Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-07-31
DIR ATMOSPHERIC.

| How deep are we buried IN air
The question has long been one of the
vexed. Thirty miles, says Blot, is
the minimum depth. At that dis
tanee from the earth's surface, the
atmosphere ought to be as rare as the
vacuum in our air pump, which we
know is only an approach to a vaeu-
um. Observation shows that there
must be some sort of atmosphere
considerably higher, and the last new
notion is that on the top of the terres-
trial atmosphere in which we live,
there floats, like cream on milk,
another much lighter and etheriZed
atmosphere. In this region occur the
phenomena-shooting stars, aurora
bOrealis, and the freaks of reflected
refracted light-which are still such
puzzles, at seen from our Iowly place
of observation. -.
The. upper atmosphere should be
stable the lower one should be un-
stable and ceaselessly agitated. Its
movements, caused by winds and
tempests, would vary in height ae-
eOrding to the seasons. In our own
neighbOIhOOd the troubled portion
overlyIng the earth would be eight or
ten miles high in winter, and about
twice as high in summer. The upper
atmosphere would experience only a
very slight and scarcely sensible
disturbance, arising from the heaving
of the denser aerial surface ON which
it rests. Into thisealm stratum float
ing overhead neither living creatures
nor even clouds obtain access.
We can readily conceive that, above
our atmosphere of oxygen, azote, and
watery vapor, there exists another
excessively light atmosphere, perhaps
a couple of hundred miles thick,
composed of the very lightest gases,
especially Of hydrogen. This is
rendered more probable by the com
position of air, which differs essen
tally from that of water. Wafer
consists of two gases chemically COM
bined, and, when Orce combined,
extremely difficult to separate, whereas
air is only q mixture Of gases no more
combined than oil, water, and quick
silver stirred together in a pot. Hap
PLY for US. winds and tempests keep
stirring these elements; but where
they can find a place of rest they are
perft city at liberty to part company.
Where is the bottom of the atmOs-
phere? Not the earth's surface, for
air penetrates earth's porous sub
stance, as well as everything upon it.
We ourselves, it has been stated. are
full of air. We are all of US proud
frogs puffed up with wind, which
helps US to resist the wind without.
Air insinuates itself among the mole
cules of liquids as well as through
the interstices of rocks. Not merely
plants and all organized creatures,
but water admits the ingress of air.
In some important cases, the ingre
dients of air thus infiltrated are
altered in. quantity. Was it.
for instance, by creative design, or by
mere chance, that in air absorbed by
the teeming ocean, the proportion of
oxygen is greater than in ordinary
air, thus enabling the sea to sustain /
its increased myriads of living beings? |
The ocean is probably older, Cs well |
as unchanging in its composition,
than the atmosphere. We must seek |
for the latteris origin in the period /
when the globe, still molten and 4
liquid, began to be covered with a |
thin. solid crust, giving off from its /
suIluCG 4nCOuNGANdDlC llAu uLlbAco VI i
gases and vapOrs, which fought, or
shook hands together, after their kind.
In the midst of this gigantic labora-
tory oxygen and hydrogen combined
there was water. Air. at present |
mixture of oxygen and /
lzOte, must have undergone consider
able changes before arriving at its
actual condition. We may fairly /
;urmise that it once contained both
more carbonic acid and more oxygen,
he former being solidified as coal,
timber, and vegetable tissue, the /
after combined with metallic bases,
IS we now see it producing rust in
ron.