The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1900-03-08
THE HEATOF THE SUN
QUESTION AS TO WHAT BE-
COMES OFT.
After 1t Has Done It's Service to Nature
Can Energy Become Completely
Disslpated-Be1ief That 1t Lasts For
ever. .f 81

According to the ordinary view the
sun is constantly ~radiating heat in all
directions and, i think, it Is generally
supposed that only a small portion of
this heat encounters material bodies
at any distance, however great, says
knowledge. If So, the question arises:
What becomes of the residue? phys
ical research leads us to believe that
heat cannot be destroyed, but only
transformed; yet many persons seem
to think that this heat vanishes like a
ghost without transformation and
without producing any effect. This
may be so, but 1t is SO much opposed
to physical analogies that we should be
slow to accept it unless on the basis of
definite observations which, | think, it
will be admitted, are not at present
Forthcoming. Nor can we confine the
question to the sun. The loss of ra-
diant heat must (on the theory which
l am now considering) extend to all
the stars. A larger portion Of the
heat of some of them is no doubt in
tercepted by other bodies, but some of
1t must escape-vanish. The whole
universe is losing heat; or, at least it
is losing motion, for the supply of heat
may be temporarily kept Up by the
conversion of motion into heat (as, for
example, by a bombardment of me-
teorltes). But that a good part of the
radiant heat v~anishes, thus lessening
the total amount of force-of heat and
It's equivalents-in the universe, seems
to be a common opinion. This theory.
however (for, of course, anything on
the subject is theory, will strike many
OF your readers as unsatisfactory for
physical, not metaphysical or theolog-
zeal, reasons. But if this heat be not
lost, what becomes of it? If the SUMS
rays and those of the stars always met
with some material body, however
great it's distance might be, the prob
lem would be solved; there would be
no loss OF heat to the universe. The
sun may at present be radiating more
than 1t receives, and, onseauent
cooling; but in travelling through
space it may reach other regions in
which these conditions will be re-
versed. But it seems plain that if this |
be the case, the greater part of the
bodies which encounter the solar heat
are dark bodies, or else that there is
absorption of light in passing
through the ether. Such an absorption
OF light and heat by the ether-as
maintained, I believe, by the great OBJ
server Struve-would equally solve the
problem; for the light and heat thus |
absorbed could not be lost, and would
probably be given back by the ether
to material bodies in some name not
yet traced. Otherwise it would change
properties of the ether. A third
possible alternative is that radiation,
ike gravitation, only acts between ma
ter1al bodies. and that, though like
sraVltation, it acts on a material body
n any direction and follows it in all
It's movements, there is no expenditure
force in the directions in which no
body is encountered. On this
,heory also there would be no loss of
1eat. There would only be an inter
of the same, kind as if every
1eat ray ultimately encountered a ma
body,
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