The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1873-06-19

Il would be entirely yeonHuTned.A ana II
as, has been suggested, the solar heal
were due TO The irlction Of the sun against
some resisting medium as II revolyed up-
Oh its axis, It's entire motive power would
Be used up IN little lees than tWo centu-
ries. We must look yet farther for our
source of energy. And, though we may
never solve the vast problem, the spscp-
lations viii hardly be useless. Even lail-
ure IN such work is beneficial, since II
teaches the mind more fully the Limits Of
its powers. But Tepested failures need
not make us despair OF attaiHIng to some
Measure of success IN the end s-4i ~, d
Two prominent theories. of the sun 81
heat are now before the scientific world
The frat Of these is due to, DR., jules
Robert Mayer, a physician of Heibroun.
who published IN 1s4s his famous essay
upon Celestial Dybamies. Calling at
-tention to the great numbers Of meteors
which fash throngh Cur sky he suegest-
ed that these or bodies ike them, might
fnrnish the sun With its heat. he knew
th6t otian add Arrested was cons
TeTted into heat " hen q cannon ball
strikes target, it becomes heated. A
weight, falling TO the ground, undergoes a
rise of temperature. BY q succession Of
rapid blows with q hammer, an expert
blacksmith can render bar of cold iron
red hst. I have nsysef seen such a bar,
about the eighth of an inch IN diameter,
made, by this method, to glow brilliantly
in less than six seconds. The motion Of
the falling hammer lsiCenYeIted into heat.
| II, now, meteor or an aerolite,. a comet
or an aste-oid, were to fall upon the sun,
/ heat would be developed from the con-
c1ssion. We know that meteoric masses
/ often fall upon the earth, and that the
suns attraction is over 100000 times
greater than that of eur planet. II is
fair to assume, then, that great num-
bers of these strange bodies fall upon the
sun. But can We assume that enough Of
them fall to generate its entire heat? This
question DR.. Mayer discussed with Won
derful Ingenuity. Almost every possible
objection was foreseen, and fairly answer
ed, he made careful calculations cover
ing every point And, though he conld
not prove his theory, he gaveit remarka-
bic strength. Whether it be true or
false, it is worthy of admiration, and of a
high place among human speealations.
| Though it snould fail, its authors fame
will certainly be enduring.
That space contains vast numbers of
these meteorie bodies is unquestionable.
Shooting stars are visible almost every
night In the year. Millions, yes billions
OF them, approach the earth annually.
Some pasH rapidly athwart the upper re-
| gions of our atmosphere; some are dissi-
| patsd In vapor; and some, venturing too
far within the sphere of the earth's at
traction, fall solidly to the ground. These
last occasionally weigh several tons apiece,
though Brolites OF more than q hundred
pounds are rare. Of those which reach
the earth, however but few are found.
As the ocean is of greater area than dry
land, many must Be lost in its waves.
Others fall into lakes or rivers, into desc
late or uninhabited regions, or into lands
occupied by savages. Probably not one
in a thousand is recognized by intelligent
man. At certain seasons the earth psss-
es through meteoric belts. as In August
and November Of each year, And once In
every thirty-three years star-showers Of
the most superb character are seen. The
great shower of 1888 rendered at least
| two hundred and forty thousand meteors
| visible in Bosten. They fell, crowded
| together hike sRew-fakes" And yet the
earth passes through but small portion
of the space which is tributary TO the sun
| In other words the sun has not enly more
than three hundred thousand times the
earth's attractive power; but also an over
whelmingly larger reservoir of meteors
to draw from.
Suppose, now, that these meteors were
to fall in considerable numbers upon the
sum- This Is hardly supposition, there
is so little reasonable doubt of it As
have already stated, heat would be pro
duced. Each arollte would, by its fall,
generate as much heat as would be given
out by the combustion of mass of coal
nine thousand times its size. Here, then,
we have generous source of heat, but
none too generous for our needs. For, to
cover the solar expenditure, at least two
| hundred billions of tons of meteoric mat
ter must fall upon the suns surface every
minute This would be about one ounce
to the square yard. Imagination stag
gers under such figures as these. Up to
| this the theory has seemed reasonable,
| but now 1t begins to look wild. Can it
be that this wonderful storm Of falling
stars is every moment falling to the sun
Can we conceive of such stupendous phe-
nomena7 Indeed, is not the problem to
be solved too vast for human conception ?
| Some of the more obvious objections to
this theory have been satisfactorily met
| by DR.. Mayer himself With others he
may not have been successful. 1t is said
that, if theihypcthesis be true, if so many
added to the sun, that body must be con-
tinually growing larger. Should we not
see it increase visibly in size? In answer
to this, Mayer has shown that at least
thirty-thres thousand years wsuld have
TO elapse before the increase in the SUMS
dimensions could be detected even with
our most delicate instruments. If all the
planets of our solar system, with their
satellites, were to fall into hesun, as per-
haps in time they may, its expenditure of
heat would be covered for q little more
| than ferty-five thousand years Possibly
our earth, when its mission is completed
ages hence, may Thus be vsritably d0-
strOyed by fire. Such are the fields of
speculation opened up to US by the mar
/ yelous theory Of DIR. Mayer. Whether
this theory be wholly true or not, we can
hardly doubt that 1t is true in part. Some
of the suns heat is due to the fall of me-
teors.
The other famous hypothesis of the solar
heat is that of Helmholtz. Being deduced
as a direct consequence of the all-but-
/ proved nebular theory, it has very great
| elements of strength. It is simpler than
| Mayer's, makes less strain on our powers
of conception, and is liable to but very few
| objections. The solid trunk of the nsbular
hypothesis shoots out healthy branches.
| According to the nebular hypothesis,
which is now generally received, the solar
system began existence as an incandescent
| Gaseous cloud. This, swiftly rotating, un-
| derwsnt condensation. Rings of Yapor-
Gus matter were thrown of, finally con-
tracing into planets, the central portion
of the nebuls, partially condensed, re-
naming as the sun. The sun now has
but about one-fourth the mean density oi
the earth, and, according to the hypoth-
esis, is still undergoing contraction. And
here is where HelmholtZ's theory begins
Alt bodies in contracting give out heat
The sun is contracting, and therefore musi
give out heat. Should It cease contract.
ing, it would speedily grow cold, Now
Heinholtz has calculated that the orig
inaI nebula, in condensing to the preser:
volume Of our system Of planets, mus
have emitted enough heat to have raised
the temperature Of the entire mass i58.-
OoO. COO deg. cent. Aost of this ensrg5
has been radiatsd into space, yet mach
was made to tell in the actual increase o
temperature And, if the sun we're +
coRdense to the density Of our earth. tn'
heat evolved would cover its expenditure
for seventeen million years. Here. W.
have a perfectly adequate theory of The
solar force Were the SUMS diameter L