 Chapter 1 of Science in Short Chapters. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kristen Edwards. Science in Short Chapters by W. Matthew Williams. Chapter 1, The Fuel of the Sun, Part 1. I offer the following sketch of the main argument which is worked out more fully in the essay I published in January 1870 under the above title. Hoping that many who hesitate to plunge into a presumptuous speculative work of more than 200 octavo pages may read this article and reflect upon the subject. The book has been handled in a most courteous and indulgent spirit by all the reviewers who have noticed it, but none have ventured to grapple with the argument it contains, although every possible opportunity and provocation for doing so is designedly afforded. It all rests upon the question which is discussed in the first three chapters, namely whether the atmosphere which surrounds our Earth is limited or unlimited in extent. If my reasoning upon this fundamental question is refuted, all that follows necessarily falls to the ground. If I am right, all our standard treatises on pneumatics and meteorology, which repeat the arguments contained in Dr. Walliston's celebrated paper, must be remodeled. At the outset, I reprint that paper and point out a very curious and monstrous fallacy which for half a century remained undetected and had been continually repeated. As the main point of issue between myself and Dr. Walliston is merely a question of very simple arithmetic and geometry. Nothing can be easier than to set me right if I am wrong. And, as the philosophical consequences depending upon this issue are of vast and fundamental importance, the question cannot be ignored by those who stand before the world as scientific authorities without a practical abdication of their philosophical responsibilities. Any man who publishes an astronomical or meteorological treatise without discussing this question, which stands before him at the threshold of his subject, is unfit for the task he is undertaken and unworthy of public confidence. This may appear a strong conclusion just now, but a few years will be sufficient to graft it firmly into the growth of scientific public opinion. The fuel of the sun is simply an attempt to trace some of the consequences which must of necessity result from the existence of a universal atmosphere, and it differs from other attempts to explain the great solar mystery by making no demands whatever upon the imagination, inventing nothing, no outside meteors, no new forces or materials. It supposes nothing whatever to exist but the known facts of the laboratory, the familiar materials of the earth and its atmosphere. It is shown that these materials and the forces residing within them must of necessity produce a sun and manifest eternally all the observed solar phenomena, provided only that they are aggregated in the quantities which our own central luminary presents and are surrounded by attendant planets such as his. Nothing is assumed or taken for granted beyond the simple fundamental hypothesis that the laws of nature are uniform throughout the universe. The argument thus conducted leads us step by step to a natural and connected explanation of the following important phenomena. One, the sources of solar and stellar heat and light. Two, the means by which the present amount of solar heat and light must be maintained so long as the solar system continues in existence. Three, the origin of the general and particular phenomena of the sunspots. Four, the cause of the varying splendor of the photosphere including such details as the faculae, molting, granulations, etc. Five, the forces which upheave the solar prominences. Six, the origin of the corona and zodiacal night. Seven, the origin of the meteorites and the asteroids. Eight, the meteorological phenomena of the planets. Nine, the origin of the rings of Saturn. Ten, the origin of the special structure of the nebulae. Eleven, the source of terrestrial magnetism and its connection with solar activity. The first and second chapters are devoted to an examination of the limits of atmospheric expansibility. The experimental investigations of Dr. Andrews, Mr. Grove, Mr. Gassiot and Monsieur Gressilier are cited to prove that the expansibility of the atmosphere is unlimited and other, cosmical evidence is adducted in support of this conclusion. As this, which is really the foundation of the whole argument, is directly opposed to the views expressed by Dr. Walliston in his celebrated paper on the finite extent of the atmosphere published in 1822 and generally accepted as established science, this paper is reprinted in the second chapter and carefully examined. Dr. Walliston says that air has been rarefied so as to sustain one one-hundredth of an inch of barometrical pressure and further that, beyond this limit, we are left to conjectures founded on the supposed divisibility of matter. If this be infinite, so also must be the extent of our atmosphere. I contend that our knowledge of the whole subject is fundamentally altered since these words were written. We are no longer left to conjectures founded on the supposed divisibility of matter to determine the possibility of further expansibility than that indicated by one one-hundredth of an inch of barometrical pressure as we now have means of obtaining ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times or even an infinitely greater rarefaction than Walliston's supposed limit an apparently absolute vacuum being now obtainable. And although the transmission of electricity affords a means of testing the existence of atmospheric matter with a degree of delicacy of which Walliston had no conception we are still unable to detect any indication of any limit to its expansibility. The most remarkable part of Dr. Walliston's paper is the reductio ad absurdum by which he seeks to finally demonstrate the finite extent of our atmosphere. He maintains, as I do, that if the elasticity of our atmosphere is unlimited its extension must be commensurate with the universe, that every orb in space will by gravitation gather around itself an atmosphere proportionate to its gravitating power and that by taking the known quantity of the Earth's atmosphere as our unit we may calculate the amount of atmosphere possessed by any heavenly body of which the mass is known. On this basis Dr. Walliston calculates the atmosphere of the Sun and concludes that its extent will be so great as to visibly affect the apparent motions of Mercury and Venus when their declination makes its nearest approach to that of the Sun. No such disturbance being actually observable he concludes that such an atmosphere as he has calculated cannot exist. In like manner he calculates the atmosphere of Jupiter and finds it to be so great that its refraction would be sufficient to render the fourth satellite visible to us when behind the center of the planet and consequently to make it appear on both or all sides at the same time. On examining these calculations I have discovered the very curious error above referred to as this is a matter of figures that cannot be abridged I must refer the reader to the original calculations. I will hear merely state that Walliston's method of calculating the solar gravitation atmosphere and that of Jupiter and the moon leads to the monstrous conclusion that in ascending from the surface of the given orb we always have the same limited amount of atmospheric matter above as that with which we started although we are continually leaving a portion of it below. Walliston's mistake is based on the assumption that under the circumstances supposed the atmospheric pressure and density and any given distance from the center of the given orb will vary inversely with the square of that distance. As the area of the base upon which such pressure is exerted varies directly with the square of the distance the total atmosphere above every imaginable starting distance would thus be ever the same. That this assumption so utterly at variance with the known laws of atmospheric distribution should have remained unchallenged for half a century and that the conclusions based upon it should be accepted by the whole scientific world and repeated in standard treatises such as those of the encyclopedia Britannica etc etc is I think one of the most remarkable curiosities presented by the history of science. If it were merely a little cobweb in some obscure corner of philosophy there would be nothing surprising in its escape from the bosom of scientific criticism but this is so far from being the case that it has hung since 1822 like a dark veil obscuring another, a wider and more interesting view of the universe which the idea of an universal atmosphere opens out but I must now proceed to the next stage of the argument. Starting from the conclusion reached in the previous chapters that the atmosphere of our earth is but a proportion of an universal elastic medium which it has attached to itself by its gravitation and that all the other orbs of space must in like manner have obtained their proportion I take the earth's mass and its known quantity of atmospheric envelope as units and calculating by the simple rule I have laid down in opposition to Wallaston's I find that the total weight of the sun's atmosphere should be at least 117,681,623 times that of the earth's and the pressure at its base equal at least to 15,233 atmospheres what must be the results of such an atmospheric accumulation the experiment of compressing air in the condensing syringe and thereby lighting a piece of German tinder is familiar to all who have studied even the rudiments of physical science taking the formulae of Leslie and Dalton and applying them to the solar pressure of 15,233 atmospheres we arrive according to Leslie at the inconceivable temperature of 380,832 degrees Celsius or 685,529 degrees Fahrenheit as that due to this amount of compression or according to Dalton at 761,665 degrees Fahrenheit what will be the effects of such a degree of heat upon material similar to those of which our earth is composed? let us first take the case of water which for reasons I have stated should be regarded as atmospheric or universally diffused matter this brings us to a subject of the highest and widest philosophical and practical importance I referred to the antagonism between the force of heat and that of chemical combination to which the French chemists have given the name dissociation having myself been unable to find any satisfactory English account of this subject at a time when it had already been well treated by French and German authors in the form of published lectures I assume that others may have encountered a similar difficulty and therefore dwell rather more fully upon this part of my present summary it appears that all chemical compounds may be decomposed by heat and that at a given pressure there is a definite and special temperature at which the decomposition of each compound is affected for the absolute and final establishment of the universality of this law further investigations are necessary actual investigations having established it as far as they have gone but these have not been exhaustive there appears to be a remarkable analogy between dissociation and evaporation when a liquid is vaporized a certain amount of heat is rendered latent and this quantity varies with the liquid and with the pressure but is definite and invariable for each liquid at a given pressure in like manner when a compound is dissociated a certain amount of heat is rendered latent or converted into dissociating force and this varies with each compound and with the pressure but is definite and invariable for each compound at a given pressure further when condensation occurs an amount of heat is evolved as temperature exactly equal to that which was rendered latent in the evaporation of the same substance under the same pressure and in like manner when chemical recombination of dissociated elements occurs an amount of heat is evolved as temperature exactly equal to that which disappeared when the compound was dissociated by heat alone under the same pressure according to the recently adopted figures of Monsieur de Ville the temperature at which the vapor of water becomes dissociated under ordinary atmospheric pressure is 2,800 degrees centigrade and the quantity of heat which disappears as temperature in the course of dissociation is 2,153 calorics in other words sufficient to raise 2,153 times its own weight of liquid water one degree Celsius but as the specific heat of aqueous vapor is to that of liquid water as 0.475 to 1 that latent heat expressed in the temperature it would have given to aqueous vapor is equal to 4,532 degrees centigrade or 8,158 degrees Fahrenheit in order to render the analogy between the abolition and dissociation of water more evident and intelligible I will state it as follows to commence the abolition of water under ordinary pressure a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade or 212 degrees Fahrenheit must be attained to commence the dissociation of aqueous vapor under ordinary pressures a temperature of 2,800 degrees Celsius or 5,072 degrees Fahrenheit must be attained to complete the abolition of a given quantity of water an amount of heat must be applied sufficient to have raised the water 537 degrees centigrade or 968 degrees Fahrenheit above its boiling point had it not evaporated to complete the dissociation of a given quantity of aqueous vapor an amount of heat must be applied sufficient to have raised the vapor 4,532 degrees centigrade or 8,158 degrees Fahrenheit above its dissociation point had it not decomposed in order that a given quantity of vapor of water shall condense it must give off sufficient heat to raise its own weight of water 537 degrees centigrade or 968 degrees Fahrenheit in order that a given quantity of the elements of water may combine they must give off sufficient heat to raise their own weight of aqueous vapor 4,532 degrees centigrade or 8,158 degrees Fahrenheit I have expressed these generalizations and analogies rather more definitively than they have been hitherto stated but those who are acquainted with the researches of Deville, Keilettet, Bunsen, etc. will perceive that I am justified in doing so with the general laws of the dissociation of water thus before us we may follow out the necessary action of the above stated pressure and consequent evolution of heat in the lower regions of the solar atmosphere upon the large proportion of aqueous vapor which I have shown that it should contain it is evident that the first result will be separation of this water into its elements accompanied with a loss of temperature corresponding to the latent heat of dissociation we may assume that in the lower regions of the solar atmosphere the free heat evolved by mechanical compression will be more than sufficient to dissociate the whole of the aqueous vapor and thus the dissociated gases will be left at a higher temperature than was necessary to affect their dissociation their condition will thus be analogous to that of a superheated steam they will have to give off some heat before they can begin to combine there will however be somewhere in elevation at which the heat evolved by the joint compression of the elementary and combined gases will be just sufficient to dissociate the latter and here will be the meeting surface of the combined and the uncombined constituents of water there will be a sphere containing combined oxygen and hydrogen surrounded by an atmospheric envelope containing large quantities of aqueous vapor and the temperature at this limiting surface will be equal to that of the oxy hydrogen flame under a corresponding pressure what will occur under these conditions? will the detonating gases behave as in the laboratory? obviously not as a glance at the third of the above parallel propositions will show the dissociated gases cannot combine without giving off their 4,532 degrees of latent heat as actual temperature this can only be affected by communication with matter which is cooler than itself if a bubble of steam is surrounded by water maintained at the boiling temperature it will not condense at all because any effort of condensation would be accompanied with an evolution of heat exactly sufficient to evaporate its own result if however the surrounding water is slowly radiating or otherwise losing its heat the enclosed bubble of steam will condense proportionately by giving off to its envelope an amount of its latent heat just sufficient to maintain the water at the boiling point for further illustration let us conceive the case of a certain quantity of the elements of water heated exactly to the temperature of dissociation and confined in a vessel the sides of which are maintained externally precisely the same temperature as the gases within so that no heat can be added or taken away from them no sensible amount of combination can take place as the first infinitesimal effort of combustion or combination would set free just the amount of heat required to decompose its own result let us now suppose a modification of these conditions namely that the vessels containing the dissociated gases at the temperature of dissociation shall be surrounded with bodies cooler than itself i.e. capable of receiving more heat from it than they radiate towards it there would then take place just so much combustion as would set free the amount of heat required to maintain the temperature of the vessel at the dissociation point or in other words combustion would go on to the extent of setting free just so much heat as the gaseous mass was capable of radiating or otherwise transmitting to surrounding bodies and this amount of combustion would continue till all the gases had combined we have only to give this hypothetical vessel a spherical form and an internal diameter of 853,380 miles to construct its enveloping sides of a thick shell of aqueous vapor, etc and then by placing in the midst of the contained dissociated gases a nucleus of some kind we are hypothetically supplied with the main conditions which I suppose to exist in the sun a little reflection upon the application of the above stated laws to these conditions will show that the stupendous ocean of explosive gases would constitute an enormous stock of fuel capable by its combustion of setting free exactly the same quantity of heat as had previously been converted into decomposing or separating force the amount of combustion would always be limited by the possible amount of radiation and the radiation would again be limited by the resisting envelope of aqueous vapor produced by this combustion if these conditions existed in a perfectly calm and undisturbed solar atmosphere there would be a continually increasing external envelope of aqueous vapor and a continually diminishing inner atmospheric combustible gases there would be a gradual diminution of the amount of solar radiation and a slow and perpetually retarding progress towards solar extinction it should be noted that according to this explanation the supply of heat is originally derived from atmospheric condensation due to gravitation that the storage of surplus heat is affected by dissociation and its evolution mainly by recombination or combustion the great difficulty that of the perpetual renewal of the solar fuel still remains unsolved the fact that during the millions of years of geological history we find no indications of any declining average of solar energy is so far still unexplained by this as by every other attempt to account for the origin of solar and stellar light and heat in his inaugural address to the British Association meeting of 1866 Mr. Grove put the following very suggestive question our sun, our earth and planets are constantly radiating heat into space so in all probability are the other suns, the stars and their attended planets what becomes of the heat thus radiated into space if the universe has no limit and it is difficult to conceive one there is a constant evolution of heat and light and yet more is given off than is received by each cosmical body for otherwise night would be as light and as warm as day what becomes of the enormous force thus apparently non-recurrent in the same form this is a grand question a philosophical thought worthy of the author of the correlation of physical forces most philosophical thinkers will I believe agree with me in concluding that a sound reply to it will solve the great mystery of the everlasting radiations of our sun and all the other suns of the universe so long as we regard these suns as the sources of continually expended forces of light and heat their everlasting and unabated renewal becomes a mystery utterly inscrutable to the human intellect since the creation of new force or any addition to the total forces of the universe is as inconceivable to us as any addition to the total matter of the universe the great solar question assumes a far more hopeful shape when we admit that all the forces of past radiations are somewhere diffused in space and we ask whether a sun contains any mechanism by which it may collect and concentrate this diffused force and thus perpetually gather from surrounding suns as much as it radiates toward them the next part of my work is an attempt to show that such a mechanism does exist in our solar system and to explain its action we know that if atmospheric air is compressed it becomes heated that if this heat is allowed to radiate and the air is again expanded to its original dimensions it will be cooled below its original temperature to an extent precisely equal to the heat which it gave out when compressed on this principle I endeavored to explain the everlasting maintenance of the solar and stellar radiations the sun is attended by his train of planets whose orbital motion he controls but they in return react upon him as the moon does upon the earth if this reaction were regular like that of the moon upon the earth a regular atmospheric tide would result but the great irregularity of the dimensions distances and velocities of the planets produces a result equivalent to a number of clashing irregular tides in the solar atmosphere or otherwise stated the center of motion and center of gravity of the whole system will be perpetually varying with the varying relative positions of the planets and thus the solar nucleus and solar atmosphere will be subject to irregularities of motion which though very small relatively to the enormous magnitude of the sun must be sufficient to produce mighty vortices and thus affect a continual commingling between the outer and inner atmospheric strata it must be remembered that according to the preceding the inner or lower strata of the solar atmosphere should consist of our ordinary atmospheric mixture of oxygen and nitrogen and the dissociated elements of water and carbonic acid besides some of the more volatile elements of the solar nucleus outside of this there should be a boundary limit where the dissociated gases are combining as rapidly as their latent heat can be evolved by radiation this will form a shell or sphere of flame the photosphere and above or beyond this will be the sphere of vapors resulting from this combustion which by their resistance to radiation will limit the evolution of heat and consequent combustion now the vortices above referred to will break through the shell of combustion and drag down more or less of the outer vapor into the lower and hotter regions of dissociated gases as there can be no action without equal and contrary reaction there can be no vortices either in the solar atmosphere or a terrestrial stream without corresponding upheavals these upheavals will eject the lower dissociated gases more or less completely through the vaporous jacket which restrains their normal radiations and thus liberated they will rush into combination with an explosive energy comparable to that which they display in our laboratories not however with an instantaneous flash but with a continuous rocket like combustion the rapidity of which will be determined by the possibility of radiation the heat evolved by this combustion acting simultaneously with the diminution of pressure will affect a continually augmenting expansion of these upheaved gases and as the rapidity of combustion will be accelerated in proportion to elevation above the restraining vapors an outspreading far and excess of that which would be due to the original upheaving force is to be expected the reader who is acquainted with the phenomena of the solar prominences will at once perceive how all these expectations are fulfilled by actual observations especially by the more recent observations of Zollner, Satchi, etc. which exhibit the typical solar prominence as a stem or jet rushing upwards through some restraining medium and then expanding into a cloud-like or palm tree form after escaping from this restraint I need scarcely add that the clashing tide waves are the faculty and the vortices the sunspots End of Chapter 1, Part 1 Chapter 1, Part 2 of Science in Short Chapters This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kristen Edwards Science in Short Chapters by W. Mateu Williams The Fuel of the Sun, Part 2 My present business, however, is to show how these vortices and eruptions this downrush in one part of the solar atmosphere and uprush in another contribute to the permanent maintenance of the solar light and heat It must be understood that these outbursts are only visible to us as luminous prominences during the period of their explosive outburst and while still subject to great expansive tension Long after they have ceased to be visible to us, their expansion must continue until they finally and fully mingle with the medium into which they are flung and attain a corresponding degree of rarefaction This must occur at tens and hundreds of thousands of miles above the photosphere according to the magnitude of the ejection The spectroscopic researches of Franklin and Lockyer have shown that the atmospheric pressure at about the outer surface of the photosphere does not far exceed that of our atmosphere I may safely regard all the upper portion of these solar ejections as having left the solar atmosphere proper and become commingled with the general interstellar medium If the sun were stationary or merely rotating in the midst of this universal atmosphere the same material that is ejected today would in the course of time return and be whirled into the great sunspot eddies But, such is not the case, the sun is driving through the ether with a velocity of about 450,000 miles per 24 hours What must be the consequence of this motion? The sun will carry its own special atmospheric matter with it but it cannot thus carry the whole of the interstellar medium There must be a limit, graduated no doubt, but still a practical limit at which its own atmosphere will leave behind or pass through the general atmospheric matter There must be a heaping or condensation of this matter in the front a rarefaction or wake in the rear and a continuous bow of newly encountered atmosphere around the boundaries in the opposite direction to that of the sun's motion The result of this must be that a great portion of the ejected atmospheric matter of the prominences will be swept permanently to the rear and its place supplied by the material occupying the space into which the sun is advancing We are thus presented with a mighty machinery of solar respiration Some of this newly arriving atmospheric matter must be stirred into the vortices its quantity being exactly equivalent to that of the old material expired by the explosive eruptions and left in the rear Now the new atmospheric matter which is thus encountered and inspired is the recipient of the everlasting radiations whose destination is the subject of Mr. Grove's inquiry And these, when thus encountered and compressed will of necessity evolve more or less of the heat which through millions of millions of centuries they have been gradually absorbing While, on the other hand, the expired or ejected matter of the gaseous eruptions will like the artificially compressed air above referred to have lost all the heat which during its solar existence it had by compression, dissociation, and recombination contributed to the solar radiations Therefore, when again fully expanded, it will be cooler than the general medium from which it was originally inspired by the advancing sun The daily supply of fresh atmospheric fuel will be a cylinder of ether of the same diameter as the sun and 450,000 miles in length I have calculated the weight of the cylinder of ether on the assumption which of course is purely arbitrary that the density of the interstellar medium is one ten-thousandth part of that of our atmosphere It amounts to 14 quintillion, 313 quadrillion, 915 trillion tons affording a supply of 165 millions of millions of tons per second or if we assume the interstellar medium to have a density of only one-millionth of that of our atmosphere the supply would be rather more than one-and-a-half millions of millions of tons per second The proportion of this which is effective in the manner above stated is that which becomes stirred into the lower regions of the sun in exchange for the ejected matter of the prominences I will not here dwell upon the bombardment hypothesis beyond observing that my explanation of solar phenomena supplies a continuous bombardment of the above stated magnitude without adding anything to the magnitude of the sun So far then I answer Mr. Grove's question by showing that the heat radiated into space by each of the solid orbs that people its profundities is received by the universal atmospheric medium is gathered again by the breathing of wandering suns who inspire as they advance the breath of universal heat and light and life then by impact compression and radiation they concentrate and redistribute its vitalizing power and after its work is done expire it in the broad wake of their retreat leaving a track of cool exhausted ether the ash pits of the solar furnaces to reabsorb the general radiations and thus maintain the eternal round of life but ere this a great difficulty has probably presented itself to the mind of the reader he will refer to the calculations that have been made in order to determine the actual temperature of the solar surface and the intensity of its luminosity both of these are vastly in excess of those obtained in our laboratory experiments by the combustion of the elements of water even taking into consideration the dissociated carbonic acid whose elements should be burning in the photosphere with those of water and adding to these the volatile metals of the solar nucleus whose dissociated vapors must under the circumstances stated be commingled with those of the solar atmosphere and therefore contribute to the luminosity by their combustion still by burning here on the earth a jet of such mixed gases and vapors we should not obtain any approach to either the luminosity or the temperature which is usually attributed to the sun I have made a very few simple experiments the results of which remove these difficulties they were conducted with the assistance of Mr. Jonathan Wilkinson the official gas examiner to the Sheffield Corporation using his photometric and gas measuring apparatus we first determined the amount of light radiated by a single fishtail gas burner consuming a measured quantity of gas per hour we found when another was placed behind this so that all of the light of the second had to pass through the first that the light of the two measured by the illuminating intensity of their radiations upon a screen just as the solar luminosity has been measured was just double that of one flame three flames still presenting to the photometric screen only the surface of one gave it three times the amount of illumination and so on with any number of flames we were able to test Mr. Wilkinson has since arranged 100 flames on the same principle i.e. so that the 99 hinder flames shall all radiate through the one presented to the screen thus affording the same surface as a single flame but having 100 times its thickness or depth and he finds that the law indicated by our first experiments is fully verified that the 100 flames thus arranged illuminate the screen 100 times as intensely as the single flame other modifications of these experiments described in chapter 7 of the fuel of the sun established the principle that a common hydrocarbon gas flame is transparent to its own radiations or in other words that the amount of light radiated from such a flame and its apparent intensity of luminosity is proportionate to its thickness therefore the luminosity of the sun may be produced by a photosphere having no greater intrinsic brilliancy than the flame of a tallow candle provided the flame is of sufficient depth or thickness i see good reasons for inferring that its intrinsic brilliancy is less than that of a candle somewhere between that and a Bunsen's burner a similar series of experiments upon the radiation of the heat of flames through each other indicated similar results but my apparatus for these experiments was not so delicate and reliable as in the experiments on light and therefore I cannot so decidedly affirm the absolute diathermacy of flame to its own radiations within the limits of error of these experiments I found that with the same radiant surface presented to the thermometer every addition to the thickness of the flame produced a proportionate increase of radiation this important law though hitherto unnoticed by philosophers is practically understood and acted upon by workmen who are engaged in furnace operations present space will not permit me to illustrate this by examples but in passing I may mention the mill furnaces where armor plates and other large masses of iron are raised to a welding temperature by radiant heat and the ordinary puddling furnace where iron is melted by radiant heat in both of these special arrangements are made to obtain a body or thickness of radiant flame while intensity of combustion is neglected and even carefully avoided according to this there are two factors engaged in producing the radiant effect from a given surface intensity and quantity i.e. brilliancy and thickness in the case of light and temperature and thickness in the case of heat in the bewed light for example consisting of concentric rings of coal gas we have small intensity with great quantity in the limelight we have a mere surface of great brilliancy but no thickness if I am right the surface of the moon may be brighter than the luminous surface of the sun the peculiarities of moonlight depending upon intensity those of sunlight upon quantity of light the flame that roars from the mouth of a Bessemer converter has but small intrinsic brilliancy far less than that of an ordinary gas flame as may be seen by observing the thin waves that sometimes project beyond the body of the flame nevertheless its radiations are so effective that it is a painfully dazzling object even in the midst of sunny daylight but then we have here not a hollow flame fed only by outside oxygen but a solid body of flame several feet in thickness even the pallid carbonic acid flame which accompanies the pouring of the spiegel lesson has marvelous illuminating power the reader will now be able to understand my explanation of the sunspots of their nucleus, umbra and penumbra from what I have stated respecting the planetary disturbances or the solar rotation the photosphere should present all the appearances due to the movements of a fiery ocean raging and seething in the maddest conceivable fury of perpetual tempest if the surface of a river flowing peacefully between its banks is perforated with conical eddies whenever it meets with a projecting rock or obstacle or other agency which disturbs the regularity of its course what must be the magnitude of the eddies in this ocean of flame and heated gases when stirred to the lowest depths of its vast profundity by the irregular reeling of the solar nucleus within obviously nothing less than the sunspots those mighty maelstroms into which a world might be dropped like a pea into an egg cup when the photosphere or shell of combining gases is thus ripped open the telescopic observer looks down the vortex which, if deep enough, reveals to him the inner regions of dissociated gases and vapors but these have the opposite property to that which I have shown to belong to flame they are opaque in their own special radiations while the flame is transparent to the light of the inner portions of itself thus the dissociated interior of the solar envelope though absolutely white hot will be comparatively dark direct experiment has proved that the darkness of the spots is only relative the sides of the vortex funnel will consist of a mixture of dissociated gases, flaming gases, and combined gases and will thus present various thicknesses of flame and thereby display the various shades of the penumbra space will not permit me here to follow up the details of this subject as I have done in the original work where it is shown that if the telescope had not yet been invented all the telescopic details of spot phenomena might have been described a priori as necessary consequences of the constitution I have above ascribed to the sun not merely the great spot phenomena but all the minor irregularities of the photosphere follow with similarly demonstrable necessity thus the many interfering solar tides must throw up great waves literally mountainous in their magnitude the summits and ridges of which being raised into higher regions of the absorbing vaporous atmosphere that envelops the photosphere will radiate more freely its dissociated matter will combine more abundantly and will thicken the photosphere immediately below this thicker flame will be more luminous than the normal surface and thus produce the phenomena of the faculae besides these great ground swells of the flaming ocean of the photosphere there must be lesser billows and ripples upon these and mountain tongues of flame all over the surface the crests of these waves and the summits of these flame alps presenting to the terrestrial observer a greater depth of flaming matter must be brighter than the hollows and valleys between and their splendor must be further increased by the fact that such upper ridges and summits are less deeply immersed in the outer ocean of absorbing vapors which limits the radiation of the light as well as the heat of the photosphere the effect of looking upon the surface of such a wild fury of troubled flame with its confused intermingling of gradations of luminosity must be very puzzling and difficult to describe and hence the willow leaves rice grains modeling granules things flocculi bits of white thread cumuli of cotton wool excessively minute fragments of porcelain untidy circular masses ridges waves hill knots et cetera et cetera to which the luminous irregularities have been compared at the time I wrote the means of examination of the edge of the sun by the spectroscope was but newly discovered and the results then published referred chiefly to the prominences proper since that a new term has been introduced to solar technology the Sierra and the observations of the actual appearances of this Sierra precisely correspond to my theoretical description of the limiting surface of the photosphere which was written before I was acquainted with these observed facts this will be seen by reference to chapter 10 the subject of which is the varying splendor of different portions of the photosphere but I must not linger any further upon this part of the subject but proceed to another where subsequent discoveries have strongly confirmed my speculations the mean specific gravity of the sun is not quite one and a half times that of water the vapors of nickel cobalt copper iron chromium manganese titanium zinc cadmium aluminum magnesium barium strontium calcium and sodium have been shown by the spectroscope to be floating on the outer regions of the sun none of these could constitute the body of the sun in a solid or liquid state and be subjected to the enormous pressure which such a mass must exert upon itself without raising the mean specific gravity vastly above this nor is there any other kind of matter with which we are acquainted which could exist within so large a mass in a liquid or solid state and retain so low a density I must confess that my faith in the logical acumen of mathematicians has been rudely shaken by the manner in which eminent astronomers have described the umbra or nucleus of the sunspots as the solid body of the sun seen through his luminous atmosphere and the solid surface of Jupiter seen through his belts and have discussed the habitability of Jupiter Saturn, Uranus and Neptune always on the assumption of their solidity while the specific gravity of all these renders the surface solidity a demonstrable physical impossibility if the sun or either of these planets has a solid or liquid nucleus it must be a mere kernel in the center of a huge orb of gaseous matter and though I have spoken rather definitely of the solar atmosphere in order to avoid complication I must not therefore be understood to suppose that there exists in the sun any such definite boundary to the base of the atmospheric matter as we find here on the earth the temperature, the density and all we know of the chemistry of the sun justify the conclusion that in its outer regions to a considerable depth below the photosphere there must be a commingling of the atmospheric matter with the vapors of the metals whose existence the spectroscope has revealed some of these must be upheaved together with the dissociated elements of water they are all combustible and with a few exceptions the products of their combustion would solidify after they were projected beyond the photosphere much of the iron, nickel, cobalt and copper might pass through the fiery ordeal of such projection and solidify without oxidation especially when more or less enveloped in uncombined hydrogen it is obvious that under these circumstances there must occur a series of precipitations analogous to those from the aqueous vapor of our atmosphere these gaseous metals or their oxides must be condensed as clouds, rain, snow and hail according to their boiling and melting points and the conditions of their ejection we know that sudden and violent atmospheric disturbance accompanied with fierce electrical discharges especially favor the formation of hail stones in our terrestrial atmosphere all such violence must be displayed on a hugely exaggerated scale in the solar outbursts and therefore the hailstone formation should preponderate especially as the metallic vapors condense more rapidly than those of water on account of the much smaller amount of their specific heat and of the latent heat of their vapors what will become of these volleys of solid matter thus ejected with the furious and protracted explosions forming the solar prominences? in order to answer this question we must remember that the spectroscope as recently applied displays the gaseous chiefly the hydrogen ejections that these great gaseous flames bear a similar relation to the solid projectiles that the flash of a gun does to the grape shot or cannonball Mr. Lockyer says in one instance I saw a prominence 27,000 miles high change enormously in the space of 10 minutes and lately I have seen prominences much higher born and die in an hour he has recently measured an actual velocity of 120 miles per second in the movements of this gaseous matter of the solar eruptions the initial velocity of which must have been much greater if such is the velocity of the gaseous ejections what must be that of the solid projectiles and where must they go? a cosmic gold cannonade is a necessary result of the conditions I have sketched and as prominence ejections are continually in progress there must be a continual outpouring from the sun of solid fragments which must be flung far beyond the limits of the gaseous prominences as the luminosity of these glowing particles must be very small compared with that of the photosphere they will be invisible in the glare of ordinary sunshine but if our eyes be protected from this they may then be rendered visible both by their own glow and the solar light they are capable of reflecting they should be seen during a total eclipse and should exhibit radiant streams proceeding irregularly from different parts of the sun but most abundantly from the neighborhood of the spot regions as these spot regions occupy the intermediate latitudes between the poles and the equator of the sun the greatest extensions of the out streamings should be northeast and southwest and southeast and northwest while to the north, south, east and west that is opposite the poles and equator of the sun there should be a lesser extension the result of this must be an approximation to a quadrilateral figure the diagonals of which should extend in a northeast and southwest and a southeast and northwest direction or thereabouts I say thereabouts because the zone of greatest activity is not exactly intermediate between the poles and the equator but lies nearer to the solar equator examined with the Polariscope these radiant streams should display a mixture of reflected light and self-luminosity examined with the spectroscope a faint continuous spectrum due to such luminosity of solid particles should be exhibited with possibly a few lines due to the small amount of vapor which in their glowing condition they might still give off besides this there should appear the spectroscope indications of the violent electrical discharges which must occur as a necessary concomitant of the furious ejections of aqueous vapor and solid particles all these metallic hailstones must be highly charged like the particles of vesicular vapor ejected from the hydroelectric machine or the vapors and projectiles of a terrestrial volcanic eruption I need scarcely add that this exactly describes the actually observed results of the evictions on the corona and that all the phenomena of this great solar mystery are but necessary and predictable results of the constitution I ascribe to the sun End of chapter 1 part 2 Chapter 1 part 3 of science in short chapters This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kristen Edwards Science in short chapters by W. Mateo Williams Chapter 1 The Fuel of the Sun Part 3 There is a method of manufacturing hypotheses which has become rather prevalent of late especially among mathematicians who take observed phenomena and then arbitrarily and purely from the raw material of their own imagination construct explanatory atoms which are shaped and paired scraped and patched lengthened and shortened thickened and narrowed till they are made to fit the phenomena with mathematical accuracy These laborious creations are then put forth as philosophical truths and afterwards the accuracy of their fitting to the phenomena is quoted as evidence of the positive reality of the ethers, atoms undulations, gyrations collisions or whatever else the mathematician may have thus skillfully created and fitted It appears to me that such fitness only proves the ingenuity of the fitter the skill of the mathematician and that all such hypotheses belong to the poetry of science They should be distinctly labeled as products of mathematical imagination and no wise be confounded with objective natural truths Such products of the imagination of the expert may assist the imagination of the student in comprehending some phenomena just as Jack Frost and Billy Wind may represent certain natural forces to babies But if Jack Frost, Billy Wind electric and magnetic fluids ultimate atoms inter-atomic ethers, nervous fluids, etc. are allowed to invade the intellect and are accepted as actual physical existences they become very mischievous philosophical superstitions I make this digression in order to repudiate any participation in this kind of speculation Though the fuel of the sun is avowedly a very bold attempt to unravel majestic mysteries I have not sought to elucidate the known by means of the unknown as do these inventors of imaginary agents but have scrupulously followed the opposite principle I have invented nothing from the experimental facts of the laboratory the demonstrated laws of physical action and have followed up step by step what I understand to be the necessary consequences of these Many years ago I convinced myself that our atmosphere is but a portion of universal atmospheric matter that Dr. Walliston was wrong and that the compression of this universal atmospheric matter is possibly the source of solar light and heat Before Mr. DeVille had investigated the subject of dissociation by heat I was unable to work out the problem at all satisfactorily When I subsequently resumed the subject I knew nothing about the corona and had only read of the red prominences as possible lunar appendages or solar clouds or optical illusions I had worked out the necessity of the gaseous eruptions and their action in effecting the rapid change of solar and general atmospheric matter as the means of maintaining the solar light and heat with no idea of proceeding further with the problem When the announcement that the prominences were not merely unquestionable solar appendages but were actually upheaved mountains of glowing hydrogen suddenly and unexpectedly suggested their identity with my required atmospheric upheavals It is true that their observed magnitude far exceeded theoretical anticipations and in this respect I have made some a posteriori adaptations especially with the aid of a clearer understanding of the laws of dissociation which almost simultaneously became attainable In like matter the necessity of the solid ejections presented themselves before I knew anything of the recently discovered details of the coronal phenomena When I had merely read of a luminous halo which had been seen around the sun and relying upon Mr. Lockyer vaguely supposed it to be an effective atmospheric illumination I inferred that streams of solid particles must be pouring from the sun and showering back again but had no idea that such streams and showers were actually visible until I was rather startled on learning that the corona instead of being as I had loosely supposed a mere uniform filmy halo had been described by Mr. Dilarou in his Bakarian lecture on the eclipse of 1860 as softening off with very irregular outline and sending off some long streams, etc I was then living on the sides of a Welsh mountain far away from public libraries and being no astronomer my own books kept me better acquainted with the current progress of experimental than with astronomical science Even when The Fool of the Sun was published I knew nothing of the American observations of the quadrangular figure of the corona or should certainly have then quoted them nor of the fact revealed by the eclipse of December 1870 that wherever on the solar disk a large group of prominences was seen on Mr. Seabrook's map there a corresponding bulging out of the corona was chronicled on Professor Watson's drawing and at the positions where no prominences presented themselves there the bright portions of the corona extended to the smallest distances from the sun's limb and that Mr. Brothers photographs all show the corona extending much further towards the west than towards the east the west being the region richest in solar prominences I am sorry that the limits of this paper will not permit me to enter more fully into the bearings of the recent studies of the corona and the prominences upon my explanations of solar phenomena especially as the differences between the inner and outer corona which still appear to puzzle astronomers are exactly what my explanation demands I must make this the subject of a separate paper and proceed at once to the next step of the general argument assuming that such ejections of solid matter are poured from the prominences to what distances may they travel in attempting to answer this question I avowedly ventured upon dangerous ground for at the time of writing I only knew that the force of upheaval of the prominences must be enormous probably sufficient to eject solid matter beyond the orbit of the earth and even beyond that of Mars actual measurements of the eruptive velocity of the solar prominences have since been made and they are so great as to relieve me of the qualitative difficulty and show that I was quite justified in the bold inference that these eruptions may account for the zodiacal light the zones of meteors into which our earth is sometimes plunged and even the outer zone of larger bodies, the asteroids but how, the reader will ask can such solids ejected from the sun acquire orbital paths around him we have been taught that the parabola is the necessary path of such ejections Mr. Proctor has evidently reasoned in this matter for in last April number of Frazier's magazine he says that some of my ideas are opposed to any known laws, physical or dynamical that there is nothing absolutely incredible in the conception that masses of gaseous liquid or solid matter should be flung to a height exceeding manifold that of the loftiest of the colored prominences whereas it is not only incredible but impossible that such matter should in any case come to circle in a closed orbit around the sun more careful reading would have shown Mr. Proctor that I have considered other conditions besides those of the textbooks that the case is by no means one of simple radial projection from a fixed body into free space and undisturbed return I distinctly stated that the recent ejections may have any form of orbit within the boundaries of the conic sections from a straight line returning upon itself due to absolutely vertical projection to a circular orbit produced by the tangential projection of such curving prominences as the ram's horn etc. The outline of the zodiacal light would be formed by the termination or aphelion portion of these excursions or of such a number of them to be sufficient to produce a visible result. Again, speaking of the asteroids in chapter 14 I state that I should have expected a still greater elongation in eccentricity in some of them and such orbits may have existed but an asteroid with an orbit of commentary eccentricity that would in the course of each revolution cross the paths of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars in nearly the same plane and dive through the strictly scattered zodiacal cluster both in going to the sun and returning from it would be subject to disturbances which would continue until one of two things occurred. Its tangential force might become so far neutralized and its orbit so much elongated that finally its perihelion distance should not exceed the solar radius when it would finish its course by returning to the sun. On the other hand, its tangential velocity might be increased by heavy pulls from Jupiter when slowly turning its apheleon path and be similarly influenced by friendly jerks in crossing the orbits of the inferior planets and thus its orbit might be widened until it ceased periodically to cross the path of any of the planets by establishing itself in an orbit constantly intermediate between any two. Having once settled into such a path I have been there with comparative stability and permanency. If I am right in this view of the dynamical history of these older ejections all the long elliptical paths of zodiacal particles meteorites or asteroids would thus in the course of ages become eliminated and the remaining orbits would be of planetary rather than cometary proportions. A little reflection on the above stated laws of dissociation will show that the maximum violence explosion will not occur at the birth of the ejections but afterwards when the dissociated gases have been already hurled beyond the sphere of restraining vapors. If my explanation is correct the typical form of a solar prominence should be that of a spreading tree with a tall stem. At first, the least resistance to radiation and consequent explosive combination must be in the vertical direction as this will afford the shortest line that can be drawn through the thickness of the surrounding jacket of resisting vapor. But when raised above this envelope the dissociated gases cooled by their own expansion and comparatively free to radiate in all directions except downwards will explode laterally as well as vertically and thus spread out into a head. My theoretical prominence will be in short, a monster rocket proceeding steadily upwards to a certain extent interesting and projecting its missiles in every direction from the vertical to the absolutely horizontal should the latter acquire a velocity of about 300 miles per second not merely a closed but even an absolutely circular orbit would be possible. These and the multitude of weaker lateral ejections reaching the sun by short parabolic paths explain the mystery of the inner corona. I need only refer Mr. Proctor to his own recently published book on the sun where he will find on plates 4, 5 and 6 a number of drawings from Zolliner and Respeggi which so thoroughly confirm my necessary theoretical deductions that they might be a series of fancy sketches of my own. When we consider that the base of a prominence is only visible when it happens to start exactly from the limb of the sun while the vastly greater proportion of those which are observed and have been drawn have much of the stem cut off from view by the solar rotundity, the evidence afforded by such drawings in support of my theoretical deduction that the typical form of the solar prominences is that of a palm tree or bursting rocket is greatly strengthened. In a paper by P. Setchi dated Rome, March 20th, 1871 and published in the Compets Rendue March 27th the veteran solar observer speaks of the prominences as composed of jets which upon reaching a certain elevation stop and whirl upon themselves giving birth to a brilliant cloud. This cloud is represented as spreading out on all sides from the summit of the combined jets. Again he says it is very common to see a little jet spot at a certain elevation above the chromosphere and there spread itself out into a wide hat and large chapeau of an absolutely nebulous constitution. This outspreading nebulosity is the flash of the incandescent vapors produced by the explosion which is theoretically demanded by my explanation to occur exactly in the manner and place described. These expanded incandescent gases will be rendered visible by the spectroscopic dilution of the continuous spectrum of the denser photosphere while the solid projectiles that must proceed from them in every direction can only be seen during a solar eclipse. The observations and drawings of Zolner and Respeggi were, for the most part, made while my book was in the press and, like those of Seci above quoted, were unknown to me when I wrote. I was then only able to quote in support of my theoretical requirements the evidences of actually observed tangential ejection afforded by Sir John Herschel's account of the great solar storm of September 1st, 1859. Besides this direct tangential projection there are other elements of motion contributing to the same result such as the whirl of the prominences on themselves, their motion of translation on the sun's disc and the rotation of the sun itself. I must now bring this sketch to a close by stating that in order to submit the fundamental question of an universal atmosphere to an experimentum crucis analogous to that by which Pascal tested the atmospheric theory of Torricelli I have calculated the theoretical density of the atmosphere of the moon and of each of the planets and compared the results as severely as I could with the observed facts. As Jupiter is 27,100 times heavier than the moon and between these wide extremes there are six planets presenting great variations of mass the probabilities of accidental coincidence are overwhelmingly against me and a close concurrence of observed telescopic refraction and other phenomena with the theoretical atmospheric density must afford the strongest possible confirmation of the soundness of the basis of my whole argument. Such a concurrence exists and some new and very curious light is unexpectedly thrown upon the meteorology of Mars and the Constitution of the larger planets. The latter, if I am right must be miniature suns permanently red or white hot must be something like a photosphere surrounded by a sphere of vapor the outside of which we see must have mimic spot vortices and prominences and in the case of Saturn must eject volleys of meteoric matter some of which should finally settle down into orbital paths and thus produce the rings these are startling conclusions and when I reached them they were utterly at variance with general astronomical opinion but I find since their publication that some astronomers have already shown considerable readiness to adopt them in my case this view of the solar Constitution of the larger planets is not a matter of mere opinion or guessing or probability but it follows of necessity as stated on page 200 the great mystery of Saturn's rings is resolved into a simple consequence a demonstrable and necessary result of the operation of the familiar forces whose laws of action have been demonstrated here upon the earth by experimental investigation in our laboratories no strained hypotheses of imaginary forces are required no ethers or other materials are demanded beyond those which are beneath our feet and around our heads here upon our own planet all that is necessary is to grant that the well known elements and compounds of the chemist and the demonstrated forces of the experimental physicist exist and operate in the places and have the quantities and modes of distribution described by the astronomer this simple postulate admitted these wondrous appendages spring into rational existence and like the eternal fires of the sun the barren surface of the moon the dry valleys of mercury the hazy equivocations of Venus the seas and continents and polar glaciers of Mars and the cloud covered face of Jupiter follow as necessary consequences of an universal atmosphere if I am right in ascribing a gaseous condition to the sun and the larger planets and tracing the maintenance of this condition to the disturbing gravitation of the attendant planets or satellites a solution of the riddle of the nebulae at once presents itself we have only to suppose a star cluster or group composed of orbs of solar or great planetary dimensions and that these act mutually upon each other as the planets on our sun or the satellites upon Saturn but in a far more violent degree owing to the far greater relative masses of the reacting elements and we obtain the conditions under which great gaseous orbs would be not merely pitted on their surface but riven to their very centers molded and shaped throughout by the whirling hurricane of their whole substance when thus in the center of a tornado of opposing gravitation the tortured orb would be twisted bodily into a huge vorticoce crater into the bowels of which the aqueous vapor would be dragged and dissociated and then entangled with the inner matter of the riven sphere would be hurled upwards again to burst forth in an explosion of such magnitude that the original body would be measurably presented as a mere appendage the rocket case of the flood of fire it had vomited forth the reader must complete the picture if he will take a little trouble in doing so he will find that it becomes a portrait of one or the other of the nebulae according to the kind of inter gravitating star cluster from which he starts I have endeavored to work out some of the details of the nebular conditions in chapter 20 in chapter 21 I have concluded by showing the analogy between a sun and the hydroelectric machine the sun being the cylinder and the prominences the steam jets if issuing jets of high pressure steam have the same properties at a distance of 93 millions of miles from the earth as upon its surface the body of the sun and the issuing steam must be in opposite electrical conditions and furious electrical excitation must result and if the laws of electrical induction are constant throughout the universe the earth must be as necessarily subject to solar electrical influence as to his thermal radiations thus the same reasoning which explains the origin and maintenance of the solar heat and light the sun spots the photosphere the sierra the prominences the zodiacal light the aero lights and asteroids the meteorology of the planets and the rings of Saturn also shows how the electrical disturbances which produce the aurora borealis and direct the needle may originate electrical theories of the corona and zodiacal light and their connection of some kind with the aurora borealis have been put forth in many shapes but so far as I have learned none afford any explanation of the origin of the electrical disturbance without this they are like the vortices of Descartes which explain the movements of the planets by supposing another kind of motion still more incomprehensible explanations which are more difficult to explain than the phenomena they propose to elucidate only obscure the light of true science and stand as impedimenta to the progress of sound philosophy end of chapter 1 chapter 4 of science in short chapters this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Colleen McMahon science in short chapters by W. Matthew Williams chapter 4 a paper was read on March 2nd, 1882 by Dr. C. W. Siemens at the Royal Society and he published an article on a new theory of the sun in the April number of the 19th century all who have read my essay on the fuel of the sun are surprised at the statement with which the magazine article opens vis that this may be termed a first attempt to open for the sun a debtor and a creditor account in as much as he has hitherto been regarded only as a great almaner pouring forth incessantly his boundless wealth of heat without receiving any of it back some of my friends suppose that Dr. Siemens has willfully ignored the most important element of my theory and have suggested indignation and protest on my part I am quite satisfied however that they are mistaken I see plainly enough that although Dr. Siemens quotes my book had not read it when he did so that in stating that quote grove, humboldt, zoner and matthew williams have boldly asserted the existence of a space filled with matter he derived this information from the paper of Dr. Sterry Hunt which he afterward quotes this inference has been confirmed by subsequent correspondence with Dr. Siemens who tells me that he saw the book some years since but had not read it and had no further questions to the philosophy of solar physics would have been far more widely known and better appreciated had I followed the usual course of announcing firstly a working hypothesis to warn others off the ground then reading a preliminary paper then another and another and so on during ten or a dozen years instead of publishing all at once an octavo volume of 240 pages which has proved too formidable even to many of those interested in the subject I'm compelled to infer that this is the reason why so many of the speculations which were physical heresies when expounded therein have since become so generally adopted without corresponding acknowledgement this is not the place for specifying the particulars of such adoptions but I may mention that in due time and appendix to the fuel of the sun including the whole history of the subject will be published the materials are all in hand and only await arrangement in the meantime I will briefly state some of the points of agreement and difference between Dr. Siemens and myself in the first place we both take as our fundamental basis of speculation the idea of an universal extension of atmospheric matter and we both regard this as the recipient of the diffused solar radiations which are afterwards recovered and recondensed or concentrated thus our fuel of the sun is primarily the same but as will presently be seen our machinery for feeding the solar furnace is essentially different certain desiccated pedants have sneered at my title the fuel of the sun as sensational and have refused to read the book on this account but Dr. Sterry Hunt has provided me with ample revenge he has disintuned an interesting paper by Sir Isaac Newton dated 1675 and his speculatialism is perpetrated with very small modification Dr. Isaac Newton's title being Solary Fuel besides this his speculations are curiously similar to my own his fundamental idea being evidently the same but the chemistry of his time was too vague and obscure to render its development possible this paper was neglected and set aside was not printed in the transactions of the royal society and remain generally unknown until a few months ago when the energetic American philosopher brought it forth and discussed its remarkable anticipations Dr. Siemens supposes that the rotation of the sun affects a sort of fan action by throwing off heated atmospheric matter from his equatorial regions which atmospheric matter is afterwards reclaimed and passed over to the polar regions of the sun this interchange he describes as effected by the differences of pressure on the fluid envelope of the sun the portion over the polar regions being held down by the whole force of the solar gravitation while the equatorial atmosphere is subject to this pressure or attraction minus the centrifugal impulse due to solar rotation he maintains that this quote centrifugal action however small an amount as compared with the enormous attraction of the sun would destroy the balance and determine a motion towards the sun as regards the mass opposite the polar surface and into space as regards the equatorial mass end of quote he adds that quote the equatorial current so produced owing to its mighty proportions would flow outwards into space to a practically unlimited distance end of quote I will not here discuss the dynamics of this hypothesis whether the reclaiming action of the superior polar attraction of distances from the sun supposed by Dr. Siemens or much nearer home and produce an effect like the re-curving of the flame of his own regenerative gas burner or whether he is right in comparing the centrifugal force at the solar equator with that of the Earth by simply measuring the relative velocity of translation irrespective of angular velocity I will merely suggest that in discussing these it is necessary in order to do justice to Dr. Siemens to always keep in mind the assumed condition of a universal and continuous atmospheric medium and not to reason as some have done already upon the basis of a limited solar atmosphere with a definite boundary from beyond which particles of atmospheric matter are to be flung away into vacuous space without the intervention of all pervading fluid pressure it is evident that if such fan action can bring back all the material that has received the solar radiations and which holds them either as temperature or otherwise the restoration and perpetuation of solar energy will be complete for even the heat received by our Earth and its brother and sister planets would still remain in the family as they would radiate it into the interplanetary atmospheric matter supposed to be reclaimed by the sun but as Mr. Proctor is clearly shown the rays of the sun cannot do all the work thus required for his own restoration without becoming extinguished as regards the outside universe and if the other suns i.e. the stars do the same they could not be visible to us thus Dr. Siemens theory removes our sun from his place among the stars and renders the great problem of stellar radiation more inscrutable than ever by thus putting the evidence of our great luminary altogether out of court my theory on the contrary demands only a gradual absorption of solar and stellar rays such as actual observation of their varying splendor indicates if space were absolutely transparent and its infinite depths peopled throughout the firmament would present to our view one continuous blazing dome as all the spaces between the nearest stars would be filled by the infinity of radiations from the more distant end of chapter 4 recording by Colleen McMahon Chapter 5 of Science in Short Chapters this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Colleen McMahon Science in Short Chapters by W. Matthew Williams Chapter 5 another world down here what a horrible place must this world appear when regarded according to our ideas from an insect's point of view the air infested with huge flying hungry dragons whose gaping and snapping mouths are ever intent upon swallowing the innocent creatures for whom according to the insect if he were like us a properly constructed world ought to be exclusively adapted the solid earth continually shaken by the approaching tread of hideous giants moving mountains that crush out precious lives at every footstep an occasional draft of the blood of those monsters stolen at life risk affording but poor compensation for such fatal persecution let us hope that the little victims are less like ourselves than the doings of ants and bees might leave us to suppose that their mental anxieties are not proportionate to the obstacle vigilance of the 4,000 islands of the common house fly the 17,000 of the cabbage butterfly and the wide awake dragon fly or the 25,000 possessed by certain species of still more vigilant beetles each of these little eyes has its own cornea its lens and a curious six-sided transparent prism at the back of which is a special retina spreading out from a branch of the main optic nerve which in the cock chaffer and some other creatures is half as large as the brain if each of these lenses forms a separate picture of each object rather than a single mosaic picture as some anatomists suppose what an awful army of cruel giants must the cock chaffer behold when he is captured by a schoolboy the insect must see a whole world of wonders of which we know little or nothing true we have microscopes with which we can see one thing at a time if carefully laid upon the stage but what is the finest instrument that Ross can produce compared to that with 25,000 object glasses all of them probably acromatic and each one a living instrument with its own nerve branch supplying a separate sensation to creatures thus endowed with microscopic vision a cloud of sandy dust must appear like an avalanche of massive rock fragments and everything else proportionally monstrous one of the many delusions engendered by our human self-conceit and habit of considering the world as only such as we know it from our human point of view is that of supposing human intelligence to be the only kind of intelligence in existence the fact is that what we call the lower animals have special intelligence of their own as far transcending our intelligence as our peculiar reasoning intelligence exceeds theirs we are as incapable of following the track of a friend by the smell of his footsteps as a dog is of writing a metaphysical treatise so with insects they are probably acquainted with a whole world of physical facts of which we are utterly ignorant our auditory apparatus supplies us with a knowledge of sounds what are these sounds they are vibrations of matter which are capable of producing corresponding or sympathetic vibrations of the drums of our ears or the bones of our skull when we carefully examine the subject and count the number of vibrations that produce our world of sounds of varying pitch we find that the human ear can only respond to a limited range of such vibrations if they exceed three thousand per second the sound becomes too shrill for average people to hear it though some exceptional ears can take up pulsations or waves that succeed each other more rapidly than this reasoning from the analogy of stretch strings and membranes and of air vibrating in tubes etc we are justified in concluding that the smaller the drum or the tube the higher will be the note it produces when agitated and the smaller and the more rapid the aerial wave to which it will respond the drums of insect ears and the tubes etc connected with them are so minute that their world of sounds probably begins where ours ceases that the sound which appears to us as continuous is to them a series of separated blows just as vibrations of 10 to 12 per second appear to us we begin to hear such vibrations as continuous sounds when they amount to about 30 per second the insects continuous sound probably begins beyond 3000 the blue bottle may thus enjoy a whole world of exquisite music of which we know nothing there is another very suggestive peculiarity in the auditory apparatus of insects its structure and position are something between those of an ear and of an eye careful examination of the head of one of our domestic companions the common cockroach or black beetle will reveal two round white points somewhat higher than the base of the long outer antenna and a little nearer to the middle line of the head these white projecting spots are formed by the outer transparent membrane of a bag or ball filled with fluid which ball or bag rests inside another cavity in the head it resembles our own eye in having this external transparent tough membrane which corresponds to the cornea or transparent membrane forming the glass of our eye window which like the cornea is backed by the fluid in an ear ball corresponding to our eyeball and the back of this ear ball appears to receive the outspreadings of a nerve just as the back of our eye is lined with that outspread of the optic nerve forming the retina there does not appear to be in this or other insects a tightly stretched membrane which like the membrane of our eardrum is fitted to take up bodily airwaves and vibrate responsibly to them but it is evidently adapted to receive and concentrate some kind of vibration or motion or tremor what kind of motion can this be what kind of perception does this curious organ supply to answer these questions we must travel beyond the strict limits of scientific induction and enter the fairy land of scientific imagination we may wander here in safety provided we always remember where we are and keep a true course guided by the compass needle of demonstrable facts I've said that the cornea like membrane of the insects earbag does not appear capable of responding to bodily airwaves this adjective is important because there are vibratory movements of matter that are not bodily but molecular an analogy may help to render this distinction intelligible I may take a long string of beads and shake wave like movements the waves being formed by the movements of the whole string we may now conceive another kind of movement or vibration by supposing one bead to receive a blow pushing it forward this push to be communicated to the next then to the third and so on producing a minute running tremor passing from end to end this kind of action may be rendered visible by laying a number of billiard balls or marbles in line and bowling an outside ball against the end one of the row the impulse will be rapidly and invisibly transmitted all along the line and the outer ball will respond by starting forward heat light and electricity are mysterious internal movements of what we call matter some say ether which is but a name for imaginary matter these internal movements are as invisible as those of the intermediate billiard balls but if there be a line of molecules acting thus and the terminal one strikes an organ of sense fitted to receive its motion some sort of perception may follow when such movements of certain frequency and amplitude strike our organs of vision the sensation of light is produced when others of greater amplitude and smaller frequency strike the terminal outspread of our common sensory nerves the sensation of heat results the difference between the frequency and amplitude of the heat waves and the light waves is but small or strictly speaking there is no actual line of separation lying between them they run directly into each other when a piece of metal is gradually heated it is first black hot this is while the waves or molecular tremblings are of a certain amplitude and frequency as the frequency increases and amplitude diminishes or to borrow from musical terms as the pitch rises the metal becomes dull red hot greater rapidity cherry red greater still bright red then yellow hot and white hot the luminosity growing as the rapidity of molecular vibration increases there is no such gradation between the most rapid undulations or tremblings that produce our sensation of sound and the slowest of those which give rise to our sensations of gentlest warmth there is a huge gap between them wide enough to include another world or several other worlds of motion all lying between our world of sounds and our world of heat and light and there is no good reason whatever for supposing that matter is incapable of such intermediate activity or that such activity may not give rise to intermediate sensations provided there are organs for taking up and sensifying if I may coin a desirable word these movements as already stated the limit of audible tremors is three to four thousand per second but the smallest number of tremors that we can perceive as heat is between three and four millions of millions per second the number of waves producing red light is estimated at four hundred and seventy four millions of millions per second and for the production of violet light six hundred and ninety nine millions of millions these are the received conclusions of our best mathematicians which I repeat on their authority allowing however a very large margin of possible error the world of possible sensations lying between those produced by a few thousands of waves and any number of millions is of enormous with in such a world of intermediate activities the insect probably lives with a sense of vision revealing to him more than our microscopes showed us and with his minute I like your bag sensifying material movements that lie between our world of sounds and our far distant worlds of heat and light there's yet another indication of some sort of intermediate sensation possessed by insects many of them are not only endowed with the thousands of lenses of their compound eyes but have in addition several curious organs that have been designated by Ocelli and Stemata these are generally placed at the top of the head the thousand fold eyes being at the sides they are very much like the auditory organs above described so much so that in consulting different authorities for special information on the subject I have fallen into some confusion from which I can only escape by supposing that the organ which one anatomist describes as the Ocelli of certain insects is regarded as the auditory apparatus when examined in another insect by another anatomist all this indicates a sort of continuity of sensation connecting the sounds of the insect world with the objects of their vision but these ocular ears or auditory eyes of the insect are not his only advantage over us he has another sensory organ to which with all our boasted intellect we can claim nothing that is comparable unless it be our all-factory nerve the possibility of this I will presently discuss I refer to the antennae which are the most characteristic of insect organs and wonderfully developed in some as may be seen by examining the plumes of the crested neck everybody who has carefully watched the doings of insects must have observed the curiously investigative movements of the antennae which are ever on the alert peering and prying to right and left and upwards and downwards Hubert who devoted his life to the study of bees and ants concluded that these insects converse with each other by movements of the antennae and he is given to the signs thus produced the name of antennae language they certainly do communicate information or give orders by some means and when the insects stop for that purpose they face each other and execute peculiar wavings of these organs that are highly suggestive of the movements of the old semaphore telegraph arms the most generally received opinion is that these antennae are very delicate organs of touch but some recent experiments made by Gustav Hansen indicate that they are organs of smelling or of some similar power of distinguishing objects at a distance flies deprived of their antennae ceased to display any interest in tainted meat that previously proved very attractive other insects similarly treated appear to become indifferent to odors generally he shows that the development of the antennae in different species corresponds to the power of smelling which they seem to possess I'm sorely tempted to add another argument to those brought forward by Hansen viz that our own olfactory nerves and those of all our near mammalian relations are curiously like a pair of antennae there are two elements in a nervous structure the gray and the white the gray or ganglionic portion is supposed to be the center or seat of nervous power and the white medullary or fibrous portion merely the conductor of nervous energy the nerves of the other senses have their ganglia seated internally and bundles of tubular white threads spread outwards there from but not so with the olfactory nervous apparatus these present two horn-like projections that are thrust forward from the base of the brain and have white or medullary stems that terminate outwardly or anteriorly in ganglionic bulbs resting upon what I may call the roof of the nose these bulbs throw out fibers that are composed rather paradoxically of more gray matter than white in some quadrupeds with great power of smell the olfactory nerves extend so far forward as to protrude beyond the front of the hemispheres of the brain with bulbous terminations relatively very much larger than those of man they thus appear like veritable antennae in some of our best works on anatomy of the brain soli for example a series of comparative pictures of the brains of different animals is shown extending from man to the codfish as we proceed downwards the horn-like projection of the olfactory nerves beyond the central hemispheres goes on extending more and more and the relative magnitude of the terminal ganglia or olfactory lobes increases in similar order we have only to omit the nasal bones and nostrils to continue this forward extrusion of the olfactory nerves and their bulbs and branches to coat them with suitable sheaths provided with muscles for mobility and we have the antennae of insects I submit this view of the comparative anatomy of these organs as my own speculation to be taken for what it is worth there's no doubt that the antennae of these creatures are connected by nerve stocks with the interior part of their supra esophageal ganglia i.e. the nervous centers corresponding to our brain but what kind and degree of power must such olfactory organs possess the dog has relatively to the rest of his brain a much greater development of the olfactory nerves and ganglia than man has his powers of smell are so much greater than ours that we find it difficult to conceive the possibility of what we actually see him do as an example i may describe an experiment i made upon a bloodhound of the famous cuban breed he belonged to a friend whose house is situated on an eminence commanding an extensive view i started from the garden and wondered about a mile away crossed several fields by sinuous courses climbing over styles and jumping ditches always keeping the house in view i then returned by quite a different track the bloodhound was set upon the beginning of my track i watched him from a window galloping rapidly and following all its windings without the least halting or hesitation it was as clear to his nose as a gravel path or a luminous streak would be to our eyes on his return i went down to him and without approaching nearer than five or six yards he recognized me as the object of his search proving this by circling round me baying deeply and savagely though harmlessly as he always kept at about the same distance footnote what did he smell was it an emanation from the soles of my feet if so how did this aura get through the soles of my boots which were thick it could scarcely have been the odor of the boot soles themselves that he followed recognized me afterwards at some distance this suggest an interesting experiment that anyone owning one of these dogs may easily try make a similar track to mine but when on the way take off the boots you wore on starting and change them for someone else's boots or a new pair and watch the results from the window end of footnote if the difference of development between the human and canine internal antennae produces all this difference of function what a gulf may there be between our powers of perceiving material emanations and those possessed by insects if my anatomical hypothesis is correct some insects have protruding nasal organs or out thrust olfactory nerves as long as all the rest of their bodies the power of movement of these in all directions affords the means of sensory communication over a corresponding range instead of connected merely to the direction of the nostril openings in some insects such as the plumes net the antennae do not appear to be thus movable but this once of mobility is more than compensated by the multitude of branchings of these wonderful organs whereby they are simultaneously exposed in every direction this structure is analogous to the fixed but multiplied eyes of insects which by seeing all rounded once compensate for the once of ability possessed by others that have but a single eyeball mounted on a flexible and mobile stock that of the spider for example such an extension of such a sensory function is equivalent to living in another world of which we have no knowledge and can form no definite conception we by our senses of touch and vision know the shapes and colors of objects and by our very rudimentary olfactory organs form crude ideas of their chemistry composition through the medium of their material emanations but the huge exaggeration of this power in the insect should supply him with instinctive perceptive powers of chemical analysis a direct acquaintance with the inner molecular constitution of matter far clearer and deeper than we are able to obtain by all the refinements of laboratory analyses or the hypothetical formulating of molecular mathematicians add this to the other world of sensations producible by the vibratory movements of matter lying between those perceptible by our organs of hearing and vision then strain your imagination to its cracking point and you will still fail to picture the wonderland in which the smallest of our fellow creatures may be living moving and having their being end of chapter 5 recording by Colleen McMahon