SPHERAL EVOLUTION. 553 
ican Falls, until we reached Medberry west of King Hill, they were all reversed 
except when the storm-cloud had performed its circle; then an open circuit would 
occur between the stations mentioned, although the line was intact. 
The coming' of these peculiar storms could be foretold by tne strange hum- 
ming noises, not like that made by the wind, but more like humming of bees, as 
we sometimes think we hear in a telephone receiver. 
Taking off the main battery at Shoshone seemed to have but little effect 
upon the telegraph line during the prevalence of these storms. The relay mag- 
nets could not be adjusted to overcome these accumulations as is done in this 
section. When the main batteries were off the ground wires were on, showing 
the presence of an earth current as well as an air current on the wires. 
There is possibly a solution of the difficulty in working of our telegraph 
wires during such an electrical display as we had last winter and spring. The 
writer has a theory regarding earth currents during these storms, and hopes at a 
future opportunity to demonstrate by actual experiment, that the '■'earth wave^^ 
is stronger than the ''air current^' as we have been led to beheve during the 
auroral displays of our winter and spring. 
It may be stated regarding the Idaho electrical storms, that there was no 
main battery on the telegraph wire west of Shoshone during the past summer, as 
the wire was in process of construction. There was also a slight escape of elec- 
tricity from the wire through the "switch-board" to the lightning arrestor, but 
not as great as in an ordinary thunderstorm, such as we have witnessed at Kansas 
City and other cities in this section. 
PHILOSOPHY. 
SPHERAL EVOLUTION. 
CHARLES MORRIS, PHILADELPHIA. 
All the life and activity of the universe is dependent upon its effort to attain 
equilibrium of temperature. Yet its temperature inequality is only a temporary 
condition. A process of equilibration is in steady operation. When this reaches 
its ultimate result, and the temperature of the spheres and of space becomes 
everywhere equal, all life must cease, and general stagnation succeed the exist- 
ing play of energy. Such is, briefly stated, the celebrated hypothesis of Sir Will- 
iam Thompson, according to which the universe is a wound-up clock, which is 
kept in motion by the gradual descent of high temperatures and ascent of all low 
ones, and which will run down when temperature becomes everywhere equal, 
and will thenceforward remain in eternal rest. 
This hypothesis is not an agreeable one to contemplate, and many strenuous 
