Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-09-10
latings inventions. The spectroscope
has enlightened, US about the kind of

1hIluSI IutcuLlonSs AhO Sp6CLIOSSOp0
has enlightened US about the kind OF
metals in process Of consumption in the
sun !; more accurate measurements place
us f92, ,Oe0,, eco miles from our luminary
give him a superficial area OF 2 AIT $780,
600 square miles; q bulk OF 364 .0O0, 900,
600. .00O, 900 cubic miles and humiliate
us by showing that the earth, compared
with the sun, Is as one grain Of wheat Is
among 100000 grams. Our earth,
indeed, would be taken up by a sun
cyclone and whirled about like chat.
Little as is our orb, however, hun
dreds of gfeati telescopes are pointed
daily at the sun, scrutinizing his every
facial .wrinkla.is marking the swirl OF
every tremendous storm upon his fiery
brow. Calico saw the sun spots with
his naked eye and propounded theory.
He knew comparatively little about tho
sun; his mind had not grasped the con-
ception ola telescope which would show
the outer satellite OF Mars and take
photographs OF the planets; nor had his
brightest fofethought touched the spec
btroscope, with Its revelation OF our
rhemicai elements, like sodium. iron,
nickel, copper, zinc, baryum and cobalt
in the solar substance. He did not con-
ceiveioi such telescopes as that of Mr..
AInshe Common, Of Ealing, England,
which has q silver-on-glass speculum
ter and a focal length of over twenty
feet. This rejecting telescope is the
most powerful instrument IN the world.
It is more powerful than the Washing
ton Naval Observatory retractor, which
has an object glass tweutY.six inches in
diameter, and is thirty-three feet in
focal length; more powerful than the
reflector in, the Paris observatory, than
the Newall retractor; than Lord Ross
teleecope; than the refractors at the Rus
alan observatory, at Cambridge, at
Chicago. This common reflector will
undoubtedly increase the area of our
knowledge OF the sun, and it, in turn,
will soon be surpassed In power by
some Instrument OF greater power. q 2
Ehe moon is no longer q mystery.
The telescope permits the eye to ramble
easily over our attendants surface. We
can see the phenomena Of it's make-up
and traces of all the revolutions it has
Undergone. I'VE know our moon to be
d bald, naked body; no waters cover
| with silver drapery the great gray
spaces which have been called "seas''
by courtesy; no water or liquid has ever
existed in any quantity, either at her
surface or in her atmosphere. A calm,
cold, dead body is our moon; no living
Being treads its assured surface OF
climbs its pale mountain ranges. There
is neither sound nor lite; only deadness,
" bite and dreary plains and mountains,
How different our fiery and energetic
sun, cyclone swept and writhlng In
| flamestandl molten metal, flinging out
blue and red and yellow arms Of fame
far into space! The sun. apparently a
mass OF wrestling flames and liquid
fiery molten metal, exerts upon the
whole system that gigantic coercive
| force which draws each orb out OF q
straight line into curve;i and continues
| momentariy to exert that coerclve en-.
ergy upon all, compelling them to des-
cribe regular orbits. What wonder thai
the palpitations Of the SUMS old hear
are fell upon the earth, upon Mercury
Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus
and the rest; what wonder that our tiny
world responds to the giant agitation.
on the suns surface, and that these
magnetic storms, 92,000,e00 OF mile:
away, affect the delicate instruments O
terrestrial observers at once! .i-
| Yet, while we are amazed at the stu
pendous distance and forces at work II
our own solar system, we may remem.
Der that our sun, our earth and all the
other orbs OF our system are plunglng
through space at the rate OF forty -foul
niles second in the direction OF ths
constellation. Hercules, or, more accu
rately speaking. to a point in the celes
tial world situated on the right lin,
which joins the two stars pi and ma, II
Mercuies,s at a quarter OF the apparen,
distance of these stars reckoned from ri
In other words our system Is in raplt
motion around an invisible focus. Cen
turtles from now astronomers may de
tect remotely the light OF that centra
sphere of light, of which our might,
sun is but the attendant, the little center
OF one system among millions, perhap:
which are revolving around the great
central sun into whose presence w
seem to be Fastening. With reference
to the theory connecting the sun-spo
maximum with terrestrial epidemic, ",
are not disposed to attach very grea
Importance to it. The yellow fever fo
instance, plagued the North and Soutl
American continents severely in 1873
the year OF sun-spot maximum, and tn,
famine in India was due demonstrate,
to misgovernment aud the lack of irri
cation works. 1t is true that the grea
European pestilences have occurred il
years OF sun-spot maxima. Those VIII,
advocate the theory do not succeed very
well in giving it a substantial basis
They predicted universal cholera cpl
denies for the present sun-spot maxi
mum, but there is as yet lack OF veri
ication. 1t can only be concluded tina
since solar activity increases. the hea
and electrical activity OF the earth ant
disturbs our atmosphere generally, sucl
disturbance producing long hot. dr.,
spells and other uniavorable conditions
it is possible for pestilences to be engen
dered through the years OF sun-spo
maxima.