Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-07-01

" oAAO oOcUi1l DoSd1l W NOIk, Cu0ullCdl
changes took place, carbon was
evolved, and coal was theresult. The
laboratory was opened by the build
ing OF the railroad before the slow proc
ess was fully completed, SO that you
can lind there to-day the vegetable
carbonized matter and Ignite and
coal altogether, proving, indeed, that
the popular thought that coal grows
is true.-Ph9nixviHe Messenger.
is THE COLOR OF THE SUN BLUE?
1t may be asked, What suggested the
idea that the sun may be blue rather
than any other color? My own at
tentlon was first directed this way
many years ago, when measuring the
heat and light from different parts OF
the suns disk. 1t is known that the
sun has an atmosphere of it's own,
which tempers it's heat, and by cut
ting off certain radiations, and not
others, produces che spectral lines we
are all familiar with. These lines we
customarily study in connection with
the absorbing vapors of sodium, iron,
and so forth, which produce them but
my own attention was particularly
given to the regions of ABSORPTION, or
to the color it caused; and I found
that the suns body must be deeply
blush, and that it would shed blue
light, except for this apparently color
less solar atmosphere which really
plays the part ofa reddish veil, letting
little of the blue appear on the center
OF the SUMS disk where it is thinnest,
and staining the edge red, so that to
delicate tests the center of the sun is g.
pale aquamarine, and it's edge agarnet.
The effect found to be so important
that, If this all but visible solar at
mosphere were diminished by but a
third part, the temperature of the
British Islands would rise above that
OF the torrid zone; and this directed
my attention to the great practical
Importance Of studying the action of
our own terrestrial atmosphere on the
sun, and the antecedent probability
that our own air was also and indie
pendently making the really blue sun
into an apparently white one.-Prof
Langley, in Science.
AN OVERHEATED BAT.
Early one December day writes a
correspondent of the New York Sun,
when the snow began to fly [ was
much surprised to see a silver-haired
bat fly into my hallway, having been
unable evidently, to find place in
which to lie dormant. 1t was bitter
cold night, and l placed the bat in a
pasteboard box containing cotton,
where he hung himself by his claws to
one edge and went into his torpid
sleep. After two weeks | told him to
wake up for refreshments, but received
no response. Then / placed him by
the fire and he came to life, took some
water, flew around the room, ate a
dead fly which he found on the top OF
the library case, and finally attached
himself to a pendant painting, and
again went into tOrpidity.
One month afterward | recalled his
lonesome condition, took him down
and subjected him to heat. He seemed
to be hopelessly gone. 1 held his nose
to mirror, and, obtaining two faint
spots OF breath, placed him in the cot
ton-lined box on an ornament of the
stove, and turned to my writing
Soon my attention was aroused by 6
dreadful odor. l looked around an6
discovered the box on fire Before
could reach it out sprang the bat, only
to drop dead on the floor, evidently
| frightened or heated to death.
These and other facts show that
torpidity is not caused by extreme
cold; although the sensation is similar
to that of freezing. Bears living il
torpidity hibernate in warm place
and for the same reason reptiles anG
frogs crawl into the mud to escape
frost. Torpidity is conundrum, AND
we give it uD.