The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-02-21

thlnk ne was even more powerful as
ruler than he really is. He is one mil
lion two hundred and sixty thousand
times larger than the earth :but he only
contains aboutthree hundred and thirty
thousand times as much matter, Still
even this is enormous, and means enor-
nous power. Ii the earth had such
power, the quantity of matterin pound
would press downwards with as much
force as three hundred and thirty thou
sand pounds weight at present. A man
" ho weighs only one hundred pounds
would in that case weigh thirty-three
millions OF pounds, or would in fact
be crushed perfectly fat by his own
weight.
1t is this tremendous power residing
in the SUMS mass which enables him to
guide the planets in their paths so that
they never retreat too far away from
him and soreceive too little heat, nor
draw too close to him so as to receive
too much. a
LIGHT AND HEAT.
But again, neither size nor power
would make the sun a fit ruler of the
solar system, without light to illuminate
his family of worlds and heat to warm
them. let as see how much light and
how much heat the sun gives out all the
time. E7 -
To get a good idea Of the suns light
we must remember his enormous extent
Of surface The earth'ss surface contains
two Hundred millions of square miles,
the suns iseleyen thousand sixhundred
times greater. Each square mile con-
tains about three millions of square
yards, each square yard about one thou
sand three hundred square inches;
whence it follows that there are roughly
eleven thousand six hundred times two
hundred million times three million
times one thousand three hundred
square inches in the sun s surface, or IN
round numbers 100000, 900, 900, 600
0O0.0O0 square inches.
Now each of these gives outsabout six
hundred times as much light as the
glowing piece of lime in the oxhydro-
gen lantern used to obtain brilliantly
illuminated magic-lantern pictures, and
more than one hundred times as much
light, as the snrsll but intensely brilliant
electric arc when obtained of the utmost
possible splendor. The whole surface
of the sun gives out instant by instant at
least asmuch light as amillion millions
of millions of millions of electric lights.
The heat given out by the sun is as
great as we might expect when we see
this enormous emission of. light Ex-
perifhents made by$Sif John Herschel.
at one time and by, M. Pouillet at,
another, show thatsthe heat falling on
a single square mile only on the earth S
.surface-the sun being overhead
would melt twenty-six thousand tons of
ice in an hour ss4 t75ta g
Now the earth receives about fifty
million times as much heat as this, the
size OF circle just large enough (set
squarely to the sun s rays9 to shield the
earth from the sun being about fifty
millions of square miles. But the earth
l-onlyscaptures about one -two<thousand-
Emillionth part Of all the heatswhich the
sun emits. Thus the total heat given
out by the sun IN an hour would melt
two thousand six hundred millions of
millions of millions of tons of ice in an
hour. This corresponds to what would
result from burning eleven thousand
eight hundred millions of millions of
tons. of coal in a. second ~
Weiean find (as it ehanceso a ready
aid to the memory-at least if we re-
member, what has been already shown,
that the sun S surface is eleven thousand
eight hundred times larger than the
earth--by noting that il our .earth's
surface were asE hot as the&sunfs1 she
would give out every second as much
heat as would come from burning
billion 4hatis million million) tons of.
COAL as@ V e @4&@3 4~&s +~@ sSssss@sa
i THE COMPOSITION OF THE SUN.
Of what is the sun, SO vast and pow
erful, so hot and so brilliant, made? 1t
might seem hopeless to. ask, Who
could traverse, even in Imagination. !.
| the vast space that separates our world
from him and bring back news, across
the mighty gulf of the various sub
stances that form his glowing orb?
Yet science has done this, and that so
perfectly that we could scarcely be more
Ecertain even if our observers had act
uan " visited the sun and had brought
back part of his substance for examina-
tion under The microscope or in chem
Iical laboratories. r....4s -.
| / cannot here fully explain how this
has been done. But may say so much
as this: The light of the sun contains
rays OF all the colors of the rainbow,
and method has been invented for sep-i
Farating the red, orange, yellow, green,
blue. indigosand sViolet rays from each
other. When this is done it is found
that rays of certain "tints are missing
/ from the light of the sun. Now, some
of these missing tii1ts are known to- be
those which certain yapors and gases
have the power of absorbing, as, for in
stance, the vapors of iron, zinc, cop
kper and SO forth, the gas hydrogen and
other substances IN the. .yaporous or
gaseous form, We, thus learn that these
substances are in the atmosphere of.
thesun, muchsss thevaporofi Wateisandi
lthe gases oxygen and nitrogen are
Ipresent in the atmosphere of the earth !;
that is, in the sir we breathe.
s 1t has thus been shown that hydro
gen, sodium, Magnesium, calcium. iron.
aluminium, manganese, chromium, CO.
EIbalt, nickel zines copper, titanium and
other elements are present in the suns
Eatmosph Il sIno anetAer way1hg nor