Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-09-10
GRAVITATiON.
Fts character One OF tIls subtle Niysferfe


It's Character One OF the Subtie Mysteries
Of Nature.
One of the brightest and most thor
oughly informed writer's on the staff OF
the Electrical ReBiclO of this city con-
ceals his identity under the non, de
plume of "The Prophet" In recent
issue OF that journal he presents the
following suggestion relative to the
mysterious force which we designate
gravity"
NhaL il electric -ty? This question is
often asked, but, strange to say, rarely
with view to obtaining information.
It il frequently used as a poser to floor
some loquacious person who has been
talking glibly OF the sub. ect. One who
attempts to answer it seriously is looked
upon a. presumptuous. But we really
know more about electricity than we do
about gravity. Every day thre ughout
this broad land school chi dren are CIV
ing to their teachers what is considered
to be the correct answer to the question.
What is gravity? Yet the student who
told his professor that he knew what
electricity was, but had forgotten, has
become the butt of very trite joke.
OF the true nature of the mysterious
force of gravity little Is known. The
recent unparalleled advances in physical
science leave us still in the dark as to
gravity. 1t is the same silent, never
ending force which keeps the universe
| in balance. No one has ever been able
| to screen it's attractive effect for even
one single second. Go where you will,
you cannot escape its force. 1t causes
| stone to fall and a ballon to rise. 1t
makes rain, river, and mountains, but
| of its exact nature we know infinitely
less than we do of electricity. Who
has ever heard of a wave of gravity,
| and who can tell the medium by which
its power is transmitted from sun to
earth? Tt has been proved that light
| and electricity are similar manifesto
tions. Waves of light and electricity
are now almost tangible everyday
things. Electricity can be generated,
propagated and suppressed at will, but
gravity goes on, always acting, never
changing, and successfully defying the
power of man. Many of the actions
which are now .ascribed to gravity were
formerly accounted for in q manner
which seemed quite as reasonable as
our present explanations. The ordinary
suction pump, it is now known depends
for its action upon the pressure exerted
on column of water by the air; but
in the time of Aristotle it was explained
by saying, Mature abhors a vacuum. "
1t was observed that space seemed al
ways to be filled by matter, and the
moment a solid body was removed it's
place would be filed by air or water.
Thus, when the piston of a common
pump was lifted. the water was caused
to rise, and the explanation was all
sufficient. 1t was not until the seven
teenth century that the defect in this
theory became apparent. The Duke
of Tuscany sunk very deep we'll and
notwithstanding the skill of his best
engineers, the water would not rise in
the pump much over thirty feet
Galile, who was then near the close
of his career, was appealed to, but he,
after remarking that nature did not
abhor a vacuum over ten metres, re-
ferred the matter to his ablest pupil
Torricelli. The latter reasoned that il
it was the weight of the air which sus
tanned the water, that it ought to sus'
tain a much shorter column of heavier
liquid like mercury. He accordingly
inverted long tube filled with mercury
over a pan OF that liquid, and found
that the mercury fell until it came tt
rest at height a little over thirty
inches, leaving vacuu L at the top o.
the tube. This upset the AriStoteliar
doctrine that nature abhors vacuum
and prepared the way for the law o
gravitation. We know many of thu
laws of gravity, but of the thing itsel
know nothing. 1t may yet be proved
that gravity is also an action propagatet
through the ether 1t would thus com,
under the domain of electricity. which
seems destined to absorb all of thu
sciences. Perhaps, then, when til,
great secrets of nature are unlocked w
may be able to suspend or screen it
action at will This would be mos
stupendous triumph of electricity
Until the scoffer can tell what gravit,
is, let him not ask What is electricity ?