The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-06-19

Il Tie 1-@AOSVVV PGAts AAdC WHICH 1aIlE
upon one quarter of the terrestrial surface
at the equator at noon, is sufficient te
melt $4,000 tons of ice per hour. And
that which folls upon the whole surface
of the earth in year would be able ia
liquefy layer of ice 100 feet thick, Who'll
ly enveloping the planet. This is the
neat which is manifested in the eyaaera-
ton of oceans. It raises their waters to
the mountain tops, thence to flow down
to the sea in rivers. The water powers
of the world, from the great Falls of Nj
agara down to the pettiest ripple in a
rivuIet, are products of this energy. It
enables plants to grow and arimals to
breathe;it governs glaciers and avalanch-
es; it stored up, ages ago our beds of coal.
Aud yet it Is but the 1-21Ss0oO part of
the total heat radiated by the sun. The
tota! can be expressed in a variety of strik.
ing forms, which, though not absolutely
exact, give US admirable approximate
ideas of the immensity of our great lumin.
AIRY. aH
The total heat emitted by the un,then,
would melt stratum of ice completely
surrounding it, at the rate of 2,4OO feet Of
thickness per hour. Herschel says that if
column of Ice forty>ive miles in diamter
we're to be darted into the sun with the
velocity oflightQ92 900 miles per second, }
the heat radiated from the solar surface
would be just consumed in melting it,
while the actual temperature of the vast
globe weuld be unaltered. The constant
expenditure of the sun would be balanced
and no more. Tyndall gives US still an
other expression of this wonderful amount
of power. He says that the heat given
out by the sun is sufficient to raise 7OO,-
Oo0,OOO,00o of cubic miles of ice cold water
to boiling, every hour. The heat neces-
sary to elevate the temperature of single
degree, If converted into work, would lift
weight of 772 ponnds one foot high
What stupendous weight therefore,
would be raised by the whole thermal en-
ergy of the sun! No wonder that the plan
cts keep obediently in their places under
the Influence Of so vast a power Yet the
sun, grand as it is, is paritivcly but
small star, and is rushing onward through
space with vast velocity, responding to
some attractive agency still mightier than
| its own.
From what source is this astonishing
amount of solar energy supplied? The sun
cannot create force. All its loss must be
made good, or else in time 1t will cool
down to dead globe, unable to warm or
| light US. That some source of supply
must exist is evident. for the sun has been
shining upon our planet for thousands of
years of historical time, during which
period our climate has not appreciably
changed. Century after century, the so.
lar expenditure of heas goes on, and the
mighty orb shows yet no signs of ex-
haustlon. Some how or other lis waste
has been repaired, and it's store of force
replenished. If the sun were merely a
body which railated heat during the
process of cooling, its temperature would
be lowered about $1,000 deg. FAIR.
in 5000 years At this rate our
climate would probably have un-
dergone considerable change since the
building Of the Pyramids. A crust would
soon form over the aurface of the sun,and
radiation would cease. If the heat were
due to combustion, and the sun were a
solid block Of coal, in about 5000 yeacs it
would he entirely consumed. Aud if, as
has been suggested, the solar heat was
due to the friction of the san against some
resisting medium as it revoIued upon its
axis, its entire motive power would be
used up In less than two centuries. We
must look yet farther for our source of
energy. And, though we may never solve
the vast problem, the speculations will
hardly be useless. Even failure in such
work is beneficial, since it teaches the
mind more fully the limits of it's powers.
But repeated failures need not make us
despair of attaining to some measure of
success in the end. ,t
Two prominent theories OF the suns
heat are now before the scientific world
The first Of there is due to DR.. julius