Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-08
THE ORB OF DAY.
Prof. Richard 4. Proctor's Lecture on
''The sunn at Masonic Temple Last
Night.

Prof, Richard a. ProctOr's Lecture on
''The SUM- at Masonic Temple Last
Night,
Prof. Richard A. Proctor delivered as
second lecture in Savannah before large
and brilliant audience at Masonic Temple
.ast night. The subject Of the lecture
was S'The sun" Few subjects OF greater
interest, began the lecturer, can be i'm
ARMED than the sun, the mighty ruler of
the solar system, controlling the move
ments of a family of worlds, some among
which are hundreds of times larger than
orr earth. The glowing orb he charac-
teriZed as an apt emblem Of the Godhead.
If is the source of light and heat, and,
with them, of life itself, not only on this
earth, but on whatever other Orbs, within
its system. are the abode of life. The
winds blow, the rains fall, rivers flow,
glaciers urge their slow course, at the
SUMS supreme command. In this 1ery
atmosphere float metallic clouds. Tor
rents of molten metal pour from cloud
layers thousands Of miles in depth.
throughout his whole frame, still though
he seems to us, prevails an uproar COM
pared to which all noises known on earth
are as silence.
The distance of the sun from the earth,
estimate, is 92,I00,000 miles. 1t would
take a train travelling at the rate of 500
miles a day, which is about the time
made between New York and San Fran
cisco, 500 years to reach the
sun, and the fare at the usual
rate would be $6,00Q,000. 1t would take
a cannon ball, fired from the best modern
gun, nine years to reach the sun if it
could keep up its speed. The sun is
1,250,000 times larger than the earth and
its strength is 81, 400 times greater than
the earth. There is no light except the
electric light that will compare with that
of the sun, and ali other light is dark
ness in comparison. 1t would take
1900 millions of million tons of coal to
produce as much heat as the sun does a
minute. and if the sun was composed Of
coal it would burn out in 5000 years.
The sun has been working for at least
one hundred millions Of years. Whence
comes this great neat, he asked. His re-
DIV was that it is caused by continued
contraction of the sun, and that its real
globe is far within the surface that we
see.
Prof. Proctor then showed numerous
| photographs Of the surface Of the sun by
| the oXy-hydrogen light. He dWelt at
/ length on sun spots, and illustrated their
! numerous phases. His theory is that they
| are caused by eruptions from the interior
! Of the sun. He argued that the red flames
! seen in eclipses are not gaseous mat
! ter elected upward, as has been held by
/ astronomers. Columns of this matter are
often observed 10000 0miles high, and no
Gas could be projected through the suns
atmosphere to that height. The lecturer
said that while the spectrOscOpe has de-
monstrated that they are gas, they are
( simply trails of meteOrs projected by the
great energy OF the sun from its centre
and thrown out into space. Millions OF
these meteors are thrown out by the sun,
and the millions Of other suns in space
are throwing out similar meteOrs, so.2e
of which reach the earth. He closed his
lecture with an eloquent comparison OF
matter with the soul. He SAID that while
man seemed but an atom in comparison
with the endless systems that move
through space, yet, after all, these vast
| bodies were Infintesimal in com parisOr
with the human mind and soul.