The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-12-16

tneorles are made Tor sale and not Ioi
science.
When Newton suggested that gravity
might swing the moon as well as attract
ar apple to the ground, he knew moth
ing OF electricity. He might have DBL
served. however, that a comet never
enters the sun. and therefore could not
have been attracted by il. |
"a comet OF almost inconceivab!'
weight is assumed to have come from
supposed goal il changes its direction
and darts away again, tail foremost, IL
a curved path. due TO a resistance which
is too feeble TO obstruct the passage OF
this small tail. composed Of a gas light
er than anything known- |
NO allowance is made for the attract
IT, of gravitation in wireless telegra-I
phv. and the most superficial observa-I
ton in Zoology, or the science OF small,
show that there is a force in oovrs
which ignores gravitation.
I'VE have no reason for s~upposins
that gravitation is not a purely local ar
fair or thai heat and light do not ema-
nate from the sun. Heat comes from
the earth and the light from the atinos-
phere, precisely as the film in an in
.candescent lamp is heated by the resis-
lance il offers to the electric current and
light is produced by the vibration OF the
hotes in the air.
The only fact established beyond
doubt regarding sun and planets is their
revolution on their axes, and this is all
tina is needed to generate light anu
heat. They are arc dynamos, and each
in turn transmits what it receives to
neighbors on the circuit. We do rot see
the stars nor ever the sun.
WORLDS MADE OF DUST.
THE astronomer who claims that his
eye penetrates space billions, trillions
md at-ar Iaoillinnc nf miles Stnlti6pS
himself in the next breath by declaring
that worlds and solar systems are e
ing formed Of cosmic dust.
WAS the polas star obscured by Tia
tnterposition of a world in formation.
Yet the film formed by the breath Of
the obscure Jupiter. Evidently, there-
fore. we no more see a star than We SCI
a distant power-house that supplitS
electricity to trolley lines. We only
! see the end of the stollar or solar ray
where it enters the bubble Of which the
earth is the center.
at is strange that no astronomer
has ever heretofore observed that the
magaifying glass of a lens two inch IS
in diameter could have no appreciate
effect on an object as remote as Saturn.
Yet the ring and the satellites of this
planet are thus made visible.
In short, there is a kind Of screen
which presents the images of stars as
a sheet between the observer and the
magic lantern at an exhibition. The
images can be magni1ed, but their dis
lance is perhaps scarcely fifty inches
When asked what this had to do with
the eruption of Mont Pelee, Mr.. White
house replied: within twenty miles
Of the earth there is d cold as intense rs
LIQUID air. Differences Of temperature
can be converted into IN electric flash.
as electricity can be converted into
heat.
THE so-called eruption of Mont Pelee
was purely electrical. The sympathetic
eruption of La Soufriere vas parity due
to an interrupted circuit and partly an
induced current. The public mind has
been confused by reports of what m
doubtedly took place, but even tht
scientific observers have net >discrimi-
mated between cause and cffac1. Their
was, of course. no flow of lava, blu ever
without that. can any one imagine the
crater discharging was said t
have issued from it?
professor Hill rightly insists that
there should be a suIcinct end rigor
ously accurate statement OF the facts
When this is done it vii lie fund tina
neither dust nor gas came from thu
volcano. Who saw the dust ascend
Really, only mud, hot water, smoke
and bombs werc elected. The materia
descended as a thin covering of uni
form thickness. And this blanket was
the dust precipitated by the electrical
vibrations still warm from crystaliZa-
ton. Had it been otherwise there would
have been about 100, 900, 900 tons OF
frozen mud falling in the neighborhood
of Pelee. What Pere Mary saw was the
cloud Of decomposed matter caused by
the electric discharges.
1T is absurd to speak of all this com
ing out Of the volcano as 1t would be-
to say that the smoke and sitting gas
es in a fire caused by an electric wire
came from the power-house. AS a fuse
burned out in the circuit. pelee simply
spanked. 1t set fire to everything be-
tween it's summit and the sea n the
surface OF the water itself was made
warm.
MASTODONS BURIED IN ICE.
Now you see how m~aStudons are
found with hair and flash intact EN-.
bedded in Siberian ice. II The uprusf
of an air current would disturb the
cold statum above a chimney what
would be the effect Of the upheaval o.
u mountain mass. with OF without &
volcano? 1t is unnecessary 10 suppose
that the axes of the earth has changed.
The ice crop of of the Antarctic is
much larger han thar az the NORTH
Pole, but, the volcanoes of Erebus anc
Terror are in violent activity. There
are scores OF terreStllI and celeStla
phenomena from the dJub:c tide to the
cold moon, that a be explained BY
my hypothesis.
1t is high time that the Americans
who have a well-deservei reputation
for being the most easily bullied indi.
viduals in the world, whatever Uncle
Sam may be in his collective capacity
should call a halt on the reckless dis
semination Of preposteroLs assumption
whether from this or the other side OF
the Atlantic