Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1896-03-05
THE SUMS CARBON.
Its Ebb and Flow on tho Surface Of the
Great Luminaty.

Great Luminasy.
Even at the risk Of telling what
every schoolboy ought to know, / will
say that carbon is one of the common
est as well az one of the most remark
able substances in nature. A lump of
coke only differs from piece of car
bon by the ash which the coke leaves
behind when burned AS charcoal is
almost entirely carbon, so wood is
largely composed Of this same element.
Carbon is indeed present everywhere.
In various forms carbon is in the earth
beneath our feet and in the air which
we breathe. This substance courses
with the blood through our veins; it
is by carbon that !he heat of the body
Is sustained; and the same element
is intimately associated with life in
every phase. -.s4
Nor is the presence of carbon mere
y confined to this earth. We know it
abounds on other bodies in space. 1t
has been known to be eminently char
acteristc of the composition of COM
cts. Carbon is not only intimately as
ISOLATED with articles of daily utility
md of plenteous abundance, but with
the most exquisite gems Of "purest ray
serene" More precious tt9h gold, more
precious than rubies. the diamond it.
self is no more than the same element
in crystalline form. Bat the great
est of all the functions of carbon in the
universe has yet to be mentioned. This
shown to be in all probability the ma
terial which constitutes those glowing
solar clouds to whose kindly radiation
our very life owes IT'S origin
There is no known metal, and per-
haps no substance whate 'er, which de-
mands so high temperature to fuse it
as does the element of carbon. A fla
ment of carbon alone will remain I'M
fused and unbrolicn when heated by
the electric current 10 the dazzling bril-
lance necessary for effective illumina-
ton. This is the reason why this
particular element is indispensable
for our incandescent electric lamps.
Modem research has now taught
us thnt, just as the electrician
aas to employ carbon as the
immediate agent in producing the
brightest of artificial lights down
here. so the sun in heaven uses precise
ly the same element as the immediate
agent in the production of its tran
scendent light and heat. Owing to the
extraordinary fervor which prevails
in the interior parts of the sun, all
substances there present, no matter
how difficult we may find their fusion,
would have to submit 20 be melted,
nay, even TO be driven off into vapor.
If submitted to the heat of this appall-
ing solar furnace, an iron poker, for in
stance, would vanish into invisible
vapor.
We can now understand what hap
pens as the buoyant carbon vapors
/ soar upwards through the suns atmos-
phere. They attain at last to an ele-
! walton where the fearful intensity of
the solar heat has so far abated that,
though nearly all other elements may
still remain entirely gaseous, yet the
exceptionally refractory carbon begins
to .eturn to the liquid state. At lle
first stage in this return, the carbon
: vapor conducts itself just Us does the
ascending water vapor from the earth
when about to be transformed into an
invisible cloud. Under the influence
of a chill the carbon vapor collects
into myriad host of little beads of
liquid. Each of these drops of liquid
carbon in the glorious solar clouds has
n temperature and corresponding ra-
dance vastly exceeding that withwhch
the filament glows in the incandescen
elect'c lamp. When we remember fur
Their that the entire surface of our lu-
minary is coated with these clouds,
every particle of Which is thus intense
ly luminous, we need no longer wonder
Mt that dazzling bIilliapoe which, even
across the awful gulf of 81, 600 miles
produces for us the indescribable glory
of daylight.-Sir robert Ball, in Me,
Clure's Magazine.