Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1871-03-30
miscellaneous.
The Gulf Sfream---.Its Origin.

The Gulf Stream is nothing more nor
less than great thermal sprin in the
ocean, and isip every respect similar to
one on land, To produce this great Oc-
eanic phenomenonwe have only to sub
stitute the Arctic Basin for an elevated
mountain and, instead of underground
temperature derived from a few square
rods of the interior, take that afforded
by 145, ,000, 900, of square miles 10000
feet ,aedrel. the interior, and the thermal
spring is for ed The difference is on
ly quantitative. 81
These currents, which rest on the
bottom of thaSea, are colder and dens-
er than ice, and could not be lifted to
the surface were it not for the forces OF
the interior. Abstracting that heat
from the crust which underlies the sea
it will naturally be suggested that this
process must chill this crust to great
er depth than the atmosphere does ter
,a Jif4na, and thus render the effective
force of the interior as feeble at the bot
tom of the sea as on the surface of the
land hemispheres. Fourier, from, Oh
se7-rdtions made on terra trina, finds the
loss of heat which the globe daily sus-
tains too feeble to play any important
part. If he be correct, the temperature
of the oceanic waters could never have
been obtained from thea,ilount of heat
which passes through the land hemis-
pheres. Yet there is this actual pres
ence of heat-which we have shown
cannot have accumulated from the so
lar ray-and the only way open is to
associate it with some law to which it
either now is or has been related.
1t will be admitted that when these
waters were of such high temperature
as to produce a tropical climate around
the shores of Greenland, they did not
receive that heat from the sun, butfrom
the interior. Seeing that at one. time
there was a law which produced so
high a temperature through this crust
why should we discredit its present ex-
istence, when the temperature has on
ly sunk 30o since? Heat always pre-
serves the cOefficient of expansion, and
when matter is In a fluid state this CO.
efficient must exist. What ever ine-
qualities may take place in the relation
of these condensed atoms on the crust,
the form of the fluid interior remains
unchanged, inasmuch as the expansion
continues. As the heat became lost
from the interior Of the earth, and its
fluid diameter diminished, these water
hemispheres, still retaining their recip.
roeal relation to the centre, went down
to a corresponding depth. The crust
which underlies the sea was, therefore,
always distance equaling the oceans
depth nearer the fluid port. How, we
would ask, could 1i5, ,OO0, 900 of square
miles of water, Is, 600 feet deep, be kept
at temperature of 7O' unless an igne-
Gus fluid world, as large as the planet
Mars, existed directly under them ? II
is by no means speculation when we
have considered the amount of heat in
a single cubic foot of water at this tenn
peraturr. Tho cause which produced
the sinking of the water hemispheresin
the first instance has always continued.
AS the solid crust of the globe cOndens-
es and contracts its folds, the crust that
underlies the sea, being the Iorer fold,
is forced into much closer relation with
the fluid part. The calculations made
by Fourier are therefore of no value,
for they were formed, according to DIR.
Mayer, from observations made on ter
rn frnla-- under clear misapprehen.
sion of the mode by which the interior
heat is transmitted. Tyndall makes an
excellent illustration of the principle
for which we have cOntended, but for O
far different purpose. He fills two ket.
ties with warm water, and around one
of them wraps a moist blanket. He
finds that the water in the kettle thus
surrounded cools much more rapidly
than the other-demOnstratiLg that i
has better radiation of the two. Apply
ing this demonstration to the earth
let us consider our globe a kettle o
larger proportions filled with
warm water, but with incandescen
fluid matter-around three-fourths O
which Is placed(not blanket merely
an aqueous envelope of icy coldness a
bottom, with wonderful powers of radi
alton at surface, and will then have M
difficulty in determining how the wat
ers of the ocean have always received
their temperature, and how the inte
rior loses its heat From "1he Gul
Stream. and the Trade I2,,d,"6y Wm.L
Walker, in Ha,per's Magazine. for april
u UXVill yor have mo S,rahov said /,