Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1872-11-30
GrayltatlOD, Light and Heat.

OF matter in the universe attract
every other particle with a force
which diminishes as the square 0,
the distance increases. Thus III,
sun and the earth mutually pul
each other; thus the earth and tn,
moon are kept in company; the
force which holds every respective
pair of masses together being the
integrated force Of their component
parts. Under the operation of this
force, stone falls to the grounC
and is warmed by the shock; under
its operation, meteors plunge into
our atmosphere and rise to incades
cence. Showers of such doubtless
fall necessarily upon the sun. Act.
ed on by this force, were it stopped
in its orbit tomorrow, the earth
would rush towards and finally com
bine with the sun. Heat would also
be developed by this collision, and
Mayer, Helmholtz, and Thomson
have calculated its amount. 1t
would equal that produced by the
combustion of more than 5000
wTlds of solid coal, all this heat
belhg generated at the instant of
collision. In the attraction of grav
ity, therefore, acting upon non-lu-
minous matter, we have a source of
heat more powerful than could be
derived from any terrestrial COM
bustion. And were the matter of
the universe cast in cold detached
fragments into space, and there
abandoned to the mutual gravita-
tion of its own parts, the collision Of
the fragments would in the end pro.
duce the fires Of the stars.
The action of gravity upon mat.
ter originally cold may in fact be
the origin of all light and heat, and
the proximate source of such other
powers as are generated by light
and heat. But we have now to in
quire what is the light and what is
the heat thus produced This
question has already been answered
in a general way. Both light and
heat are modes Of motion. Two
planets clash and come to rest; their
motion, considered as masses, is de-
stroyed, but it is really continued
as a motion of their ultimate parti-
cles. 1t is this motion, taken up by
the ether, and propagated through
it with a velocity Of $4,000 miles
a second, that comes to us as the
light and heat of suns and stars.
The atoms of hole body swing
with inconceivable rapidity, but this
power Of vibration necessarily in
plies the operation Of forces between
the atoms themselves. Ii reveals
to us that while they are held to-
gether by one force, they are kept
asunder by another, their position
at any moment depending on the
equilibrium of attraction and repul-
sion. The atoms are virtually con-
nected by elastic springs which OPP
pose at the same time their ap-
proach and their retreut, but which
tolerate the vibration called heats.
When two bodies drawn together
by the force of gravity strike each
other the intensity of the ultimate
vibration, or, in other words, the
amount of heat generated, is pro-
portionable to the uisa uirq destroy.
ed by the collision. The molecular
motion once set up is instantly
shared with the ether, and ditfused
by it throughout space
We on the earth's surface live
night and day in the midst of ethe-
real commotion. The medium is
never still; the cloud canopy above
us may be thick enough to shut out |
the light of the stars, but this cano-
py is itself a warm body, which ra-
dates motion through ether. The |
earth also is warm, and sends its
heat pulses necessarily forth. 1t is
the waste of its molecular motion
in space that chills the earth upon
clear night; it is the return of its
motion from the clouds which pre-.
vents the earth's temperature on a
cloudy night from falling so low.
70 the conception of space being
illed, we must, therefore, add the
of its being in a state of
ncessant tremor. The sources of
are the ponderable masses
If the universe. Let us take a sam
Die of these and examine it in de.
all. When we look to our planet
We find it to be an aggregate of
solids, liquids, and gases, When
We look at any of these, we gener-
llly find it composed of still more
elementary parts. We learn, for
examples, that the water of our
'ivers is formed by the union, in
lefnite proportions Of two gases,
oxygen and hydrogen. We know
low to bring these constituents to-
,ether, and to cause them to form
water: we also know how to analyze
he water, and recover from it its
wo constituents. SO, likewise, as
'egards the solid portions OF the
'arth. Our chalk hills, for exam
Die, are formed by a combination
If carbon, oxygen and calcium
These are elements, the union of
which, in definite proportions, has
esulted in the formation of chalk.
The tlints within the chalk we know
o be compound of oxygen and sill
cium, called silica; and our ordina-
y clay is, for the most part, formed
" the silicium, oxygen, and the
veil known light metal, aluminium.
BY far the greater portion of the
arth's crust is compounded of the
Elementary substances mentioned in
hese few lines.-IyndDU.
1T Is said we are creatures of hab-