I'EliRrARV, 1912. 



KX(^\VLi:nc,i 



sufjgestions of solution ; suggestions that tlie diligent 

 observers of solar phenomena may am|ilif\-, confirm 

 or disprove. 



TiiK Coming Eclipsk ok thk Sin. 



The approaching eclipse is one that should he 

 utilized to put manv of these suggestions to the test. 

 These physical inductions 

 and deductions should be 

 used as working hypo- 

 theses to tell what work 

 should be done in the 

 llying moments of that 

 s u p r e m e astronomical 

 event, the forthcoming; 

 total eclipse of the Sun. 

 l"or we have to remember 

 that, although our Sun is 

 a very insignificant little 

 Sun amidst the giant orbs 

 we call the stars, lie is 

 hundreds of thousantls nt 

 times the nearest star to 

 the Marth, and hence 

 possibly capable of sug- 

 gesting information as to the physical constituents 

 of the giant suns of the firmament even better than 

 those distant orbs can tell us by their own atomic 

 songs, as we read them in the rainbow-tinted streak, 

 the cypher message of the wondrous story. Hence, 

 the problem of the Sun is the supreme problem of 

 the whole range of 

 astro-physical re- 

 search. 



How TIIK Heat ok 

 THI-: Sin is Khi-t 

 Up. 

 There is very little 

 doubt but Helmholt/'s 

 suggestion that the 

 Sun's heat is kept u|i 

 l)y compression is true. 

 The fall of molecules 

 is thedynamical source 

 of the Sun's heat. 

 The surface molecules 

 radiate heat and lose 

 speed, and the gravi- 

 tating power of the 

 Sun draws them 

 nearer to his centre, 

 and as they fall into 

 this new position their 

 speed increases. It 

 becomes so much 

 greater than it was before, that the entire tem- 

 perature of the Sun gets higher. Thus we have 

 the parado.xical fact that the Sun gets hotter 

 the more heat it loses ; that is, as long as it 

 remains in the condition of free gas. It may be 

 shown that a free gaseous sphere doubles its 



temperature when it is reduced to one half its 

 diameter: that is, to eight times its original density. 

 There is far more heat generated by this enormous 

 compression than would double the temperature of 

 the gas. but a large ratio is dissipated as radiant 

 energy. Tlie (piantitx' of this ratio depends to some 

 extent nil the cliaractrr of the molecules of the gas 

 that is being acted upon. 

 Almost certainly selective 

 inolrrular escape is at 

 work in ail free gaseous 

 masses, tending to sort 

 tlie chemical elements 

 so as to arrange them in 

 such a manner that the 

 heaviest are in the 

 interior. The elements 

 progressively lessen in 

 .itomic weight as we get 

 turther from the centre. 

 At the surface itself we 

 get the lightest of the 

 elements, helium, hxdro- 

 gen, nebiiliiini. and so 

 on. 



AND \'oi.c \X()i:s. 



taken at Cliahot Ohsetl-atofy. 



Solar I'niiiiinences. 



Look in 

 dynamics 

 e.xternal : 

 surface W' 



Sol.AK ST()KM^ 



upon the 1 



■>•': a /.hotovap^i FlGL'KED.i. 



The Corona, as seen in the total Solar Eclipse of Ma 



;is iiiu- of gaseous 

 it wduld seem as tlloiigh, were there no 

 (lit acting upon a mass of gas, that the 

 lid he much more smooth and subject to 

 much less tumult than 

 we find on the surface 

 of the Sun. Most of 

 the strange behaviour 

 of material on the 

 solar surface seems 

 tf) receive a solution 

 if we look upon the 

 Zodiacal light as a 

 \ast meteoric append- 

 age to the Sun, 

 meteoric particles 

 w hose angular velocity 

 is too great to allow 

 them to be absorbed 

 with the general 

 shrinking gaseous ma- 

 terial that forms the 

 Sun himself. I do 

 not propose now to 

 give an account of mv 

 idea of the origin of 

 the Sun and the 

 solar system, other 

 than to state that I 

 look upon the collision that formed the Sun as 

 almost a direct one, and that the whole of the bodies 

 that revolve about the Sun were material that did 

 not come into impact. They extended beyond the 

 region of actual collision and whirled around at such 

 a velocit\- as to be able to balance themselves in 



2Sth, 1900. 



