The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-12-15
HEAT FROM THE SUN.
HOW LITTLE OF IT WE GET Is ALMOST
BEYOND BELIEF.

HOW VI lie Of WE 0E 10 ALWOoI
BEYOND BELIEF.
Scarcely One Sunbeam In Two Thou
sand Millions AliEhts Upon This
Earth-A Pen Picture of the Actual
Condition of the Fiery Orb.
The sun is for the most part simply
wasting his heat-flinging away the
golden rays that are the life Of the
world with a recklessness beside which
all human waste is mere parsimony.
It Is almost beyond belief. Scarcely
one sunbeam in 2,OOO,OO0,o 600 alights
upon the earth, and allowing for the
whole solar system not more than one
in 100000. 900 ever hits anything, SO Tar
as we can ascertain.
Sir Robert Balls comment on this
waste of the suns heat Is: Suppose
man with IN income Of $1,OOO,OOo a
year. He spends for useful purposes
/ cent and throws the rest away. His
wastefulness is no greater than that
which this old prodigal the sun has
practiced for untold ages.
The untold amount Of heat which
thus leaks away through the cracks In
the sky cannot be expressed by figures.
1t is only by considering what 1t might
do that we can get any conception of
it. This Is probably the most striking
Illustration, and Is given by an eminent
astronomer:
Suppose solid shaft Of Ice two miles
square to be extended like bridge
across the gulf which separates the
earth from the sun. If track were
laid on its surface an express train
running ut full speed would require
more than $50 years to traverse 1t. Yet,
If the whole heat of the sun were turn
ed upon it for single second it would
be melted, and in 4 few seconds more
all. even to the railroad iron, would
drift away as vapor.
But What is the source Of this heat
that flows into space as the gulf
stream pOurs into the Atlantic, warm
| Ing Tie earth and other planets like lit
tie islands in its course? What keeps
up the supply?
AO-
! hall. gradually cooling. our grandchil-
| GrGu would indeed get chill; or,
! rather, neither they nor we would ever
lave seen the Sin. The final frost
| would have fallen long ago.
NOr can the heat be maintained by
fire, as we understand the word-such
| fire as warns and now and then
consumes our houses. If it were q
! globe of flaming coal it could have last
! ed but q few thousand years; it would
| have been burned to ashes long before
| we were born. All the coal on the
earth would hardly keep the sun going
| for one-tenth of second.
4 falling meteor gives out great heat
| lust as q bullet is heated when it
| strikes the target. Some have conjec-
| tured that n vast stream Of these little
hailstones raining upon the sun supplies
| its fuel. But II the whole mass Of the
| moon were put into a stone crusher,
| broken up and thrown against the sun,
it would barely furnish heat for n sin
| gle year. And no such weight could
possibly approach the sun without our
knowledge.
Yet, in its own chosen way. the sun
really has its fires. With proper in,
struments we may see the red flames
spouting from its edge, sometimes to
height Of 100000 miles-higher than
the moon floats above the earth. TIC
some of them our world would be nc
more than a water drop falling from q
| fountain.
| To gain any idea of the almost mex
haustible reservoir from which the sun
draws Its heat We must first picture Its
actual condition. Matter there Is in q
state unlike anything ever seen upon
earth. 1t is neither solid nor liquid
nor in any familiar sense gaseous. The
sun is boiling, seething. flaming mix.
ture Of the gases or vapors of all the
elements condensed by the tremendous
squeeze of solar gravity until 1t Is
thicker than pitch. and SO hot that its
vaporized iron might be used for steam
power If there were any boiler fit to
| hold it. 1t has no definite surface, but
shades away from this incandescent
paste, through leaping flames Of blood
red hydrogen to the faint streamers Of
the corona. as filmy as comets tail.
| This writhing mass, heavier ON the
| average than water and yet as un.
stable as air, does not even rotate like
other orbs, but swirls around its axis.
In the terrific tension Of these gases
is stored up the energy of the sun. As
this escapes in gushes of heat they dc
not cool. but slowly contract. 1t is
quite possible that they even grow hot
ter rs they thus settle downward and
| compress themselves into a densel
! fluid
! , total shriukage of 800 feet a yeal
viii account for TIE whole expenditure
AMI so small d change in the size Of the
disk could not lie detected until it had
| been watched for thousands of years
! This will 20 On until the substance OF
the sun ceases to be essentially case
Gus. Then will come the beginning oil
the end. 70" from that time forth the
actual temperature Of the sun will de
cline.
This, however. will he in some far
distant day, for careful scientists as
sure lis that our race will enjoy I'M
diminished sunshine for at least 5,OO(
years. and perhaps for twice 5000
| Then. Willie the sun slowly reddens
and darllens. our earth will die. After
that GENES the night Of ages.-Charlei
Kelsey Gaines in New York World.
TO Catch Him.