economy Of our whole
earth and not iDdisiinctly connected with the
habtldcs OF the solar system Itself. But re-
Gently u discovery has been made which is
even more remarkable than any which had
ever before rewarded the labor OF physicists
q discovery ut once instructive and pcrplcx-
Ing, revealing u bond of union between the
aurora and = phenomenon hitherto Thought to
be quite different In character, but leaving us
still to learn what the exact nature Of thai.
bond OF union may be. Let us consider whit
had been learned respecting aurOral displays
and their relation 10 the CarLh's economy.
we had occasion lately To point ont sudden
disturbance In the sun In 1859 which had been
presently followed by intense magnetic action,
the whole electric system Of the earth culver.
luz, SO to speak, under the influence of the
Solar forces educed by the dlsurbanL And
we mentioned that among the signs of This
magnetic action brilliant displays of the a,lro-
raj streamcrs had been Witnessed In both hem
Sphcres on the night following the solar dis
turbancc. This circumstance teaches us the
true character Of the aurora rs strikinrly as
any which astronomers nntl physicists h,ld
patiently been gathering together during the
past half century. We learn ut once tint a
relation sibslsts between the aurora, tcrrcs-
trial magnetism, and the central luminary of
our scheme.
And even il we were to paus ere. we
should have learned enough To n,, cate the
significance and Importance Of tho a,Irorn
Our earth, we may be sure, Is not the only re-
cipicnt of that mystic influence which r0uscs
INTO ACTIVITY The phenomena we term mag
ncllc. over the whole realm which 1t rules
the central orb sends forth the strange cleo
trio impulses. When our rkics are Illuminated
ny tic magic strcaincrs. we may be sure that
those OF Venus ana OF Mars, of Jupiter and OF
saturn: nay even the skies Of those unseen
orDs which travel fur out In space beyond nc
patlls of Uranus and Neptune, are lit I'D with
aur0ral displays. When once Il has been
shown that we owe OlIr a,lrOras to solar ac-
lion. we recognize the c0smcal character of
the display, and that, In scene, the terrestrial
Mngnclisn on which IL depends isa ,ond OF
ufilnity between orr earth ami its sister or,s
But while we were Thus taught the true sig
niilcanco W the aurora, we were left IN doubt
AZ 10 the way in which the solar action aroused
tho electric luminosity In the upper regions OF
0nr nir. We could not even tell ut what cleva-
ton the light was suspended above our earth.
The most eminent physicists differed In the
Views ms to the possibility Of learning where
inc magic slreanlcrs really wave when we see
Them most distinctly. While Arago had held
that TO attempt 70 measure the height of the
aurora was as futile as to attempt to measure
the height of n rainbow, Sir John fIerschcl
considered That precisely tnc same laws of
measurement might bc applied TO the aurora
y to any object raised high above the earth.
0ne point, however, was we'll determined.
IIo guroral lights arc undoubtedly TO be as-
cri0ed to electric action taking place ut a very
considerable height, where the alr is very rare
indeed. 1t became, therefore, question
,U. whether anything could be learned by analyz
ing inc anroral light, as to tho condition Of
mat particular part of our atmosphere In
#nch tho electric action takes place.
spectroscopic analysis, that strange and
powerful mode OF research which has revealed
90 many unlock oked.for fhcts, was accordingly
applied to the light OF q brilliant aurora fhe
resnE was rathey surprising. y Instead Of a