Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-12

suits. He details an experiment which
was contrived consisting of a strong glass
tube, three inches in diameter and three or
more feet long, provided with brass caps at
each end which could be conveniently at
tached to an air pump and exhausted. He
tells US that as the exhaustion proceeded
the rarified air in the tube became a con-
ductor of electricity, and this conductivity
appeared to improve in proportion as the
air was more exhausted.
"a legitimate inference from these ex-
periments-though one strangely ignored
by this WRITER'S that had the exhaustion
been made complete, the perfection of cleo
trical transmission would have been
reached In other words. it does not APP
pear that either tenuous air or vacuum is 4
conductor of electricity, but that the trans
instability Of the electric current is in pro-
portion to the rarifed condition of the iir
or its total absence. Absolute nothingness
can neither aid nor impede the progress Of
the electrical current.
From the abundant evidence which we
now possess it is not too much to claim that
when the element OF resistance to the pas
sage of the electric current Is removed,
when the motion of electricity is wholly
free and unobStructed, its action may be
instantaneous, whether within the narrow
confines of tube or in the universal
space. The resistance to the progress of
the electrical current wakes it up to visi-
bility and TO action. On the scale of the
laboratory, vacuum is found to be the most
perfect condition for electrical transmits
sion.
ION the scale of the universe the evil
dence of this fact is even more conclusive.
Mr.. Gordon. distinguished English au-
thority. in his work on electricity and mag
netism. one of the best in this field, tells US
that the electrical forces are transmitted
not only across the best vacuumS we have
been able to produce, but also across the in
ter-planetary spaces.
1T is now abundantly demonstrated that
electrical currents pass to and fro between
the sun and earth inStantaneously and inceS-
sanity, and science accepts this as
proved fact. The great Far
aday tells US that the move
ments of celestial bodies in absolute vacuum
would be as uniform as those of mathe-
NAUTICAL pendulum, whereas resisting me-
dunn pervading all space would cause the
planets to move in shorter and shorter or
bits and at last to fall into the sun. From
the fact that the motions OF the celestial
bodies are absolutely uniform we may justly
infer that all space is practically vacuous,
and no fact is now known to man which
disproves this hypothesis. 1t is, therefore,
clearly demonstra BILE, both upon the scale
of the laboratory and of the universe, that
vacuum is the most perfect condition for
electrical transmission.
IF all space is vacuous the phenomena
of space must be largely determined by this
cosmical condition. If space is void of all
else save the electrical currents, ever in
play between the sun and earth, these cur
rents must be invisible in their passage
eastward, and not until they meet their first
resistance, which occurs in our atmosphere,
can the slightest indications of their pres
ence be discovered. In this conflict be-
tween the electrical sun currents and our
atmosphere those wonderful and mysteri-
Gus phenoma which we call sun heat and
sunlight become developed. The atmos-
phere thus performs the identical part in
the development of sunheat and sunlight
which the carbon point and the platinum
coil perform in the production of electric
heat and light.
1.-THE intensity of the sunheat and sun
light is due to the amount Of the resistance
which the lowest stratum of the atmosphere
offers to the passage of the solar currents.
Thus the intensity of the sunheat and the
dazzling brilliancy of the sunlight are To-
Gated in the atmosphere wherein we live,
and not at the sun, as heretofore believed.
For all that we know to the contrary the
sun need not be actually hot or bright: it
may even be dark, cool and habitable like
the earth and yet do all that is claimed for
it,
We may add to this argument of DIR.
Rogers, that outer space is vacuum only
as to condensed matter. while it is full of
matter, which has been called
the ether of space, and which l believe to
be identical with electricity. Portions of
that electricity of space are quiet, station
airy, while other portions are moving in cur
rents, similar to the waters of the oceans,
and these currents carry gross matter that
has accumulated in space and build it into
or onto the growing bodies of the universe.
w ~ EnSTER