The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-04-28
sUNl|GHT'S BIG
PUSHING POWER
Illuminated Bodies Said To Ex-
ert Greater Force Than Most
Human Machines
(New York American

tAA $500 E&&+tA
the moth into the light Does thu
moth resist the flame If the inSec,
has an instinct to Deach the light.
where is Darvin's law that animals
have instincts TO preserve their spe-
Cies? Or does the moth have Curiosi-
ty, and is it merely investigating tho
light?
Al one time there were some who
denied that moths fly into a flame.
But no more NaturaliSts have proved
that moths. flies. bees, butterflies and
birds will burn themselves up in flame
or butt their heads cut against a
lighthouse on a dark and stormy
nights. 1t follows that if physicists
| would prove tina light had a pulling
power or repulsive influence many
observant persons would fail To bs
aStoniShed.
Prof. A~rrhenius, the distinguished
Swedish scholar. in the curse Of in
vestigations about Halley's comet and
the pushing power Of luminous things
has found that all Illuminated bodies
have a pushing force surprising that
of most human machines.
The reason this pushing power OF
light is not more readily recognized
in large city streets or in the rooms Of
houses is easily explained. Almost
as much light is reflected back against
the source of light as the latter gives
forth. So powerful is the pushing
strength Of sunlight hat Celestial
bodies millions upon millsions of tons
in weight are prevented from being
drawn into vortex of the sun by old
Soils force of gravity-by the count
erpush of the suns light.
If you really wish to appreciate how
vigorously any ignited or luminous
body pushes, you may easily carry out
q little experiment yourself. Turn on
an ordinarily electric bulb and hang
- - n -, 49,
pended from a string. There viii APP
pear after a little while a slight riss
upward of the metals free edge. much
as a trapeze performer swings from
the angle of the trapeze.
DR.. G. G. West, a young physicist.
has elaborated upon this experiment
to show in a highly ingenious and
accurate manne the pushing effect
Of even SO small a light as comes
from an Edison lamp. His investiga-
ton was made. not in the air, but in
almost a vacuum bottle in which a
very little hydrogen was pls ced. A
trace of mercury was also present.
and he used gold leaf, better known
as gold beater's skim instead OF
metal.
hydrogen gas was used because
most celestial bodies. such as meteors.
stars, suns, comets and the like are
often surrounded in their outer lay
eTs with hydrogen gas. 1t is there
fore certain that hydrogen interferes
but slightly, if at all, with this won
derful power of light to push and re-
pear heaVy metallic or other objects.
Dr. Jerome Meyers, the electrical
: engineer. m that if a man were
2 to stand facing the edge of a cliff
! with the sun at his back, and all re-
f1eCted llght were to be neutraliZed or
: otherwise checkmated from acting. he
I would be forced over the edge. beyond
4 the shadow of n doubt.
r Indeed, though the sun is 90, 1000 .OOo
: miles away. its light has a pushing
power greater than thai OF a larc.
crowd of people.
Everybody recalls how the tail OF
HALEY comet. a couple of years ago
preceded the comet as it circled away
: from our greatest luminary. 1t puzzled
all the servants of the Kew and Old
n world. They were compelled to re-
: nounce all known theories of astronO.
I my, until the scandinavian schola,
and e~xperimenter, Prof. S. Arrhenius
n showed that the tail of Haliey's come,
was a~ctuall repulsed and forced ava,
G from the sun by the powerful push.
d ing force of the sun.
Since then much new knowledge
n mas been gathered together 10 show
that this wonderful and novel efrect
q OF the sun applies to all luminou,
/. thihss- Moreover. it is not only ef
It tective against mere dead weight. bui
It pays an important part in living ma
"a ture.
e u d ,inS animaicula tina
n looks not unlike q cornucop:a IT i
If greenlSn in tint and il cyrates aho,
Id the water IKE a top. which it all.
y resembles in other ways. Tests mad.
d IN the biographical laboratories On tn,
lg behavior Of these animaiculae are "a.
SestlVe Of the rcpellant effect mo,
Or tHem OF this pushing power Of lighr
I'd Alch work RENE rs TO be done o,
~ hiICfooes-easliy Killed BY exposure Z
# lSht-3moebae. worms and roachc>
Of independent Of their habits end i'm
ID SeclS, II IS barely possible that sun
a. light pushes them back INFO tho;r d,r
al creY1ceS.