River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-11-30
Water In Its Relation TO The Earth's
History.
4 Twefpe Minutes Essay Reda Before the es1ata1-
qua cub al RfUsr Fails Noe 24th, 1882
BY Prof E. n. Ming,

and present history OF the earth, w3-
ter stands in the relationship OF tool
or instrument. and as such it mar be
| said to have been invented long before
tile first stroke Of tho geological record
as we find 1t was made. So far as ex-
listing evidence shows, there il no foun-
dation for the belief that this tool WAS
ever entered upon any patent office list
| Or that 1t has ever been monopoliZed
| by any single party. On the contrary.
it has been from first to last the COM
mon and constant instrument of grav-
| itation, cohesion, adhesion, affinity
and the vital forces. Unlike most
other instruments, too, with which we
are acquainted. 1T left that ancient
workshop with simplicity and eter-
nal fitness that has detied Improvement
or infringement.and with the stamp of
master-workman warranting it to
continue in good running order until
the work is accomplished.
TO gain full conception of the pant
| water has played in the earth's histo-
ry must ask you to pass for mo-
ment just across the confines of geolo
gy into the realm of cosmogony to the
time when the $4,000 feet of ocean
were formed and when this water ex-
listed as mist enveloping our globe.
At Just what temperature oxygen aud
hydrogen united to form the water we
have no means of positive knowledge;
but from what we know, it seems prob
able that the temperature may have
been somewhere between $3.50 ., the
| temperature pure oxygen may pro-
| duce while burning with hydrogen,
and temperature a considerable
above the present boiling point of wa
| ter and probably a good many degrees
above. The consideration to which |
| ask your attention here is the part
water must have taken in cooling our
| globe down to the temperature at
| which it became inhabitable. Watery
vapor is great absorber of heat and
| with the whole ocean in the atmos-
phere it would seem uext to impossi
BILE for any of the heat of the earth to
escape, but while water has always
acted as a blanket spread over the
earth it has also served to cool it off.
The way it has acted is this: The
moisture in the upper. clearer layer of
the atmosphere lost its heat by radia
| ton and fell as rain to lower level
| where it was again converted, by a new
quantity of heat. into vapor but only to
raise again into the upper regions to
| unload the burden it carried with it.
This process must have continued I'M
til the water could have fallen upon
| the hot rocky surface of the earth to
cool it in the same manner. Pure air
could never have accomplished this
result in the same time although 1t
| has acted in similar manner. Steam
being only half as heavy as air would
ascend with double the velocity and
then after being converted into water
| in the upper regions would return with
| very many times the greatest velocity
the chilled air could possibly attain.
Besides the greater number of jour
neys the water must have made in a
given time, at each trip pound of
steam carried heat enough to raise 81
pounds of water from the freezing to
the boiling point, over and above that
which the same quantity of air was
able to carry.
While this work was being done,
that is before the greater bulk of the
ocean came to take permanent abode
upon the earth's surface, there could
scarcely have been on the solid ground
any succession of day and night and, so
far as any eye was concerned, it was as
| il the sun, moon and stars had not
been created. The clearing of the at
mosphere has been supposed by some
to be what is referred to in Genesis as
| the work or the fourth day.
| We come, second, to water as a tool
Of the moon whereby she has given us
a day of twenty-four hours in length.
The grandest conception of the present
century relating to the physical sci
ences is the doctrine of the conserva-
ton of energy, whereby if energy APP
pears to be lost at a given point we are
| to look for it and find it in another
place or dressed in another garb.
| If any of you have stood upon the
| Atlantic beach and watched the tide
surging ag inst the shore you may
have queried as to what becomes of
the energy of those waves. Twice ev-
cry day they come from the east and
are stopped in their westward move
ment by the land. A vast quantity of
| westward motion has been arrested.
What has become of ita 1t has check
ed by so much the eastward motion of
the earth; that is, the velocity of the
earth's rotation has been diminished
and this means that each flowing of
the tide leaves our day little longer
than the day before.
1t has been calculated that when the
moon first separated from the earth
the time of the earth's rotation may
not have exceeded three hours and
that at that time the moon moved so
much nearer the earth's surface than
at present rs to cause tides perhaps
thirty-six times their present magni.
tude. Can you picture the blows such
tides would deal! In consequence Of
the greater magnitude of the tides the
lengthening OF the day in the early
ages took place much more rapidly
than nj nraseut tn morrow will he