Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1899-05-12
OLD SOL NOT A BALL OF FIRE.
Scientist Says 1t Furnishes Heat by
Electric Currents.

Electric Currents.
Henry Raymond Rogers, NJ. D., OF
Dunkirk, N. Y, has evolved new the
DRY of the universe, which, if adopted
generally, will revolutionize astronom-
ical science, or at least that part of it
relating to the SUM- From the days
OF the star-gazers Of Palestine almost
the popular notion regarding this CEN
trail ruler of our family of planets has
been that it is great whirling globe
OF molten material in 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 abb
surdity. This view Of the sum-" he
says, 'is strangely inconsistent with
and antagonistic to certain well-known
cosmical facts. Science teaches ard
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
frp hut an cIxv a. In i+c
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-
fist, 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 gravitation 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 cleo
trio currents which produce these phe-
nomena, it 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-
lions. 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 decisions 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 eyer"
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
lepths of the eye of the beholder-i. e.,
Upon the retina." So, too, there is no
onger such thing as moonbeam;
hat which seems such is simply an
fusion, and is no more real than the
existence of actual spots upon the sur
ace of the sun! Dear, dear!-Boston