Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-24

the last century, the orb of day seemed to
have lost his fires 1t is known that, for
theological reasons, Herschel believed the
sun to be habitable and inhabited His
globe was considered by him, by Wilson
and their contemporaries as solid as the
earth, and, as it were, environed by vast
atmosphere, crowned with an eternal dome
of resplendent clouds. Astronomers in the
first half OF our century admitted this
theory.
Other Curious Old Theories.
It is true that they had noticed during to-
tai eelipses of the sun certain red projec-
tions surrounding the moon and luminous
clouds Of the same color apparently sus-
pended around the central orb, but they
were not disposed to attribute these things
10 the sun. A few theorizers, more royal
list than the king, went so far as to sustain
that not only is the sun not blazing, but tha
he is veritable block of ice, and that the
luminous heat which we receive from him
Is a subjective phenomenon.
But now we behold the flames of the sun
rekindled and never again to be extin-
guished. The qualification, flames, is even
more exactly appropriate to the nature of
the phenomenon than are the words actually
employed, prominences, protuberances, ex-
plosions or clouds, for it corresponds better
with the lightness and Inconsistency of the
aspects observed, with the aerial, yapory,
changing forms of light, with the caloriic
condition of the solar atmosphere in whose
bosom breathes forth and darts upward the
incanGe~cent hydrogen. There are, even on
earth, flames and flames. Without abusing
metaphor, do we not even sometimes see
cold flames? Has the ignis fatuus which
fits over graves at night ever burned any
thing but the wits of the bewildered spec
tator who meets it? Are not the rose-colored
lights of the aurora borealis as cold as the
atmosphere Of the poles?
There Are Flames and Fl ames.
What contrast between these inoffensiye
flames and those of the furnace pouring the
glowing metal il streams of fire into the
sand with its dazzling ebullitions and filling
the forge with sitting heat! What an abyss
between the gentle, silent fame which de-
taches itself and flies away from the candle
as it is extinguishej, and the binding flash
of powder which explodes, scattering ruin
and death in its path! The variety, the
diversity of chemical and physical
phenomena expressed by this one word
amply justifes its general application to
the solar protuberances.
We can see these flames of the sun Tin the
spectroscope) standing out on the back
ground OF the sky only around the solar cir
cumference; we can distinguish them only
when they are presented thus in profile
We must in our mind regard the immense
globe of the sun as encompassed, bristling
at every point with flames shooting up into
his atmosphere and sometimes reaching
in sheets of fire out into the illuminated
heights.
The solar surface which we see. and which
outlines for us the globe of that star, is
covered with a sheet of scarlet fire, from
which rise constantly multitude of flames,
q veritable and perpetual confagration.
The dazzling light of the orb of day rem
ders these flames invisible to us-.hey are,
moreover, transparent-as the stars are made
invisible to US.
Not Much Time for Observation.
Before the invention of the spectrosctpe
thew were seen only at the rare instauk of
total eclipse, when the lunar disk, litter
posed between the sun and us, masked the
dazzle Of the sun and allowed US to d Jstin-
guish his surroundings. 1t is evident that
such observations, limited to few mo-
ments in time, and diminished in
clearness by the surprise ana tne Nrange
beauty of the phenomenon, were ineces-
sarily fugitive and imperfect. At
present they are made every day, The
gaseous layer which envelops the sun, the
ocean of fire, measures in depth from 4, 600
TO 1000 miles From this ocean dart gigantic
flames to height of from about go, 600 to
25O, 900, and even 300, 900 miles On the 9Th
of October, 1880, Prof Young observed
flame which, at 1 o'clock, leaped to the
height of $50, 900 miles, broke into hlaments
and vanished.
When protuberances do not exceed in
height Z, 500 miles, or the thickness of the
earth, astronomers make no note of them.
The earth II flames set on the edge Of the