The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-05-04
90, NOT A BALL OF FIRE.

A., Saws 1t Furnashes Heat to the
r.r,b by Electric Currents.
,,.o, the Boston Transcript: Henry
mond Rogers, M. d., OF Dunkirk'
v has evolved new theory OF the
n,verse. which, II adopted generally
mil, reyolutionize astronomical science
W" - least that part Of it relating to
cum From the days OF the star
~ ors q, Palestine almost the popular
eotion regarding this central ruler OF
nur family Of planets has been that IL
~ great whirling globe OF molten
,torial in a constant and perpetual
a,ate of combustion. Now comes the
ION from western New York with the
incarnation that this idea is false, ana
,hat the conventional picture repre-
sonting the sun win bright lines ra-
aiating in all directions into space,
Tins implying that actual neat anu
,,obt are produced within, and OF the
body itself. is an utter aDsuraity.
"This view of the sun" he says, Is
strangely Inconsistent with and aatag-
onistic TO certain weIl-known cosmical
facts Science teaches and demon
otrates to be true that the universal
snaee Is inconceivably Geld and utter
darkness. A burning, fire BALI sun
Thus becomes an imp0ssibility, an abb
surditv." Rather should the sun be
represented, this philosopher main
nj AZ
earth, only many tine larger, perhaps
even fit for habitatisn, surrounded by
darkness and the stnes, not on nre but
tremendously electrical in its activi-
ties: in other words, vast celestial
DYNAMO producing currents OF eles-
tricity which pass Invisible and free
through all the ninety odd millions OF
miles Of cold and darkness, until they
meet their resistance at the earth and
its atmosphere. Such resistance is all
that is needed, in the mind OF this
twentieth century scientist, to develop
the so-called sun-heat and sunlight,
Just as light and heat are produced in
the electric current by the resistance
offered by carbon or other material.
Arc lights, such as stud our streets,
are in effect the planets fed by the sun,
After exciting our atmosphere to these
and other activities, the electric sun
currents pass into the earth. awaken
ing in it gravitation and other electric
al effects, thence completing the circuit
by returning to the sun and arousine
in it identically the same functions as
on its humble satellite. 1t follows that
if the sun emits neither light nor heat
but simply electric currents which pro-
duce these phenomena, it can no longer
be said that the moon borrows from il
its gentle effulgence, and the poet loses
subject for some of his daintiest con.
ceptiOns. What has been with him
heretofore a 'full-orbed glory" be-
comes simply prosaic electrical ma
chine whose currents act on out at
mosphers as do those from the sun
though to less degree on account o.
difference in power. Science, with it:
newly found facts and progressive the
cries, has always been destructive o.
old imagery, but the old decisions arr
far less poetic after all than their sue
cessors when the poets minds have be
come readjusted to them. But, say
the practical reader, What shall W,
say Of the suns dazzle, which is SO rea
and so painful to the human eye?
Simply an optical Illusion, answers tn
new theory. Such dazzling bright
ness cannot be located at the sun
neither is it found in the black Of in
finite space nor in our atmosphere
therefore it can be found only in tn
depths OF the eye Of the beholder-i. e
upon the retina." So, too. there is n
longer such thing as a moonbeam
that which seems such is simply a
Illusion and is no more real than tn
existence Of actual spots upon the SUI
lace OF the sun, Dear, dearl