The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-06-12

| piston, while the machinery IN Gne
mill draws on this accumulated store
of power in the fywheel. If the en-
| CINE is stopped, the Aywheel may yet
give a turn or two, for the energy
which it contains may be still suhici-
ent to drive for few seconds the ma
chinery through the mill. But the
store Of energy in the Aywheel would
necessarily become speedily exhausted
and the fywheel come to rest unless
it were continually replenished by the
action of the engine.
The earth may be regarded as a
mighty fywheel which contains a pro-
digious store of energy. That energy
is, however, never added to, for there
is no engine available. If, however,
no energy were withdrawn from the
earth, then the globe would continue
to spin round it's axis once every
twenty-four hours, forever. AS how
ever the tides need energy to get
| through their work, they abstract what
they require from the store which they
find at hand in the rotation Of the
earth. Next time you see the tides
securing up and down river you may
reflect that the power which impels
that mass of water to and fro has been
obtained solely at the expense Of the
spinning of our globe. Indeed, the
little child who digs a moat in the
| sand, which is filled by the rising tide,
affects, to certain extent, the revo-
luton of this earth about it's axis.
This withdrawal of energy from the
earth is incessantly taking place along
almost every coast. From day to day,
from century to century, from aeon to
aeon, energy is daily being withdrawn
and daily wasted, never again to be
restored. AS the earth has no other
means of replenishiug its stores, the
consequence is inevitable. The quan.
tity Of energy due to the rotation of
the earth must be gradually declining.
Stated in this way, perhaps the init
nation is not very alarming, but,
placed in other words, the results at
which we have arrived assume the
more practical expression that the
tides must be gradually checking the
speed with which the earth turns
round. The tides must, in fact, be
increasing the length of the day. In
consequence Of the tides which ripple
to and fro on our shores, and which
flow in and flow out Of estuaries and
rivers, to-day is longer than yesterday,
and yesterday is longer than the day
before. I may, however, admit at
once that the change thus produced is
not very appreciable when only mod
crate periods of time are considered.
Indeed, the alteration in the length of
the day from this cause amounts to no
more than fraction of a second in a
period of thousand years. Even in
thelapse Of ordinary history, there is no
recognizable change in the length of
the day. But the Importance of our
argument is hardly affected by the
circumstance that the rate at which
the day is lengthening is very slow
one. The really significant point is
that this change is always taking
place, and lies always in the same
direction. It is this latter circum-
stance which. gives the present doc
trine it's great Importance as factor
in the development Of the earth-moon
system.
We are accustomed in astronomy to
reason about movements which ad-
vance for vast periods in one direction,
and then become reversed. Such
movements as this are, however, not
the real architects Of the universe, for
that which is done during one cycle of
years is undone during the text. But
the tides are ever in operation, and
their influence tends ever in the same
direction. Consequently the altera-
tion in the length Of the day is con-
tinually in progress, and in the course
of illimitable ages it's effects accumu-
late to a startling magnitude.
The earth now revolves on its axis
once in twenty-four hours. There
was time, millions of years ago, very
likely, when it revolved once in
twenty-three hours. Earlier still it
must have spun on it's axis in twenty
two hours, while this succeeded time
when the day was only twenty hours.
The very same arguments applied in
those times which apply at the pres
ent, 30 that if we strain our vision
back into the excessively remote past,
we find the earth spinning ever more
and more rapidly, until at last we dis
Germ an epoch when the length of the
day, having declined to eight hours
and seven hours, had at last sunk to
something like five or six hours. This
is the time when the moons story
commences. At this eventful period
the earth accomplished about four
revolutions in the same time that it
now requires for single one. We do
not attempt to assign the antiquity of
this critical moment. It must GER
tainly have been far earlier than the
time when this earth became fitted for
the reception of organized life. 1t
must have been at least many millions
Of years ago. If it be thought that
Gne VaSueuesS VI Jul Suiouo1oSy ID
rather unsatisfactory, then it must be
remembered that even historians who
have human records and monuments
to guide them are still often in utter
uncertainty as to the periods during
which mighty empires fourished, or
as to the dates at which great dynas-
ties rose or perished.
But our story has another side to it.
Among the profoundest laws of nature
is that which asserts that action and
reaction are equal and opposite. We
have seen that the moon is the cause
of the tides, and we have further seen
that tides act as brace to check the
speed with which the earth is rotat-
ing. This is the action of the moon
upon the earth and now let us con-
slider the reaction with which this
action must be inevitably accompani
ed. In our ordinary experience we
observe that man who is annoyed by
another feels an unregenerate impulse
to push the annoying agent away as
far as possible. This is exactly the
form which the reaction Of the earth