The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-04-18


TIE GULF SrREAM-ITs ORIGIN.-The
Gulf Stream is nothing more nor less
than great thermal spring in the ocean,
and is in every respect similar to one on
land. To produce this great oceanic
phenomenon we have only to substitute
the arctic basin for an elevated mountain !;
and, instead of underground temperature
derived from few square rods of the in
terror, take that afforded by 145, 100000
of square miles 10000 feet nearer the in
terror, and the thermal spring in the
ocean is formed The difference is only
quantitative.
These currents, which rest on the bot.
tom of the sea, are colder and denser
than ice, and could not be lifted to the
surface we're it not for the forces from
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 greater depth
than the atmosphere does terra .frma,
and thus render the effective force of the
interior as feeble on the bottom of the
sea as on the surface Of the land hemi-
spheres. Fourier, from observations
made on terra frma, finds that the loss
of heat which the globe daily sustains is
too feeble to play any important part.
If he be correct, the temperature Of the
oceanic waters could never have been
obtained from the amount of heat which
passes through the land hemispheres
Yet there is this actual presence of heat
which we have shown can not have ac-
cumulated from the solar 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 tropical climate around
the shores of Greenland, they did not
receive that heat from the sun, but from
the interior. Seeing that at one time
there was law which produced so high
temperature through this crust, why
should we discredit its present existence
when the temperature has only sunk 30
since ? Heat always preserves the coefis
cient of expansion. and when matter j.
in fluid state this coefficient must exist
Whatever inequalities may take place il
the relation Of these condensed atoms OF
the crust, the form of the fluid interior
remains unchanged, inasmuch as the ex
pansion continues. As the heat becam,
lost from the interior of the earth, an,
its fluid diameter diminished, theseswate
hemispheres, still retaining their recipro
cal relation to the centre, went down to
corresponding depth. The crust which
underlies the sea was, therefore, alway
distance equaling the oceans dept
nearer the fluid part. How, we woul,
ask, could 145,0O0,0O0 of square mile
of water, $4,000 feet deep, be kept at
= temperature Of 70o unless an igueou
fluid world, as large as the planet Mars
existed directly under them? This is b
no means speculation, when we have con
: sidered the amount of heat contained il
a single cubic foot of water at this tom
perature. The cause which prodnced tn
sinking of the water hemispheres in tn
first instance has always continued. A
the solid crust of the globe condense
!, and contracts its folds, the crust whic
underles the sea, being the lo,cer fold,
forced into much closer relation wit
the fluid part. The calculations made b
Fourier are, therefore, of no value, fo
they were formed, according to DR.. May
, er, from observations made on terra firm
under clear misapprehension of tn
!, mode by which the Interior heat wa
, transmitted, Tyndal makes an excellen
illustration Of the principle for which W
have contended, but for far differen
purpose He fills two kettles with war;
water, and around one Of them wraps
> moist blanket. He finds that the waite
in the kettle thus surrounded cools mucl
: more rapidly than the other - demonstrat
ing that it has the better radiation of th
= two. Applying this demonstration to tn
earth, let us consider our globe kettl
8 Of large proportions-not filed wit
!. warm water, but with incandescent flui
matter-around three-fourths of which
placed (not blanket merely an aqueou
, envelope Of ICY coldness al the bottom
with wonderful powers of radiation at til
6 surface. and We will then have no diff
Guilty in determining how the waters o
= the ocean have always received thei
temperature, and how the interior lose
E its heat.
, Frederick W. Tolley, respectabl
young man Of Athens, committed suicid