Summation 

 Sun 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



666 



he refused to buy from the first in the 

 row. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 3, p. 84. 

 (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3295. SUN AS A FURNACE Pennsyl- 

 vania's Coal Supply as Fuel The Sun's Heat 

 Constant through All Historic Time. How 

 is this heat [of the sun] maintained? Not 

 by the miracle of a perpetual self-sustained 

 flame, we may be sure. But, then, by what 

 fuel is such a fire fed? There can be no 

 question of simple burning, like that of coal 

 in the grate, for there is no source of sup- 

 ply adequate to the demand. The State of 

 Pennsylvania, for instance, is underlaid by 

 one of the richest coal-fields of the world, 

 capable of supplying the consumption of the 

 whole country at its present rate for more 

 than a thousand years to come. If the 

 source of the solar heat (whatever that is) 

 were withdrawn, and we were enabled to 

 carry this coal there, and shoot it into 

 the solar furnace fast enough to keep up 

 the known heat supply, so that the solar 

 radiation would go on at just its actual 

 rate, the time which this coal would last 

 is easily calculable. It would not last days 

 or hours, but the whole of these coal-beds 

 would demonstrably be used up in rather 

 less than one one - thousandth of a sec- 

 ond! We find by a similar calculation that 

 if the sun were itself one solid block of 

 coal it would have burned out to the last 

 cinder in less time than man has certainly 

 been on the earth. But during historic 

 times there has as surely been no notice- 

 able diminution of the sun's heat, for the 

 olive and the vine grow just as they did 

 three thousand years ago, and the hypothesis 

 of an actual burning becomes untenable. 

 LANGLEY New Astronomy, ch. 4, p. 97. 

 (H. M. & Co., 1896.) 



3296. SUN A ST&R-But a Point as 

 Seen from Other Stars Night Wraps the 

 Universe Except around Each Star. Let us 

 suppose ourselves, then, on the cun. nearest 

 to ours. From there our dazzling furnace 

 is already lost like a little star, hardly rec- 

 ognizable among the constellations: earth, 

 planets, comets sail in the invisible. We are 

 in a new system. If we thus approach each 

 star we find a sun, while all the other suns 

 of space are reduced to the rank of stars. 

 Strange reality! the normal state of the 

 universe is night. What we call day only 

 exists for us because we are near a star. 

 FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. vi, ch. 

 1, p. 554. (A.) 



3297. SUN, CHROMOSPHERE OF, 

 AN OCEAN OF FIRE Metals in Vapor- 

 Mountains of Glowing Hydrogen. Below the 

 corona [of the sun], descending, we find the 

 chromosphere, a sheet of fire from 6,000 to 

 9,000 miles in thickness, and which, here 

 and there, is projected in immense masses 

 which we might call flames, if this expres- 

 sion were not, in spite of its eloquence, very 

 much below the reality. We call flame and 

 fire that which burns; but the gases of the 



solar atmosphere are raised to such a degree 

 of temperature that it is impossible for them 

 to burn! Extremes meet. Hydrogen forms 

 the upper part of the chromosphere; but 

 as we descend we find vapors of magnesium, 

 iron, and a great number of metals. The 

 prominences are due to projections of hydro- 

 gen, shot up with velocities which exceed 

 240,000 meters (149 miles) per second. The 

 eruption sometimes continues during several 

 hours and even during several days, and 

 these immense luminous clouds remain sus- 

 pended without moving until they fall back 

 in showers of fire on the solar surface. How 

 can we conceive, how express, these tremen- 

 dous operations of solar nature! If we call 

 the chromosphere an ocean of fire, it should 

 be added that it is an ocean hotter than 

 the most intense fiery furnace, and also deep- 

 er than the Atlantic is wide. If we call 

 these movements hurricanes, it should be 

 remarked that our hurricanes blow with a 

 force of 100 miles an hour, while on the sun 

 they blow with a violence of 100 miles a 

 second ! Shall we compare them to volcanic 

 eruptions? Vesuvius buried Pompeii and 

 Herculaneum under its lava; a solar erup- 

 tion rising in a few seconds to 60,000 miles 

 in height would swallow up the entire earth 

 in its rain of fire, and reduce to ashes all 

 terrestrial life in less time than you take 

 to read these lines. If our globe could fall 

 into the sun it would melt and evaporate 

 on arriving there like a flake of snow on 

 red-hot iron. FLAMMARION Popular As- 

 tronomy, bk. iii, ch. 5, p. 296. (A.) 



3298. SUN LIFTS GLACIER TO 

 MOUNTAIN Brings River Down. The sun, 

 by the act of vaporization, lifts mechanic- 

 ally all the moisture of our air, which when 

 it condenses falls in the form of rain, and 

 when it freezes falls as snow. In this solid 

 form it is piled upon the Alpine heights, 

 and furnishes materials for glaciers. But 

 the sun again interposes, liberates the solidi- 

 fied liquid, and permits it to roll by gravity 

 to the sea. The mechanical force of every 

 river in the world as it rolls towards the 

 ocean is drawn from the heat of the sun. 

 No streamlet glides to a lower level without 

 having been first lifted to the elevation from 

 which it springs by the power of the sun. 

 The energy of winds is also due entirely to 

 the same power. TYNDAIX Fragments of 

 Science, vol. i, ch. 16, p. 378. (A., 1897.) 



3299. SUN NOT STATIONARY So- 

 lar System Moves toward Constellation Her- 

 cules. The sun is not motionless in space. 

 He moves on and draws with him the earth 

 and the whole planetary system. We have 

 detected his motion by that of the stars. 

 When we travel on the railway, with the 

 velocity of the new Pegasus of modern sci- 

 ence, through countries diversified with 

 fields, meadows, woods, hills, and villages, 

 we see all the objects flying past us in a 

 direction opposite to that of our motion. 

 Well, by carefully watching the stars, we 



