Omaha daily bee., 1916-08-02
Insists No Heat in the Sun.

Gibbon, Neb., Aug. Ito the Editor OF
The Bee: Has the sun a heated surface? Ev-
identity not for the following reasons: As
we are 100000 miles nearer the sun in
January than in July, taking the world over,
we see no rise In temperature at the former
date. As the planet Mercury, when at peri
helion, or nearest approach is but 2S,000.000
miles, and at aphelion Is $4,000, 900 miles
from the sun: and the planet Venus mean
distance being 6s,13000o miles from the sun.
against 92,800, 900 miles for our planet Were
the sun radiating heat as is ordinarily sup
posed, those inner planets would be burned
to a cinder or certainly be unsuitable for AMI
NAL or vegetable life on account of the In
tense heat, while the outer planets, Jupiter.
475.6s2. o0o Saturn, s72.l35.0o Uranus,
1,763,s5I 900, and Neptune. 2,746,271, 900
miles from the sun would be locked in eter-
nal frigidity and therefore uninhabitable.
II would certainly be a travesty on the
wisdom Of the architect Of the universe (of
which our solar system forms SO very infini-
tesimal part) to think that those vast orbs,
the uoter four being from 100 to 1900 times
larger than our planet, should be formed and
placed in such climatic conditions as to rem
der them useless except to shed faint twin
king light for the sole benefit of the inhabi-
tants Of our little planet.
mat the suns nRnt ana neat are prouuceu
electrically is easily proven. Take COM
mon convex lens. a four-inch reading glass
will do. focus the SUMS rays on the bulb Of
the thermometer, and the mercury will rise
fifty degrees or more in less than that num-
Der of seconds. Now. place the bulb in the
focus of an electric arc light, as used in
moving picture machines, and the results will
be exactly the same with the suns rays.
Now try your lens by throwing q focus from
a fire, lamp, gas or any light or heat pro-
duced by combustion, no matter how intense,
and there will be no results the focus will be
cold, showing that the suns light and heat
are produced electrically and not by combus-
ton. We're the sun depending on combus-
ton for its light and heat the supply Of fuel
would eventually be exhausted and the sun
be dead and the solar system be in darkness
and ruin.
Now, our dynamos for electric lighting are
cold, yet they are capable of sending electro
motive force through the wires which, meet
ing the resistance of the carbon, candle
filament, both light and heat are produced,
and the outermost light or heating plant re-
ceiyes the same degree Of intensity as those
nearest to the dynamo
It Is very reasonable to suppose that the
sun, probably assisted by the planets, safe
lites, comets and asteroids circling around
it, acts as a great dynamo and Is the source
of all electric energy of our solar system,
and that It Is sending electric impulse
through the intervening ether and, that when
the light rays meet the resistance Of the at
mosphere Of a planet light is produced and
that when the dark, calorific. or heat rays,
impinge on the surface of planet heat is
produced, the outer planets receiving approx
imately the same degree Of light and heat as
those nearest the sun. This very essential
distribution Of light and heat which places
them where needed and permitting no dissi-
patton of energy through inter-stellar space
where II is not needed could be produced by
no other known method
We see no such proportionate waste any
where else in nature. That the earth itself
is very important factor in the produce
ton Of heat Is evident from the rapidity with
which the cold increases as we recede from
the earth. as witness the perpetually snow
eappd mountains even at the equator. And
this theory can easily account for the sum
spots as being riffs or holes through the
suns photosphere, through which we can see
the dark body Of the sun, and why they only
appear to us near the suns equator where
the ends Of the openings are towards us.
Our own Aurora Borealis, with It's coun-
terpart. A. Australis. at the south pole,
and very common at the poles. and often In
our latitude, sends streamers of light, nearly
or quite to the zenith, and often affects our
electric lines, is doubtless analogous to the
so-called Jets Of flame which astronomers
see thrown out from the SUMS photosphere
particularly during an eclipse Of the sun.
ELLIOTT LOOMS.