The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-05-12
SUN SPOTS.
Bill Nye, After an Exhaustive Discussion,
Says He Can't Explain Them.


miles from the earth, though there have
been mornings this winter when it
seemed to me that it was further than
that. A railway train going at the rate
of 40 miles per hour would be 26S years
going there, to say nothing of stopping
for fuel or water, or stopping on side
tracks to wait for freight trains to pass.
Several years ago it was discovered that
q slight error had been made in the cal
culation of the suns distance from the
earth, and owing to misplaced loga-
rithm, or something of that kind, mis-
take of 5000, 900 miles was made in the
result People can not be too careful
in such matters. Surprising that on the
strength of the information contained
an the old time table man should start
out with only provisions sufficient to
take him 5000, 900 miles, and should
then find that 100000 miles still
stretched out ahead of him. He would
then have to buy fresh figs of the train
boy in order to sustain life. Think Of
ouying nice fresh figs on train that
had been en- route $50 years!
Imagine train boy starting out at
ten years of age, and perishing at the
age of sixty years with only one-fifth of
his Journey accomplished. Think of
five train boys, one after the other, dy-
ing of old age on the way, and the
train at last pulling slowly into the de-
pot with not living thing on board ex-
fha ir,f hn
plesn'
The sun can not be examined through
an ordinary telescope with impunity.
Only one man ever tried that, and he is
now wearing glass eye that cost him
nine dollars.
Ii you examine the sun through an
ordinary solar microscope, you discover
that it has a curdled or notified appear
ance, as though suffering from bilious
ness. 1t is also marked here and there
by long streaks of light called facula,
which look like foam fieckS below a
cataract The spots on the sun vary
from minute pores the size of an Ordi
nary school district to spots 100000
miles in diameter, visible to the nude
eve. The center of these spots is as
black as a brunette cat, and is called
the umbra, so called because it resem-
bles an umbrella. The next circle is
less dark, and called the penumbra, be-
cause il so closely resembles the penum-
bra.
There are many theories regarding
these spots, but to be perfectly candid
with the gentle reader, neither Prof
Proctor nor myself can tell exactly
what they are. If we could get little
closer, we fatter ourselves that we
could speak more definitely. My own
theory is they are either, first, open air
caucuses held by the colored people of
the sun; or second, they may be the
dark horses in the campaign; or third,
they may be the spots knocked off the
defeated candidate by the opposition.
Frankly. however, L do not believe
either of these theories to be tenable.
Prof. Proctor sneers at the theories also
on the ground that these spots do not
appear to revolve so fast as the sun.
This, however, 1 am prepared to ex-
plain upon the theory that this might
be the result of delays in the returns.
However, | am free to confess that
speculative science is filled with the in
tangible.
The sun revolves upon his or her axle
tree, as the case may be, once in twen-
ty-fve to twenty-eight of our days, so
that man would have almost two
years to pay thirty-day note. We
should so live that when we come to
die we may go at once to the sun.
Regarding the suns temperature,
Sir John Herschel says that it is suffi-
Gent to melt shell of ice covering its
entire surface to depth of forty feet.
do not know whether he made this ex-
pertinent personally or hired man to
do it for him.
The sun is like the star spangled
banner-as it is ''stlll there" You get
up tomorrow morning just before sum
-Iise and look away toward the east,
and keep on looking in that direction,
and at last you will see a fine sight, if
what have been told is true. If the
sunrise is as grand as the sunset it
must, indeed, be one of natures most
sublime phenomena.
The sun is the great source of light
and heat for our earth. If the sun
were to 90 somewhere for a few weeks
for relaxation and rest it would be
cold day for us. The moon. too. would
be useless, for she is largely de-
pendent on the sun. Animal life would
soon ce3se and real estate would be-
come depressed in price. We owe very
much of our enjoyment to the sun. and
not many years ago there were a large
number of people who worshiped the
sun. When a man showed signs of
emotional insanity, they took him up
on the observatory of the temple and
sacrificed him to the sun. They were
very prosperous and happy people.
If the conqueror had not come among
them with civilization and guns and
grand juries they would have been
very happy, indeed.-BiH Nye, in Bur-
iinyto9 Ra0keye.
General Gordon, /