Evening journal., 1901-11-19
ASTRONOMER PROMISES US
A DAY OF TWENTY-FIVE HOURS

I earth is gradually dissipating its heat
into space This heat is moving out
Iron the centre of the earth toward the
surface. and the amount there lost
each year would be sufficient to melt a
film OF ice covering the earths surface
one-tenth of an indhl thick.
This sm aAl quantity does not seem
of much moment. but it must be re-
membere0 that it is an influence al
ways acting in the same direction, and
these influences which, act always in
tine same directions are the architects
of the universe. The geological forces
act with THE greatest energy for per-
haps hundreds of thousands of years.
and then uhey begin to tear down what
they nave built up. These forces nav
set back near to where they have be
gun, out the influences that act al
ways uhe same way do accomplish
wonders in the millions of years OF
time through which they work.
IL the earth is losing heat, and has
Ileen losing 1t, 1t was formerly hotter
tnan it is now, and, continuing thls
argument back into the dim age we
see it was red hot, white hot and even
molten.
Among other interesting questions
to which the eminent astronomer de-
voted part of his lecture was this
one: Is the centre of this earth solid
or liouid?. 1t is a race between tenn
perature and pressure-the tempera-
ture is high but the pressure also in
! creases. Biologists in this and in
other countries are aware that pebbles
In cOnglomerate actually flow under
the pressure OF the upper deposits.
In Norway village is rooted with
the granite pebbles of an ancient
sea beach rolled out fat as states bv
the pressure of perhaps 10000 feet of
later deposits since washed away So
IL matters not whether we term them
solid or liquid. these rocks are made
to flow.
But whatever the term, the earth is
more rigid than solid steel. 1t is so rigid
that the shocks of volcanoes and earth
quakes are transmitted through it with
twice the velocity of passage through
steel. The intense heat of the centre
of the earth is strikingly shown by
The volcanic eruptiOns, that OF Kra-
katOa, for example, when every particle
of the solid earth and every wave OF
the surrounding atmosphere tingled in
response to the mighty explosion. We
hement as was this eruption. sending
millions of tons of the earth's crust
nigh into the air. it was but a puny
effort compared with the mighty out
burst Of the time when the earth was
young. II then had vast quantities of
heat TO dissipate. and to these erup-
lions that of Krakatoa was but pop
gun.
1t is probable that the force OF the
explosions projected particles into
space with a velocity so great that
/ gravity was overcome so far as the
earth is concerned, and these particles
caught by the sun and turned into
close orbits. have been members Of our
solar system crossing the earths orbit
every few years. But at these times
the earth was elsewhere in its orbit. But
the little earth-bOrn wanderer. faithful
TO the laws that govern it. has repair
ed again and again, a hundred times
a thousand times, a million times
even, to the place where it first took
fight, until at last, meeting the earth
There, it is consumed in one bright
flash, and we Of the earth say "a me-
teor."