Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-04-19
Natures Elevator.


what goes up must come down."
we boys used to sing in one of our
youthful games. The converse, what
comes down, must have gone up. or
have been forced up, leads to the con-
sideration of some Of the most stu
pendous operations of nature.
On all hands we may see these OPP
erations proceeding in silent grand
eur. Masses of matter, which, ag-
gregated, become almost inconceiva-
bic in magnitude. are constantly
moved upward from the earth's sur
face, to decend in due time again to
be raised and again to fall. SO the
poLderous engine of nature oscillates
constantly, without faltering, yet it
moves quietly and with so little fric-
ton, that only occasionally, when
the thunder shakes the earth, or the
hurricane ravages the land and sea,
do we note the tremendous power of
the common natural forces, which, in
the calm summer day or the winters
storm, are always at work about us.
The water constantly accumula-
ting in the air descends and fills the
rivers. We see, and wonder at the
aggregated power of these torrents
as they mpetuously rush toward the
sea, leaping precipices and sweeping
every obstacle before them but we
do not realize the great t. nth that all
the while the silent force of solar
heat is transporting to the clouds as
much water as the rivers are carry
ing down.
We stand by some mountain side
whose forests are being felled and
transported to the valleys, without
rejecting that all this vast mass Of
material was carried up molecule by
molecule, in the atmosphere and in
the sap, until its accumulation be-
came 80 great as to be demanded for
the uses of mankind.
The unseen power that does all
this work is solar heat. "Where
there is life there is heat" and it
would seem that heat is essential to
all life. At least we cannot conceive
of life without heat and so intimate
~ connected are heat and mass mo-
ton that it is difficult to conceive of
them as other than co-existent.
Heat is the great prime mover, all
else is secondary in natural as well
az artificial mechanics. Does falling
water turn our wheels? Heat rails
cd the water first, Does wood or
coal generate our steam Solar heat
stored up the carbon which consti-
tutes the bulk of that fuel, and set
the rivers to running and the winds
to blowing, by which we transport
it to our furnaces. Do we employ
animals to carry our burdens +? The
food which nourishes them and en-
ables them to perform labor, Wa
collected by the action Of the solar
heat.
We find then, all life, ali motion,
all work traceable to the power Of
solar heat. This mechanical engine is
employed by nature to keep ev Try
thing running. To-day bold invent
ors are endeayoring to bring this
u0ab ihOO NiASCb SuDJ'O0ACu, dis ss iAC-
tor, but should they succeed, so that
coal, wood, peat, or other fuel should
no longer be needed 10 impel machin-
cry, they will only have eliminated
few terms of the great mechanical
equation. 1t is the sun that does
tho work on the water-wheel and in
the steam boiler, as truly as in Err
lessons solar engine
And in the present state of science
there Is little doubt, that not only
mechanical energy, but every other
form of terrestrial energy included
in the category of force, may BIO ul-
timately traced to tho sun as its
source. The sun is, in this view, the
great central motor OF the solar sys-
TEN. From whence it derives its
power, what constantly maintains its
heat, is one of the grandest problems
science has ever grappled with, and
one which is not yet solved. -Stiea-
tifc american.