ABOUT THE ATMOSPHERE AND ITS PHENOMENA. 711 



at the highest elevations attained for observation, would bo about thirty 

 miles. Its theoretical height — that is the point at which gravity would 

 cease to control it with the Earth's rotation — is twenty-one thousand miles. 

 That it does not extend thus fer optical experiment demonstrates. 



These formula as to the air are from the latest and best authorities. 

 And here it may be proper to state, that when any data are used, they are 

 taken from accredited authority — they are not mine — they may betaken as 

 facts; only the conclusions, good or bad, maybe laid to this paper, and 

 arc alone chargeable to it. This statement is necessary because it is im- 

 possible in an hour to give references, to say nothing of quotations. It is 

 only from these facts coming under notice in the desultory reading of a 

 journalist, that I have ventured to ask a few questions as to the nature of 

 these facts, or the origin of the element to which they belong. 



The above is the chemical composition of the air — or rather what chem- 

 ical experiment has determined as the elements composing the atmosphere. 



We must not make the common mistake, and designate the air as a com- 

 bination of these elements in a chemical sense — for it is not. It is simply 

 a mixture of these gases. A chemical combination of two or more sub- 

 stances always produces a new one — or a substance differing in quality 

 from any of its components. Water is oxygen and hydrogen combined — 

 a chemical combination — air is simply a mixture. And in determining the 

 offices of the atmosphere, and investigating its phenomena this fact is of 

 fundamental importance. 



And now, before inquiring into the nature of the atmosphere, let us 

 first examine the commonly accepted theory of the phenomena witnessed, 

 and its primary movements that we call the wind. For if this theory ac- 

 counts for these phenomena satisfactorily, mere conjecture as to something 

 else is not only waste of time, but without apology. And this commonly 

 accepted theory is nearly two hundred years old — and has been endorsed 

 by what the scientific world recognizes as regular authority. 



The popular idea is that the atmosphere is a distinct element, or crea- 

 tion, enveloping the -earth — constant and unchangeable — and which is of 

 itself inert and without individuality, so to speak — a plastic element, mov- 

 ing as impressed by external agency — and that agency heat from the Sun. 



The most noticeable of atmspoheric phenomena are the winds. Halley, 

 in 1686, as a mere hypothesis, proposed what has ever since been accepted 

 as a fact or law — that the movement of the air — or winds — was due to 

 the Sun's heat, and that all the varied manifestations, from the zephyr to 

 the hurricane, w^ere the results of this agency in modified or intense 

 activity. 



The most constant and noticeable of all these movements are the trade 

 winds, which blow from both sides of the equator toward it. This fact was 

 the origin of the theory, but the cause of the fact, as given in the theory, 

 does not accord with observations since. The theory of Halley was briefly 

 this : 



