The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-02-15
CAUSES OF THE STELLAR FIRES.

Mr.. Rutherford, "unless there is some
thing to consume-hydrogen for iu-
stance"
This proposition in astronomy is even
more startling than the one which pre-
ceeded it. "Where there's smoke there
must be fire" Is the old maxim; "where
there's hydrogen there must be combus-
ton" will become the new. With the
reporter, however, it was a great OBJ
ject to ascertain the analogy between
hydrogen and combustion, and so he
asked, /" Where does the fire come
from?"
at is generated by heat" was the la
comic answer.
Plain people with old fashioned no.
tions of heat will find it hard to accom-
modate their views to the new tangled
doctines of astronomy. Under the old
ecenomy'heat resulted from FIRE; now it
seems fire results from heat, at least
among the stars. Imaginative persons
might expect hydrogen to be ignited by
the friction of comet or to be the result
of some such cause, but if heat creates
fire in the heavens, some of the stars
must of necessity be comfortably hot.
just think of it-a star bathed in atmos-
phere of hydrogen growing So hot as to
set its own atmosphere on fire. That is
what must have happened to the star
which Professor Schmidt saw blazing in
the sky, and unless Mr.. Rutherford is
misin1ormed something like it is taking
place most of the time in the heavens.
IS THE EARTH SAFE?
Facing these terrible truths the re-
porter nerved himself for one more ques-
ton.
But the earth-what is to become of
the earth?"
"Oh, it is burned out already"
This was a relief The stars may blaze
until they become as invisible as Tatters,
in the little "Shaughraun," but the
earth is safe This little planet has al
ways been known to its children as a cold
world. People have been Iamenting its
until they grew warm in their
expostulatiOns, and now they learn that
the old thing is so completely burned
out that in its absence Of heat is their
surest safety. Mars is also secure, be-
cause like those of the earth, the fires of
the god of war are out. It is fortunate,
however, that all the hydrogen in the at
mOsphere was not consumed when the
took place, or that enough
was secured to make the world endura- !
Die before Adam undertook to populate
It, Out Of the fire came vegetation, lie,
,he aspirations after the infinite. Secure {
Il our own little world, we can look on /
with competency while other planets {
ire ablaze with light and heal. " Let {
hem burn" we say, land they may be- t
'ome as pretty and habitable as our own f
oyely sphere" 6
NOT TO BE BURNED, BUT ROASTED.
1t does not follow, however, because t
he earth is safe from fires except such as 6
We kindlc for ourselves, that it is entire q
y secure as a place of habitation. When I
Ir. Rutherford said that change is the 4
aw of the universe. While man is in G
10 danger Of being burned alive by su- I
hydrogen, he may be roasted !
~ the power of the suns rays. n
The earth is nearly related to the l.
un," said the savant, "and a confagra-
;on in that great luminary which would d
increase its heat, would make F
ite on this planet impossible" v
So it will be seen that while we have /
assed the stage where there was danger u
f stellar fire by the action of the heat of
he planet upon its hydrogenic atmos-
here, we still run the risk of a similar
isaster in the sun. 1t is no wonder.
hen, that our astronomers are constant
y turning their telescopes toward the :
ountain of life and light for the earth. -
low is it any wonder that when a new
tar is seen to blaze, fresh fears should -
e excited Of blazing sun in the heavens?
t is a calamity to be feared as one which .
not imminent, is yet possible, and as >
wful in its way as the mantle of fame u
hitch would envelOp a star. <