The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1899-11-30
HEAT FROM THE SUN.
HOW LITTLE OF IT WE GET is ALMOST
BEYOND BELIEF.

Eartb-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 recklessness beside which
all human waste is mere parsimony.
II Is almost beyond belief. Scarcely
one sunbeam in 2,000,000,000 alights
upon the earth, and allowing for the
whole solar system not more than one
In 1OO. O.OOO, 900 ever hits anything, so far
as we can ascertain.
Sir Robert Balls comment on this
waste of the suns heat Is: Suppose a
man with an income of S1,0OOOOO a
year. He spends for useful purposes
I cent and throws the rest away. His
wastefuness 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.
Ii is only by considering what it might
do that we can get any conception of
1t. This is probably the most striking
Illustration, and is given by an eminent
astronomer:
Suppose a solid shaft of ice two miles
square to be extended like n bridge
across the gulf which separates the
earth from the sun. If track were
laid on its surface an express train
running at full speed would require
more than $50 years to traverse 1t. Yet,
II the whole heat of the sun were turn
ed upon it for a single second it would
be melted, and in 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 the earth and other planets like lit
tie islands in it's course? What keeps
up the supply?
If the sun were merely a white hot
ball, gradually cooling, our grandchil-
dren would indeed get chill; or,
rather, neither they nor we would ever
have seen the sun. 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
globe of flaming coal it could have last
ed but a 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 a second.
A falling meteor gives out great heat,
lust as a bullet is heated when it
strikes the target. Some have conjec-
tured that vast stream Of these little
hailstones raining upon the sun supplies
it's fuel. But If the whole mass Of the
moon were put into stone crusher,
broken up and thrown against the sun,
it would barely furnish heat for n sim
gle year. And no such weight could
possibly approach the sun without our
knowledge.
Yet, in it's own chosen way, the sun
really has it's fires. With proper in
struments we may see the red flames
spOuting from its edge, sometimes to a
height of 100000 miles-higher than
the moon floats above the earth. To
some of them our world would be no
more than water drop falling from a
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 a
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 it 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 a 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 as they thus settle downward and
compress themselves into a densel
fluid.
A total shrinkage of 300 feet yeal
will account for the whole expenditure
and so small a change in the size of tht
Iisk could not be detected until it ha(
been watched for thousands of years
This will go on until the substance o.
the sun ceases to be essentially case
Dus. Then will come the beginning o
the end, for from that time forth tn,
actual temperature of the sun will de
cline.
This, however will be in some IA
distant day. for careful scientists as
sure us that our race will enjoy un
diminished sunshine for at least 500
years, and perhaps for twice 5000.
Then, while the sun slowly redden
and darkens, our earth will die. Afte