Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-21
RADIANT POWER DEFINED
Atmosphere Of the Earth q Huge
Spherical Transformer.
LIGHT AND HEAT EXPLAINED
Many Proofs That Air Acts on Suns
Radiance Like Interposed Fila
ment in an Electric Lamp.
BY EDWIN FAIRFAX NAULTY

BY EDWIN FAIRFAX NAULTY.
When aboriginal man first began to
reason from effect to cause he came to
the conclusion that, sunshine being hot
the cause of the sunshine, the sun itself
must also be hot, and this aboriginal
reasoning has persisted down to our day
/ But in this, in other things the OBJ
vious is not true. We used to think the
earth was fiat because it appeared So
1 we used to think that the earth was the
| center of the solar system because it APP
/ pears TO be. We used to think that solids
were solids until we found them to be
| as atomic as the air. We used to think
| the air was elemental until we learned
| that 1t is complex. No one need
| doubt that sunshine is what we call
| not. Sunshine is hot, but it does not fol-
| low from this that the sun itself is in a
state of combustion, any more than it
follows that the electric current that
resisting hiament transforms into light
| and heat is hot" We know that ii is
| necessary for us to interpose a resisting
medium TO an electric current to pro-
| duce light and heat, and We know that
the electric current. or the form of en-
ergy that Is manifest as SUCH is not
Il
though 1t is capable of being consumed, it
is not self consuming
Inc sun is the focus of the energy of
our solar system and it radiates that
energy IN all directions outward from it's
surface. In the physical structure of the
sun. solar energy reaches it's greatest DOW
er at the equator of the sun and diminishes
In intensity toward the solar poles If,
instead or being nearly on q plane with.
the suns equator, the path of the earth
no lor
the earth would receive much less energy
when 1t was positioned over the solar
poles than 1t would when it was in line
with or near the plane of the solar
equator Now although the radiant energy
OF the sun appears to us on the earth to
be both light and heat, 1T is really so only
within the confines OF the earth's atmos-
phere, for 1t is the resistance offered to
the passage through it of solar energy
Dy the atomic structure of the earth's
atmosphere that transforms invisible and
cold solar energy into light and heat.
In simpler Worded form the atmosphere
or the earth is a huge spherical energy
transformer, and to all intents and pur-
poses it acts on solar energy precisely
the same as the interposed ilament in an
electric lamp acts on the invisible and
cold electric current which feeds it.
Proofs Positive and Negative.
There are many proofs, both positive
and negative. First let us consider the
physical limitations of the burning
sun, consuming it's own structure to
furnish light and heat to such of it's
planets are now fitted for habitation,
including, of course, our own earth. Ii
the sun were made of the best anthra-
cite coal and were set on fire today it's
entire body would be wholly consumed in
less than 5000 years. Under such cir
| cumstances it would grow gradually
| smaller as it burned. and unless more
coal were added to it's mass the heat
and light given out would gradually de-
| cline as the body of the sun was con-
| sumed. From satisfactory laboratory ex-
periments it has been and can be readily
shown that il the elements which we
know to compose the body of the sun
| were in a state of combustion in the
same 5000 years a sphere not merely
| the size of the sun, but SO tremendous
| that ii would occupy a space equal In
| entirely consumed
The two popular explanations of the
| method by which the mass of the sun is
kept constant despite it's assumed burn
ing, are that material is furnished by the
constant fall of meteorites on the surface
of the burning sun. they in turn to be con-
sumed, much as fresh Goals placed on the
| hearth fire; and that the heat and light
emanating from the sun are caused by
the contraction of the mass of the sun
| in cooling the friction thus set up
| being asserted to be the cause of the heat
| OF the suns body. Both of these the
cries are on par with the Ptolemic
solar system, and in line with the naive
| explanation of Herodotus that he did not
| believe that there was a river" called
Ocean which surrounded the {f1aD earth,
! since he could not see what held it in
! place.
| To destroy a sun to furnish light and
| heat for a tiny planet is not efficient me-
| chanics. In comparison with the extent
| of our solar system the size of the earth
is not expressible by any understandable
| figures. A burning sun to light and heat
| the earth, or all of the planets, would
be like setting fire to continental forest
to get spark for a pipe light. One is
| reminded of the protest of the Spanish
| king, who said when told of the old cycle
and epicycle cumbrous machinery invent
ed by the Ptolemic astronomers to ex-
| plain the mechanics of the solar system:
Had | been consulted at creation I could
| have devised a better method than that"
The Spanish king was not blasphemous,
| for God at creation had devised a much
| better system than the one of eXplana-
/ ton invented by man. but at the time
this system was not known nor under
stood.