AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
[THIRD SERIES.] 
Oe 
Art. VIIIl—The arth a Magnetic Shell; by FRANK H. 
| BIGELOW. 
[Communicated by permission of the Chief of the Weather Bureau. | 
‘Tue working hypothesis, upon which my research into the 
modes of the transference of energy from the sun to the earth 
has been conducted, includes the electro-magnetic radiation 
along the ecliptic, and the magnetic radiation at right angles to 
the ecliptic, near the earth. There are evidently three princi- 
pal branches to the problem, (1) the vectors of the electro- 
magnetic field at the earth, (2) the vectors of the magnetic 
field at the earth, (8) the transformation of these ether vibra- 
tions in the atmosphere into heat, electricity and mechanical 
forces. In previous papers, the vectors of the electro-magnetic 
field have been given, some important relations in the trans- 
formation of the magnetic field into heat have been shown and 
the nature of a number of subordinate problems developed. 
In this paper it is proposed to give the vectors of the polar 
magnetic field at the earth, together with certain deductions 
suggested by the same. It is most important to exhibit in 
detail the stream lines of this cosmical magnetic field emitted 
by the sun, at the earth, because the theory of a magnetic radi- 
ation from the sun is so novel to science, that its existence may 
have seemed purely hypothetical to many who have not 
_ attempted to study the same. in its individual effects. If the 
several sets of phenomena attributed to it, namely the aurora, 
magnetic disturbances, earth currents, and meteorological peri- 
odic variations, actually have their seat in this cause, then it is 
clear that a definite system of forces, well adapted to produce 
Am. Jour. Scr.—Tuirp Series, Vou. L, No. 296.—Avaust, 1895. 
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