The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-04-08
mute spherical particles of matter vi

mute spherical particles of matter vi
brating rapidly enough to penetrate
every substance" Bacon says "heat
is motion of expansiOn:' Rumford,
Locke, Faraday, YOumans and many
others held similar views. Joules dem
Onstrated the dynamical theory of heat
and its relation to other forces. Today
the law of the "Correlation of Forces
is fully accepted and experiments along
these lines have shown that sound,
light, heat, magnetism ETC., are inter
changeable Motion induces vibration,
and the lower periods of vibration pro-
duce sound, and by increasing these
vibrations to millions and billions per
second, we obtain the sensations of
heat, light, electricity, color etc., and,
as science advances, we may yet find
new and vast possibilities opened up
to us in the field of human sensations
as lately touched upon by Roentgen,
Bose and Marconi. The sum of the
theories of heat and light then, is the
dynamical theory that heat is motion
transformed, and light further trans
formation of heat, both communicated
to us from the sun by the vibrations
of the substance ether, which fills what
we call space, and manifested to us by
our senses of sight and touch; we
| coo IiUbt yo fool boat
Let us now note the effects of these
two forces upon terrestrial conditions.
Water is compound of the elements,
oxygen and hydrogen, by volume two
to one. Heat vaporizes the water; the
vapOr rises, is condensed by the cold
air currents of the upper atmosphere;
clouds are formed; the watery vapors
are further condensed and appear as
rain, which, in its fall, brings with it
the various gases diffused in the air by
the sunlight. These gases, oxygen, hy
drogen, nitrogen, and carbon in the
form of carbonic dioxide so abun-
dainty exhaled by animal life and
withal so deadly to it, are seized upon
by the soil with its other sixty odd ele-
ments, and these, with the heat of the
sun, by its light and the moisture in
duced by them, produce the many
thousands of compounds with which
the earth abounds both in the organic
and inorganic world. Every new COM
pound of the chemist is but one of the
millions yet unknown; every form of
plant life; every species of animal life;
every sensation conveyed to our con-
sciousness by our nervous organism;
all the beauties of nature; the field of
waving grain, the green sward of the
meadow, soft as velvet; the silvery
brook rejecting the sunlight in golden
masses of beauty; the barren rock, the
snow clad mountain top, the wooded
valleys and table lands with their pic
lures of bleak winter; of spring and
it's rising sea of green; of the red and
purple, the green, amber and gold, and
all the variegated hues Of Autumn;
every changing condition, minute or
vast as the change may be, betOkenS
the silent, magic power of the suns
light and heat.
Concluding, then, take with you this
last thought: the study of the sun does
not alone embrace mere knowledge of
it's origin, position, size, motion and
distance, or its influence upon our So
lar system; but it ranges from the field
of astronomy through the domains of
physics, light, heat and all the radiant
forces; chemistry, mineralogy, physi-
ology, botany and list that wearies
by it's length. All of these must be
consulted, studied and digested in Or
der that we may even family grasp the
stupendous influence exerted by the
sun upon terrestrial conditions and ex-
istence. And yet, says Pope:
Through worlds unnumbered, though the God
be known,
'Tis ours to see Him only in our own.''
LEONARD.
L.