The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-20


every other cent and every other dol
lar Of his gigantic wealth in mere aim
less eXtrava gance? This would, how
ever, appear to be the way in which
the sun manages its affairs, if we are
to suppose that all the solar heat is
wasted save that minute fraction
which is received by the earth. Out Of
every twenty million dollars worth OF
heat issuing from the glorious orb OF
day, we on this earth barely secure
the value of one single cent, and all
but that insignificant trifie seems to be
utterly squandered. We may say 1t is
certainly sQuandered. No doubt there
are certain other planets besides the
earth, and they will receive quantities
of heat to the extent of a few cents
more, 1t must. however, be said that
the stupendous volume of solar rad1-
alton passes off substantially untaxed
into space, and what may actually
there become of it science is unable to
tell.
And now for the great question as to
how the supply of heat is sustained so
rs to permit the orb Of day TO continue
in its career of such unparalleled pro-
digahty. Every child knows that the
fire on the domestic hearth will go out
unless the necessary supplies OF wood
or coal can be duly provided. The
blast furnace requires to be incesSant-
~ stocked with fresh fuel. How, then,
comes it that furnace so much more
stupendous than any terrestrial fur
mace can continue to pour forth in per
ennial abundance it's anna ing stores of
heat without being nourished by con-
tinual supply of some kind? Professor
Langley who has done so much to eX-
tend our knowledge of the great orb
e M hoe e-,,r "A n
illustrating the quantity of fuel which
would be required, if indeed it were by
successive additions of fuel that the
suns heat had to be sustained. Sup
pose that all the coal seams which UNI
derlie america were made to yield up
their stores. Suppose that the coal
fields of England and Scotland, Aus
tralia, China and elsewhere We're COM
PEELED to contribute every combustible
particle they contained. Suppose, in
fact, that we extracted every ton of
coal from this earth it possesses, in
every island and in every continent,
Suppose that this vast store of fuel.
which is adequate to supply the wants
of this earth for centuries. were to be
accumulated in one stupendous pile.
Suppose that an army of stokers, ar
rayed in numbers which we need not
now pause to calculate, were employed
furnace How long, think you, would
so gigantic a mass of fuel maintain
the suns expenditure at its present
rate? I am but uttering a deliberate
scientific fact when [ say that a con-
f1agration which destroyed every par
! ticle of coal contained in this earth
would not generate so much heat as
| the sun lavishes abroad to ungratef
! space in the tenth part of every single
I 10 ,i,,1rf toe I,a4
! the reader has been occupied over
these lines a quantity of heat which is
many thousands of times as great as
! the heat which could be produced by
/ the ignition of all the coal in every
coal pit in the globe has been dispersed
and totally lost to the sun.
But we have still one further con
ception to introduce before we shall
have fully grasped the significance OF
the SUMS eXtrava gance in the matter
OF heat. As the sun shines today or
this earth. so it shone yesterday, so il
shOne a hundred years ago, a thou
! sand years ago: so 1t shone in the earli-
est dawn of history; SO it shOne during
! those still remoter periods when great
| animals f1ourished which have now
vanished forever; so it shone during
| that remarkable period in earth's his
tory when the great coal forests -four
| lSIleO, 81 IL SItOIlt' III lIlOSC IGuLOle ages
many millions of years ago when life
began to dawn on this earth, which
was still young. There is every rea-
son to believe that throughout these
illimitable periods which. the magma
| ton strives in vain to realize, the sur
has dispensed its radiant treasures OF
| light and warmth with just the same
prodigality as that which now charac
terizes it.
oil q ~
wanton extravaganza. We know i
spells bankruptcy and ruin. The ex
penditure of heat by the sun is the
| most magnificent extravaganza o
which human. knowledge gives us any
| conception. How have the conse-
! quences of such awful prodigality beef
| hitherto averted? How is it that the
sun is still able to draw on its hea'
reserves from second to second, from
century to century, from aeon to aeon
ever squandering two thousand million
! times as much heat as that which
| genially warns our temperate regions
as that which draws forth the eXuber
| ant vegetation of the tropics, or which
RACES in the Desert Of Sahara. This in
deed is a great problem.
1t WAS Helmholtz who discovered
that the continual maintenance of thu
! suns temperature is due to the fac
that the sun IS neither solid nor LIQUID
but is to a great extent gaseous. Hi:
theory of the subject has gained uni
| VerSal acceptance. Those who have
taken the trouble to become acquain
ted with it are compelled to admit tina
the doctrine set forth by this grea
philosopher embodies profound truth
Even the great sun cannot escape tn
application of certain law which af
fects every terrestrial object. an
whose province is wide as the univers
Itself. Nature has not one law for tn
rich and another for the poor. Th
sun is shedding forth heat, and, there
fore. affirms this law-the sun must b
shrinking in size. We have'learned tn
rate at which this contraction proceeds
for among the many trlumphs whic
} mathematicians have accomplishe
must be reck0ned that of having put
pair Of callipers on the sun so as t
nea sure its diameter. We thus fin,
is ten inches smaller today than it wa
yesterday Year in and year out tn
glorious orb of heaven is steadily di
minishing at the same rate. For hun
; dreds of vears-aye, for hundreds G
thousands Of years. this incessan
shrinking has gone on at about tn
same rate as it goes on at present. FO
| hundreds of years-aye, for hundred
Of thousands of years-the shrinkfn
{ still will go on. AS a sponge eXude
| moisture by continuous squeezing, S
the sun pours forth heat by continuou
shrinking. SO long as the sun remain
practically gaseous, so long will tn
great luminary continue to shrink, an
thus continue its gracious benefcenct
Hence 1t IS that. for incalculable age