The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-01-21

tne corona or next outer circle of the
sun has as yet received no explanal
tion which commands universal as.
| sent,n ~i
Pouillet calculated that the stars
AnQ space In general must furnish to
tae earth about IS per cent. as much
neat as the sun supplies, but his as
sumptions as to the laws of cooling
and radiation ''are not at present re-
ceiYed as accurate," and "the present
uncertainty of the suns distance,
small as it is, renders precarious all
computations" regarding the masses,
Distances and motions of the heaven
yhodies when the period is extend
ed backward or forward more than a
few hundred thousand years.
he best feature of the latest scien.
ttfllWorks Is their conscientious clear.
neS and candor in stating what sci-
lse sloes aaof lxnaws Thisis Car more
neslthful than the spirit of twenty
five years ago, which was rather taxi
ing 1t for granted that science as good
as knew the universe by heart.
And this was greatly encouraged by
the tanscendental spirit, which as.
serted though IN wide circuml0cu-
tiOn, that "what the human soul
could ak il could also answer :" but
not yet awhile, Mr.. Emerson. Why,
we don'tyet no how far it is to the
solar range. that warns us and rip
ems the grapes on our vines. Yet
rays of light are only about eight
minutes coming from the SUMS face
to our faces, if SO long. But they
dazzle evenastronomy.
"The attraction between the sun
and the earth amounts to thirty.six
hundred quadrillions of tons: in
figures, 36 followed by seventeen ci-
piers" Yet our little planet holds
its own and seems in no hurry to
drop into the "father of lights"
"The suns volume is 100000 times
that of the earth, while its mass is
only $3.50, 900 times as great" AS to
size 1t is about as a pin point to the
head of a -four barrel. but the suns
average density (found by dividing
the mass by the vOlume) is only
about one quarter that of the earth.
The earth is little fellow, but COM
pact and well made, let the infidels
say what they will. and the sun, too,
is good in its way. You not orl ly
cannot look the sun in the face with
the naked eye, nut the appliances
used in the study of the moon, plan
ct, and stars will not answer at all
for solar work. TO find the spots on
thesun you need only throw it's i'm
age through a telescope on to a
screen of cardboard and they are as
plain as freckles on some folks
faces.
Ever since Newton it has been
known that a beam of light is decom-
possible into its constituent cnlors by
Dassing it through prism, and, un-
der certain circumstances, the result
is a rainbOw-tinted band or ribbon,
which has been called the solar spec
trum. In this spectrum WOllaston,
in 1902, discovered certain dark shad.
ing, and from that day to this astr0n-
omers have been endeayoring, by
means of this spectrum, To determine
the nature of the elements of the sun.
In 1877 DR.. Henry Draper, of New
York, announced that he had discov-
cred the presence Of oxygen in the
sun. In fact, it is claimed by phil
osophy that the primal elements OF
all suns and worlds are the same, but
the work of science is to prove this
or prove the contrary.
There are a good many guesses as
to what the sun spots really are.
"Cavities filled with gases and va.
pors, which produce obscuration.'
sounds right but tomorrow some
other theory may sound better,
.'Sun spots are not distributed over
the SUMS surface with anything like
uniformity. They occur mainly in
two zones ON each side of the Equa-
tor and between the ATTITUDES of l0'
and 300. But the cause of this dis
tributi0n il not nown.
AS to the "Sun's Light and Heat
Herschel calculated that the amount
of heat receivedon the earih's surface
with the sun in the zenith would
melt an inch thickness of ice in two
hours and thirteen minutes nearly
and of course If such sheet of ice were
hundred and eighty million miles
in diameter. il would all melt in the
same length of time. "Of this enor.
nous outflow of heat the earth oi
course intercepts only a small por
tion, about l .22OOOOOOOO. But even this