458 On Electricity and its Present Applications. [August, 
The mean diameter of the Earth is 7912 miles ; height of 
the atmosphere 45 miles; consequently the diameter of the 
Earth and its envelope is 8002 miles, and the area of its 
diametrical section would be — 
8 -gi- 2 x 3*1416 = 50,315,870 of miles. 
2 
Distance of the Earth and Sun, 92 millions of miles , 
therefore 184 = the diameter of Earth s yearly ciicuit round 
the Sun. This multiplied by 3-1416 gives 578,054,400 as 
the circumference or length of the annual circuit. This 
again multiplied by 50,315,878, the area of the Earth’s 
section, gives 29,002,310,043,428,000 as the number of cubic 
miles in cylinder made by the Earth in its annual couise 
round the Sun. This divided by 1,565,800, the number of 
grains in a ton, gives 1,857,980,378 as the number of tons 
annually brought within the attractive power of the Earth, 
and as the possible annual addition to its mass. Spread 
over the globe, with its 197,000,000 of square miles, this 
would yield about 9-43 tons to the square mile. Allowing 
6080 feet to the mile, a square mile would consist of 
36.966.400 square feet. This divided by 9'43 tons, or 
147.862.400 grains, would give 0-31 gr. per square foot as the 
possible amount of matter depositable on the Earth ; or 
31 grains, if we suppose a cubic mile of ether to contain 
100 grains of matter. At this rate it would require fifty 
thousand years for the addition of one ton — say a cart-load 
— per square mile of matter being added to the suiface of 
the Earth. . 
The greater part of the matter would probably be in the 
form of water and other fluid substances, which would find 
their ultimate place of deposit in the ocean, and would not 
make much recognisable addition to the material of our 
globe. It is possible, too, that the whole of the ether thus 
moleculated does not become incorporated with the Earth. 
A portion of it lying next to the outer boundary of the 
imagined cylinder may probably, though sufficiently within 
the power of the Earth’s gravitation as to have its atoms 
brought within chemical attraction, not be sufficiently near 
it to be drawn to its surface, and it may thus either drift 
away in some other direction, or remain in equipoise like 
the Moon, and, also like it, circulate with the Earth round 
the Sun. 
The foregoing reasoning, if applicable to the Earth, must 
of course also be so to all the other planetary bodies, as 
well as to the suns or stars of the whole universe, thus 
