l894-J VEEDER SOLAR ELECTRICAL ENERGY. 247 



So when a body falls to the ground and thenceforth remains 

 stationary in that location it is not conceivable thafit is held in place 

 by any form of ether pulsation or atomic movement. It simply has 

 weight, which is a property as essential to the existence of matter as 

 is occupancy of space, but which cannot be represented under the 

 same forms of statement. It is a force and is not to be pictured out 

 as visibly extended and having parts and dimensions. In other 

 words it does not come under the category of space relations. So 

 likewise the thing that puts power into a gunpowder explosion cannot 

 be defined otherwise than as being chemical force. In like manner 

 the thing that puts lifejnto a tree is vital force. These and all the 

 other properties that might be named, such as cohesiveness, capillary 

 attraction and the like, are essential to the very existence of matter 

 in the forms in which we find it. Iron would not be iron if its 

 chemical properties were lacking. A rose would not be a rose 

 without the power of life and growth. So color, temperature, and 

 electrical conditions are essential to various forms of existence as 

 they actually appear. 



On the other hand the manifestations of energy resultant from 

 these properties cannot be had in the absence of the particular 

 substances in which they reside. Even if the ether of space should 

 have any of these properties they are not those of matter in the 

 ordinary forms with which we are familiar. Thus if the ether has 

 any electrical conductivity whatever, which is doubtful, it certainly is 

 almost infinitely small as compared with that of iron wire and 

 various other material substances. 



Without entering further into the discussion of their general 

 relations we proceed to the consideration of the behavior of magnetic 

 storms specifically. Such storms may be expected to afford a test 

 case as to the manner of conveyance of electrical energy through 

 interplanetary space, they plainly being of extra-terrestrial origin. 

 Here, if anywhere, evidence of transmission of electrical forces through 

 radiation should appear. As a matter of fact such magnetic disturban- 

 ces are apt to begin abruptly, it may be throughout the entire earth at 

 practically the same instant of time. Thus in the case of very power- 

 ful outbreaks, within a few seconds at most, the magnets in all obser- 

 vatories begin to give evidence of agitation which is of such fitful and 

 variable character that it cannot bear any relation whatever to 

 preliminary heating or cooling, which would necessarily be slow and 

 confined to parts of the earth exposed directly to heat radiations. In 



