The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-06-10
OLD SOL NOT A BALL OF FIRE.
ecientist Says It Furnishes Heat by
= Electric Currents.

=, Electric Currents.
Henry Raymond Rogers, M. D., Of
Dunkirk, N. Y, has evolved new the
ory OF the universe, which, If adopted
generally, will revolutionize astronom-
tcal science, or at least that part of it
relating to the sun. From the days
OF the star-gazers Of Palestine almost
the popular notion regarding this CEN
tral ruler Of our family of planets has
been that it is a great whirling globe
OF molten material in a constant and
perpetual state of combustion. Now
comes the man from western New
York. with the information that this
idea is false, and that the conventional
picture representing the sun with
bright lines radiating in all directions
into space, thus implying that actual
heat and light are produced within.
and of the body itself, is an utter alb
surdity. "This view of the sum- he
says, "is strangely inconsistent with
and antagonistic to certain well-known
cosmical facts. Science teaches and
demonstrates to be true that the uni
versal space is inconceivably cold and
utter darkness. A burning 'fire-ball'
sun thus becomes an impossibility, an
absurdity." Rather should the sun be
represented, this philosopher main
tains, as a huge planet, like unto the
earth, only many times larger, per-
haps even fit for habitation, surround
ed by darkness and the stars; not on
fire, but tremendously electrical in it's
activities; in other words, vast celes-
tial dynamo producing currents of
electricity which pass invisible and
free through all the ninety-odd mil-
lions of miles of cold and darkness,
until they meet their resistance at the
earth and its atmosphere. Such re-
sistance Is all that is needed, in the
mind Of this twentieth century scien-
tist, to develop the so-called sunheat
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 plan
cts fed by the sun. After exciting our
atmosphere to these and other activi
ties, the electric currents pass into the
earth, awaking in it gravftation and
other electrical effects, thence com
pleting the circuit by returning to the
sun and arousing in it identically the
same functions as on it's humble sat-
elite. 1t follows that If the sun emits.
neither light nor heat, but simply elec-
trio currents which produce these phe
nomena, i can no longer be said that:
the moon borroWs from it its gentle:
effulgence, and the poet loses a sub
ject for some of his daintiest concep-
tions. What has been with him here
tofore "full-orbed glory" becomes
simply prosaic electrical machine,
whose currents act on our atmosphere
as do those from the sun, though to a
less degree, on account of difference
in power. Science, with it's newly
found facts and progressive theories,
has always been destructive of old
imagery, but the old delusions are far
less poetic after all than their sue
cessors when the poets minds have
become readjusted to them. But, says
the practical reader, What shall we
say of the suns dazzle, which is so
real and so painful to the human eye?"
Simply an optical illusion, answers the
new theory. "Such dazzling bright
ness cannot be located at the sun;
neither is it found in the black of
infinite space nor in our atmosphere;
therefore, it can be found only in the
depths of the eye Of the beholder-i. e.,
upon the retina!?' So, too, there is no
longer such thing as a moonbeam;
that which seems such is simply an
illusion, and is no more real than the
existence of actual spots upon the sur
face of the sun! Dear, dear!-Bostop
Transcript.