Year: 1869

On the first day of September, 1853
two astronomers, one at Oxford, the
other at London, were at the samC
time watching the spots on the disc Ot
the sun and both at the same moment
saw certain strange bright patches O
light break out in front of the cluster
So brilliant were they that the observ'
ers at first thought that the darken'
ing screens attached to their telescopes
must have become fractured. But
this was found not to be the case. The
bright spots indicated a process thai
was going on upon the suns surface
a process so rapid that in five minute:
the spots had travelled over a space o.
nearly "a, 600 miles.


At the very same time that this was
taking place, magnetic storms swept
instantaneOusly-sO subsequent OBJ
servations proved-thrOugh both hem.
ispheres of our globe. At Washing
ton and Philadelphia the signal men
in the telegraphic offices received
sharp electric shocks; the tracing pen
used in Baine's system of telegraphy
was followed by a flame; and in Nor
way telegraphie machinery was set
on fire. Boreal and austral aurOras
were seen that night with unusual
splendor, as the disturbed needle vi
brated. waving their cOlOred streamers
in the heavens, insOmuch that il was
evident that the disturbance on the
suns surface had instantaneOusly
communicated to the earth magnetic
thrills which vibrated from pole to
pole.


Nor is this all. There is strange
connection Oftentimes between the ae-
ton of these magnetic forces and the
phenomena of earthquakes and vOlca-
noes. Indeed, it has been recently
argued that the cause of the latter is
to be found not in the subterranean
fires of our globe expanding vapors
and giving them a destructive agen-
cy, but in the electricity communicate
ed to our globe by the sun. But be
this as it may, it is startling fact that
there is n force manifesting itself on
the face of the sun simply as brill
liant light flashing over its surface,
that can, through an interval of nine
ty-five millions of miles, instantane-
ously operate II our earth, blaze along
our telegraph wires, give electric
shocks to the signal men stationed by
them; flash northern lights through
the heavens: thrill the very globe
from pole TO pole with magnetic inhU-
ences, disturb the repOse of nature,
and perhaps rock the solid earth as il
its surface, in some places at least, were
a mere scale on a boiling sea of fire.


There is something almost overpOw-
ering in fact like this. Here Is a
force to which no other of which We
have any knowledge can be compared.
We speak with amazement of the
speed of light, travelling thousands of
miles in a single second, or as the po-
ct phrases it,


Systems, of whose birth


No tidlngs yet have reached this neither


world.


from which light, that started from
them thousands of years ago, has not
vet penetrated to this earth, so that it
might seem as if the very vastness OF
the universe left its parts disconnected
so disconnected that even a message
sent with the speed of light failed to
reach them till thousands of years had
transpired.


But here is an agent, mysterious
force. that annihilates distance, as
light cannot do it; originating, We
know not how, but when showing
itself on the sun, travelling almost in
an instant through the bounds Of the
solar system, telegraphing as it were
to the eXtremities of creation without
any instrumentality of wires or con-
nectiOns, the will of the great Maker,
reaching and affecting the fibres of all
living things. breaking up the repose
of nature and calling forth at once the
most magnificent displays of north
ern light and volcanic force, till the
solid globe reels and rocks at its noise
less touch