The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-11-06

sctentisfs Learn Why II IL Blue and
New Fact ConcernIns the q
FgE Atmosphere. s 80 y

|, Everyone notices the blue color OF
| the sky. Itshas grown familiar to all
by daily observation from childhood.
yet few persons realize the great
scientific and artistic interest attach
ing to this beautiful color. says the
Brooklyn Eagle. as :
l. Sir Isaac Newton. tried to explain the
color in the year 1875 by referring it
to- the blue colors seen in the soap
bubbles used in his experiments. He
thought the air was filled with small
particles of water which reflect the
blue portions of the suns light
falling upon our earth and thus pro-
duce the blue tints of the armament.
Sir John Herschel explained the
color of the sky by Newton's theory,
but later writers have proved that in
some important respects his theory
was wrong. llf
In 1869 Prof. John TyndaIl, the ia
nous British physicist, found that he
could produce 'sky blue" by expert
ments in the laboratory. For this pur-
pose, he filled q glass tube about a
yard long and three inches in diam
eter, with air Of one-tenth the ordinary
density mixed with nitric of butyl
vapor, which is extremely volatile.
Then, on passing through the mixture
a powerful beam of electric light in a
room otherwise dark, the mixture pre-
cipitated a beautiful blue cloud which
in color rivaled the finest Italian sky.
Further experiments proved to Tyndall
that he had at last discovered the Sc
cret of the blue color of the sky which
had puzzled the greatest philosophers
of all ages.
Lord Rayleigh, the famous professor
of experimental physics at Cambridge,
England, and one of King Edwards
original Il members of the new Order
of Merit, has investigated Tyndalls
theory of the color of the sky by pro-
found mathematical researches eX-
tending over many years. He confirms
Tyndalls theory that the blue arises
from the reflection of sunlight from
small particles in the air less than
one one-hundred thousandth of an
nch in diameter.
These atomic particles fill the at
nosphere, and by rejecting the blue
part of the suns light, give the dome
Of the heavens blush tint.
Some of these particles are water
cut most of them are composed of the
oxygen and nitrogen of the air.
Prof. T. J. J. See, of the United
States navy, is one of the American
scientists who has studied the subject
n another aspect. He has observed
he color of the sky in various alti-
.udes, in. high mountains and in dry
md moist countries such as Egypt and
Greece, and Arizona and the Missis
hppi valley. His conclusion is that
he. beautiful red colors of sunsets and
sunrises so much spoken of by Greek
ind Roman writer's and so often illus
rated in landscape painting, arises
from water vapor in the lower regions
Of the atmosphere. absorbing the blue
and transmitting the red light. Ac-
cording to DR.. See the reddish colors
come from that part of our air within
five miles of the earth's surface, while
the deep blue of the sky arises from re-
Elections of minute particles in the
higher parts of our atmosphere.
The water vapor does not extend
very high, clouds never rising higher
than ten miles above the earth. The
blue streaks cast by clouds at sunset
show that the red arises near the
earth, while the blue has its seat very
high up Above the atmosphere the
sky has all the blackness of the dark
est night.
Prof. See has watched the duration
of the blue sky after dark, and found
II to continue for about an hour and
Is minutes and from this he shows
that the atmosphere extends to a
height of fully 100 miles. Astronomers
have usually found the height of the
atmosphere by computing the height
of meteors, but none ever made the
height of the atmosphere over 100
miles.
The study of the blue color Of the
sky thus proves also that our atmos-
phere extends considerably higher than
scientists have heretofore supposed:
On dark days the blue color of the
sky is shut out by clouds and COM
binations of colors due to rejecting
clouds and countless myriads of par
ticles in the ethereal regions high
above the earth give the bright light
which is so much relished in daily lie.
The nature of the blue sky SO much
admired by all mankind since the
days of Homer and Job, now fully ex-
planned by modern science, still pre-
serves its ancient beauty. and will in
spire mans mind through coming
ages.
A Therapeutic Revelation.