1892.] VEEDER — THUNDERSTORMS. 141,. 



currents upon precisely the same principles as are employed in the- 

 construction of dynamos. In other words, if the sun were to cease 

 rotating there would be no origination and conduction of currents- 

 through the agency of induction acting upon surrounding meteoric 

 debris or otherwise, no matter how much eruptive energy might be 

 displayed. But such currents having been originated their propaga- 

 tion in a certain direction exclusively corresponds to what is known 

 generally in regard to the behaviour of such forces. During mag- 

 netic storms for example, the telegraph lines in some one direction 

 may be entirely disabled while all others are working freely. Thus 

 induction developes lines of force, temporary poles, attractions and 

 repulsions and the like, which in the case of the sun are simply 

 exhibited upon a grander scale. The principles involved do not differ 

 from those being familiarized in the ordinary commercial applications, 

 of magnetism and electricity. The thunderstorm and the aurora are 

 but the flashing of the spark incidental to the charging up and whirling 

 of the great dynamos best known as sun and planets. 



The simplest electrometer experiment shows that the atmosphere- 

 is constantly electrified. That such electrification is capable of pro- 

 ducing motion is shown by the play of air currents about the points- 

 of an electrical machine in operation. Such an experiment affords a 

 presumption at least that the same thing may occur on a larger scale 

 in nature. The eastward push of anti-cyclones, and attendant intensi- 

 fication of storms, and the vast re-arrangements of the distribution 

 of pressure both in isolated cases and continuously in series of 

 months and years all occur in such manner and with such surround- 

 ings as are consistent with the view that they depend upon these 

 inductive forces and none other. Certainly there can be no heating 

 up of continents or seas in a single day adequate to account for such 

 intensification of barometric conditions and rapidity of movement, 

 as often appears. 



In years when magnetic forces are at a maximum the belts of 

 sun spots on each side of the solar equator are transferred to higher 

 latitudes, as though the force of induction had reacted upon the sun 

 itself. This corresponds precisely to the coincident change in the 

 location of the belts of anti-cyclones upon the earth due to the same 

 cause, they also being concentric with the magnetic poles rather than 

 with the axis of rotation. Certainly in the case of the sun, this belt- 

 like arrangement and its transference back and forth in latitude 

 cannot be due to any heating up of the equatorial regions from an^ 

 external source, there being no other sun shining upon our sun com- 



