THE
SOURCE AND MODE
OF
SOLAR ENERGY
THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.
BY
I. W. HEYSINGER, M.A., M.D.
ILLUSTRATED.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1895.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction 7
CHAPTER I.
Statement of the Problem of Solar Energy 17
CHAPTER II.
The Constitution and Phenomena of the Sun 39
CHAPTER III.
The Mode of Solar Energy 70
CHAPTER IV.
The Source of Solar Energy 96
CHAPTER V.
The Distribution and Conservation of Solar Energy 139
CHAPTER VI.
The Phenomena of the Stars 162
CHAPTER VII.
Temporary Stars, Meteors, and Comets 187
CHAPTER VIII.
The Phenomena of Comets 210
CHAPTER IX.
Interpretation of Cometic Phenomena 225
CHAPTER X.
The Resolvable Nebulæ, Star-Clusters and Galaxies 237
CHAPTER XI.
The Gaseous Nebulæ 253
CHAPTER XII.
The Nebular Hypothesis: its Basis and its Difficulties 268
CHAPTER XIII.
The Genesis of Solar Systems and Galaxies 282
CHAPTER XIV.
The Mosaic Cosmogony 308
CHAPTER XV.
Conclusion. The Harmony of Nature's Laws and
Operations 341
Reference Index of Authorities Cited 349
Classified Index of Subject-Matter 353
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Figs. 1 to 8. Types from nature, illustrating development
of a solar system from the attenuated matter of
space Frontispiece.
Fig. 9. A typical sun-spot 57
Fig. 10. Structure of the sun, analytical illustration of 60
Fig. 11. Electrical polarities of sun and planets 82
Fig. 12. Ideal view of the generation and transmission of
planetary electricity 89
Fig. 13. The aurora borealis, view of 91
Fig. 14. Diffused brush discharge of an electrical machine 91
Fig. 15. Planetary generation and transmission of electrical
energy to the sun, analytical illustration of 101
Fig. 16. Gradual discharge of electricity from one conductor
to another in a partial vacuum 103
Fig. 17. Sudden electrical discharge through the atmosphere 103
Fig. 18. Position of planets with reference to the generation
of sun-spots; maximum and minimum of electrical
action 108
Fig. 19. Analysis of a typical sun-spot 112
Fig. 20. Retardation of sun-spots in their travel across the
solar face; development to the rear and recession in
front 114
Figs. 21 and 22. Complex lines of planetary electrical action
upon the sun produced by the inclination of the solar
axis to the plane of the ecliptic 120
Figs. 23 to 29. Examples of electrical repulsion: Fig. 1,
similarly electrified pith-balls; Fig. 2, the
electrical windmill; Fig. 3, repulsion of a flame;
Fig. 4, self-repulsion around a conductor; Fig. 5,
attraction between opposite and repulsion between
similar electricities; Fig. 6, mutual repulsion
between similar + electrospheres of the earth and
the moon; Fig. 7, mutual repulsion between the
similar--electrospheres of sun and comet 124
Figs. 30 to 34. Spectra of solar light, incandescent sodium
and calcium, and the absorption and bright-line
spectra of hydrogen gas 155
Figs. 35 to 37. Reversal and neutralization of spectroscopic
lines of hydrogen in the light of a variable star
like Betelgeuse 160
Fig. 38. A double-sun nebula in process of development into
a solar system 164
Fig. 39. Double stars with complementary colors,
interpretation of the phenomena of 167
Fig. 40. A solar system which would explain the regular
variability of the star Mira 178
Fig. 41. Lineal nebula in Sobieski's Crown which has been
affected by currents in the ocean of space 189
Figs. 42 to 45. Four stages in the phenomena of a new or
temporary star, a "star in flames;" reversal of the
hydrogen lines in its spectrum 196
Figs. 46 and 47. Illustration of repulsion of the tail of a
comet by the similarly electrified solar
electrosphere; comparison with similar repulsion in
a vacuum-chamber experiment 211
Figs. 48 and 49. The electroscope, and mutual electrical
repulsion in a bundle of dry straws 225
Fig. 50. Experiment with a candle and currents of air from
between two disks, illustrating the radial
semi-rotation of a comet's tail during perihelion 230
Figs. 51 to 54. Four non-systemic gaseous nebulæ: Fig. 1,
crab nebula; Fig. 2, dumb-bell nebula; Fig. 3, lineal
nebula in Sobieski's Crown; Fig. 4, Catherine-wheel
nebula. The latter illustrates the formation of a
planetary nebula with a hollow center, or else
dispersion into the elements of space again 263
Fig. 55. Great spiral nebula in Canes Venatici and a small
adjacent nebula affected thereby 273
Figs. 56 to 59. Four gaseous nebulæ in process of development
into solar systems: Fig. 1, divergent spiral; Fig. 2,
later stage of a similar spiral; Fig. 3, subsequent
stage of rupture of the nearly circular convolutions
of a similar nebula; Fig. 4, the same stage in the
development of a solar system with a double sun 279
Fig. 60. Nucleated planetary nebula, showing its external ring
split and held apart, in part of its circumference,
by electrical repulsion 288
Fig. 61. Divergent spiral nebula on cover of book.
INTRODUCTION.
This work is not presented to the reader as a treatise on astronomy,
although the different phenomena pertaining to that splendid science
are reviewed with some detail, and the established facts bearing
upon the subjects discussed are briefly cited in the very words of
the great writers upon whose authority they rest. A considerable
experience in chemistry, electricity, and the other allied physical
sciences long since convinced the author of this work that some
simple and uniform principle must control the production of the
physical phenomena of astronomy,--some general law capable of being
extended in its application to the widest, as well as applied to the
narrowest, limits of that science. Knowing the absolute certainty of
a magnetic and electrical connection between the sun and the earth,
as evidenced by the reflected energy of sun-spots, auroras, etc.,
and that no known cause except electricity could account for some,
at least, of the cometic phenomena, it seemed that any comprehensive
law must at all events include this mode of energy as an effective
cause, and that if the law be uniform in its application, it must
equally exclude all others which may be either antagonistic or not
necessary. A careful investigation was therefore made of those
less generally known principles concerned in the generation and
transformations of electrical energy, in order to determine the
sufficiency or insufficiency of this agency in the grander operations
of nature (for, of course, mere currents of electricity could play no
part in these phenomena), with the result that every line of research
led irresistibly to the conclusions presented in this work. These
investigations, specifically directed, at first, to the source and mode
of the solar energy of our own system alone, were found to be equally
applicable to others, and were successively extended to the whole
sidereal, nebular, and cometic field, and finally to space itself,
for all the phenomena of which it seemed to furnish an adequate
and harmonious interpretation. The fact, when once demonstrated,
that the true source of solar energy is not to be found in the sun
itself, but in the potential energy of space, served as a guiding
principle, and, by its continuously extended application, was found
to cover perfectly the source and mode of all solar energy. Every
step of the investigation has been based on the established facts
of science and the observations of eminent astronomers as laid down
by the best authorities; and the quotations herein made from their
works are full and fair, and are properly credited in every case,
and taken from books easily accessible to the general reader. It is
hoped that further attention may be directed to this field of research
by far more capable investigators than the author of this work, so
that systematic astronomy may no longer bear the reproach that it is
largely an empirical science, but that it may henceforth be based
upon rational and comprehensive principles, capable of universal
extension and of general scientific application.
The authorities cited in this work include many illustrious names:
Proctor, Tyndall, Helmholtz, Langley, Huggins, Newcomb, Young,
Flammarion, Balfour Stewart, R. Kalley Miller, Herschel, Nichol,
Lord Rosse, Urbanitsky, Crookes, Fraunhofer, Ball, and many others,
all of whom are known throughout the world as among the master minds
of science. From them we have drawn the rich stores of knowledge
of the phenomena with which this work deals, and which we have so
fully and freely cited, as the basis of the splendid superstructure
which astronomy to-day reveals. No one will venture to controvert the
statements of fact made by these eminent men, and, where conflict of
opinion has arisen among them, we have quoted all parties, so that
the reader can form his own conclusion, in each case, for himself. So
diverse, apparently, are the phenomena reviewed that they present
the aspect of a great picture-gallery, in which the paintings totally
differ from each other in subject, in treatment, and in origin, their
only common qualities being those of grandeur and fidelity to truth
and to the principles of art. But they are not merely paintings, they
are the moving panorama of creation, and, diverse as they may appear,
they will be found to show the same "handling," which reveals the same
universal artist; they have, in truth, a common mode of development and
a common principle of construction, obscure as these may seem to be.
For thousands of years "Natural History," so called, was studied and
taught; zoölogy was a well-known science far back in old historic
times. But it was left for modern biological research to turn
from these fixed and fully-developed forms of life, and go back to
trace their primal development through what is now the science of
embryology, and thus we have learned that nature traverses the same
paths in forming a man as in producing a frog or a bird. The process
is carried further along in one case than in another, but the lines
of development are almost identical; and the tracing out of these
common lines and their subsequent divergencies has shed a flood of new
light upon these dark and hitherto unknown places, so that we are now
fairly on the true highway of physical life at last. When adult forms
were alone compared, animal with animal, no common ground of origin
or development could be discerned; nature was believed to work by
"special creations," and vast cataclysms were devised to utterly
destroy the organic life of one terrestrial epoch after another,
leaving a few hardy accidental survivors, or "types," perchance,
to trace back their lines of descent beyond such periods of cyclical
destruction. All this is now changed, and these views, so recently held
and taught, have been abandoned forever, and continuously operative
natural processes of development, modified by environment and heredity,
have taken their place, and biology now has a future as well as a
past. And so it must be with the less complex, but far more extended,
creations and transformations in the vast fields of astronomical
science with which this book is concerned. Hitherto we have here,
too, dealt with "special creations" and cataclysms; henceforth we
must follow the uniform and eternal laws of progressive development.
Among the multitude of hitherto unsolved problems of astronomy we may
enumerate the following: Why sun-spots travel faster around the sun
when near his equator than when more distant from it. The physical
causes of sun-spots, faculæ, and solar prominences. Why the number and
size of sun-spots seem to affect terrestrial magnetism. The rational
interpretation of the eleven-year and the long sun-spot cycles. The
origin of the aurora borealis. The causes of the periodicity of
regularly variable stars. How to explain, in accordance with the
nebular hypothesis, why Algol and its companion, which are not
greatly different in mass and volume, and both obviously gaseous,
should so differ in character, one being a bright sun and the other
a dark planet. Whether there are great, compact, but dark bodies,
comparable to suns and planets in magnitude, and unconnected with
any solar system, floating about in space. Why double and multiple
stars are so frequently of contrasted or complementary colors. Why
regularly variable stars are longer in decline than in growth of
brilliancy, since such decline is no criterion of loss of heat,
but rather the reverse. Why the sun and fixed stars have atmospheres
largely composed of free hydrogen, and the planets have atmospheres
of free oxygen and nitrogen. Why a small and sometimes even scarcely
visible star occasionally is seen to suddenly blaze up, in a few
hours, to hundreds of times its normal brilliancy, and then far more
gradually fade, through months and years, back to its former state,
in which thenceforth it continues to maintain its original lustre. Why
comets, when they have tails, always project these appendages radially
from the direction of the sun. How to account for the presence of
cyanogen, and how for the absence of oxygen and the constant presence
of hydrocarbon vapors around the nuclei of comets. Why some comets
split up into separate comets and others sometimes show multiple
tails. Why comets, when they pass around and behind the sun, in
some cases reappear shorn of their splendor and in other cases with
their splendor greatly enhanced. Whence comets are derived, where
is their permanent abiding-place, and how did they originally reach
those distant regions which they occupy before entering our system,
if merely the débris left behind from contraction of the mass of plasma
out of which our solar system is supposed to have been formed. Why so
many of the irresolvable nebulæ present the appearance of divergent
spirals of many different forms. How to account for the annular nebulæ
with hollow centers and for those partially-completed planetary nebulæ,
so called, which afterwards appear to retrograde into diffused gaseous
nebulæ again or gradually disappear. What is the ultimate constitution
of interstellar space? Have the fixed stars planetary systems like
our own, or not? Must they have such, or merely may they have? What
principle of conservation of energy is it possible to apply to the
vast quantities of light and heat which constantly disappear in
the interstellar realms of space? How to account for this enormous
emission of solar energy during the long period of time requisite for
the development of the earth during its past geological ages. How to
explain why the moon always presents the same face to the earth. Why,
if the law of gravity prevails there, there are no visible traces of
atmosphere or moisture in the moon. What is the basic principle on
which depends the ratio of mean planetary distances, 0, 3, 6, 12, 24,
etc., always plus 4? What is the origin of the planetary satellites
and the cause of their irregular distribution, and what the origin
of Saturn's rings? How was the belt of asteroids formed between
Mars and Jupiter? Why is the orbit of Neptune relatively compressed
against that of Uranus? Why is the mass of Neptune out of its proper
proportion compared with those of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
in a diminishing series? What is the rational interpretation and what
the origin of the sun's corona and the cause of the coronal streamers?
There are many other problems equally difficult which are
encountered in the study of this noble science, but the above are
surely sufficiently striking. Any complete interpretation of these
various phenomena, even singly, would seem to be an important step in
advance; then how much more so if the explanation of one and all of
these is to be found in a single, all-embracing cause, a few simple
and uniformly operative principles, as unquestionably operative here
as in the other fields of science to which they pertain, and which,
once thoroughly comprehended and rigidly applied, will be found to
elucidate all the multifarious phenomena of sidereal space so clearly
and precisely that any intelligent observer and reasoner can determine
each question finally for himself, and solve not only these, but all
the other astronomical problems and paradoxes which have from time to
time arisen? It is not to be understood that this sublime science and
these illimitable realms are to be laid off with the metes and bounds
of a farmer's meadow, for all the lines of the different sciences are
linked together at a thousand points, but that the operative principles
which nature constantly employs once firmly grasped, the intricacy of
each series of phenomena encountered will become gradually lessened,
link by link, as observations and deductions are more closely and
rationally made along these well-established lines of research,
instead of here and there, empirically, and at hap-hazard, as has been
the only method hitherto possible to pursue. When the relatively few
fixed principles which control the operations of nature in the field
of astronomy are thoroughly comprehended, for on this vast panorama
she lays her colors with a heavy brush, we can study her phenomena
and interpret her processes even more readily than the kindred
sciences have enabled us to do in the adjacent fields of biology,
wherein the splendid achievements of less than a quarter of a century
past have not only aroused the interest and enthusiasm of the world,
but already point the way to still grander triumphs yet to come.
THE SOURCE AND MODE OF SOLAR ENERGY.
CHAPTER I.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM OF SOLAR ENERGY.
In endeavoring to present a new and rational interpretation of
the source and mode of solar energy, based upon the established
principles of recent science, it becomes necessary to briefly cite
the facts bearing upon the problem to be solved and the authorities
for their support, as well as to describe concisely the different
hypotheses at present in vogue, and to point out the well-established
insufficiency of these theories, one and all, to account for or explain
the difficulties encountered, and which so far have remained as an
unsolved enigma. And this problem of solar energy is the grandest and
most important question of all physics, for upon the light and heat
of the sun depend all physical life and its consequences, animal
and vegetable, past, present, and future. If within finite time,
and relatively, compared with the enormous vistas of the past, a very
brief time, this source of energy is to cease, and our whole system
be involved in darkness and death, such darkness and death must be
eternal; for the dead sun in his final stage of condensation will be
as fixed and unchangeable as the operation of eternal laws can make
it, and henceforth there can be no revival or reversals, no turning
back of the hand upon the dial, while the laws of nature continue;
and outside the uniform operation of the laws of nature there is no
source, or mode, or continuance of solar energy conceivable. It is true
that when our system shall have ran down to its culmination in death,
other present systems may continue for a time to exist and new ones
spring into being; but these, too, must inevitably follow the same
course, and likewise end in eternal darkness, until finally the great
experiment of creation shall have ended in eternal failure. The changes
we see in progress around us, however, are not of this nature. The
individual dies, but the forces which gave life and strength to the
race persist, and others will take his place, and the same forces will
continue to operate with constant renewals, since we draw our light
and heat and life from without; but in the death of suns and their
attendant planets there is no analogous process, for such suns are
constantly expending their enormous energies in the support of life
external to themselves, and only the smallest part of this energy,
even, can ever be utilized by themselves or by other suns or planets
under any mode of interpretation now in vogue, the boundless realms
of so-called inert and empty space receiving the same proportionate
quota of light and heat as the almost microscopic points in the sky
which constitute the suns and systems we see, and practically all,
or nearly all, of this enormous energy is an absolute dead waste; so
that whether receiving new supplies from a constant rain of adjacent
meteor streams, or from the gradual contraction of the solar volume,
the vast realms of space are the useless recipients of what can never
return to the sun again, and, of course, in such case the inevitable
end can be predicted; for contraction of volume, with a given mass,
must have an effective limit, and meteoric aggregation must also find
an effective limit, if the planets are not to be thrown out of place
as they continue to revolve around the sun.
All accepted theories begin with a primordial impulse, the energies
of which are of necessity constantly frittered away and wasted,
until finally all light and heat and life must cease to exist,
and that at a stage in which no further impulse can ever be given,
since the whole universe will have passed through every possible
stage of degradation down to the final one of universal and eternal
death. And yet this is the best that science has to suggest; the only
comfort offered us is that it will not happen in our time, and so,
"after us the deluge." The nebular hypothesis, so called, of Laplace,
has required much modification, in the light of more recent science,
but the essential principles of this theory are still generally
accepted, for they fairly well account for the primal connection of
the sun and planets, and the position of the central sun within,
with the orbital and rotational planetary movements, as no other
theory has yet done. By this theory the limits of our solar system
were once occupied by an attenuated gaseous nebula containing within
itself all the matter which now forms our solar system. This great
nebular mass, primordially assumed, was given by gravity a slow but
gradually increasing rotation upon its center; the force of gravity
acted more strongly upon this rotating body as it contracted, so
that rings of nebulous matter were successively thrown off, which
coalesced into single masses and these finally into planets. These
planetary globes themselves, as they coalesced and contracted, left
behind or threw off rings of their outer matter, which, in turn,
became moons, and finally our solar system with its central sun was
evolved as we now see it; development continued, the planets cooled
and condensed, life appeared when the conditions became suitable,
and the original progressive condensation of the central mass--the
sun--still continuing, the evolution of light and heat continues,
and will continue in a correlative degree. As our moon has passed,
apparently, beyond the stage of life, and is cold, airless, waterless,
and dead, so will the earth pass; and the larger planets, such as
Jupiter and Saturn, which have not yet reached the life stage of
condensation, are still hot, but they, too, will pass through the
present stage of the earth, then through that in which the moon now
is; and the central sun, still glowing, but more and more dimly, will
itself pass through the stages in which Jupiter and Saturn now are,
then through that of our present earth, and finally into that of the
moon, long before which time the emission of all light and heat will
have ceased from the sun to its encircling planets, and finally the
sun itself will sink into eternal frigidity, and all its store of
light and heat will have been dissipated into boundless space, and
the possibility of anything resembling what we know as life will have
been forever extinguished. In considering the question of the sun's
energy, the author of the article "Sun," in Appleton's Cyclopædia,
says, "How to account for the supply of the prodigious amount of heat
constantly radiated from the solar surface has offered a boundless
field of hypothesis. One conjecture is that the sun is now giving
off the heat imparted to it at its creation, and that it is gradually
cooling down (1). Another ascribed it to combustion (2), and a third
to currents of electricity (3). Newton and Buffon conjectured that
comets might be the aliment of the sun (4); and of late years a
somewhat similar theory (first broached by Mr. Waterston in 1853)
has been in vogue,--viz., that a stream of meteoric matter constantly
pouring into the sun from the regions of space supplies its heat,
by the conversion into it of the arrested motion (5). As the sun may,
indeed, derive a small amount of heat from this cause, it deserves more
attention than previous conjectures. But conjecture and hypothesis
may be said to have given place to views which claim a higher title,
as it is now becoming generally recognized, in accordance with modern
physical theories of heat, that in the gravitation of the sun's mass
toward its center, and in its consequent condensation, sufficient
heat must be evolved to supply the present radiation, enormous as this
undoubtedly is. It appears to be susceptible of full demonstration that
a contraction of the sun's volume of a given definite amount, which
is yet so slight as to be invisible to the most powerful telescope,
is competent to furnish a heat-supply equal to all that can have been
emitted during historical periods. According to this theory, then
(which is largely due to the development by Helmholtz of Mayer's
great generalization), the sun's mass remains unaltered, and its
temperature nearly constant, while its size is slowly diminishing as
it contracts; so slowly, however, that the supply may be reckoned on
through periods almost infinite as measured by the known past of our
race, and which are in any case to be counted by millions of years
(6)." To these must be added the hypothesis of Dr. Siemens, fully
described in Professor Proctor's "Mysteries of Time and Space." This
ingenious theory, in brief, is that the rotation of the sun on its axis
causes a suction in the manner of a fan, at the poles, and a tangential
projection, at the equator, of a disk-like stream of gaseous matter
into space. The light and heat of the sun, dispersed through space,
slowly but continuously act upon the compound gases with which space
is universally pervaded to disassociate them into their elements. The
disassociated gases thus sucked in at the solar poles at an extremely
low temperature are brought into a state of combustion by friction
and condensation, thus generating new supplies of light and heat, and
the gases thus reunited by combustion are again projected into space,
to be again slowly disassociated by the operation of the sun's light
and heat. The result of this combustion is to form aqueous vapor and
carbonic acid and carbonic oxide, and these gases, when disassociated
in space, are resolved into carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, which again
and again are thus recombined and again and again decomposed as they
pass over the sun's surface (7).
The seven hypotheses above described are the only ones now in vogue,
and a brief analysis will show that no single one of them, nor all
combined, will give sufficient results to account for the essential
difficulties or known conditions of the problem. The first and second
hypotheses are answered by the fact set forth by Helmholtz (Popular
Scientific Lectures, article "On the Origin of the Planetary System"),
that, if the mass of the sun were composed of the two elements capable
by combination of producing the greatest possible light and heat,--to
wit, hydrogen and oxygen in the proportions in which they unite to
form water,--"calculation shows that under the above supposition the
heat resulting from their combustion would be sufficient to keep up
the radiation of heat from the sun three thousand and twenty-one
years. That, it is true, is a long time, but even profane history
teaches that the sun has lighted and warmed us for three thousand
years, and geology puts it beyond doubt that this period must be
extended to millions of years."
The third hypothesis relates to currents of electricity. We have no
knowledge of currents of electricity which could produce, however
multiplied or intensified, such light and heat as are constantly
poured forth from the sun into all space. That electricity is the
intermediate cause of our sun's energy, and of all solar energy, it
is the purpose of this work to demonstrate, but not electric currents,
which find their attractiveness to theorists in the vague suggestion of
which Professor Proctor speaks, referring to comets, in his article on
"Cometic Mysteries," "that perhaps this is an electrical phenomenon;
perhaps that other feature is electrical, too; perhaps all or most
of the phenomena of comets depend on electricity." But he adds, "It
is so easy to make such suggestions, so difficult to obtain evidence
in their favor having the slightest scientific value. Still, I hold
the electrical idea to be well worth careful study. Whatever credit
may hereafter be given to any electrical theory of comets will be
solely and entirely due to those who may help to establish it upon
a basis of sound evidence,--none whatever to the mere suggestion,
which has been made time and again since it was first advanced by
Fontanelle." It will be seen that the present work, in demonstrating
the true source and mode of solar energy, in itself presents a full
and sufficient explanation of all the cometic mysteries referred to,
as well as all those pertaining to other solar systems in space, and
the multifarious phenomena which they present. Indeed, the philosophic
mind will not be satisfied with the sufficiency of any hypothesis
which will not unlock the mysteries and clearly explain the phenomena
of other systems,--of comets, variable and temporary stars, double
stars, and all the complicated celestial economy which to the eye
of the mere observer presents a bewildering scene of the operation
of independent and inscrutable forces. The fifth hypothesis cited,
that of meteoric impact, doubtless plays a part, as we know from the
generation of light and heat by the constant passage of similar bodies
through our own atmosphere. And we know, of course, that the sun, by
its vastly-increased attraction, must be subjected to the constant
impact of such meteoric bodies in enormous numbers. But the fatal
defect in the theory is that such impacts, to produce the radiant
energy of the sun, must constantly add to its mass in like proportion,
and as the motions and distances of the planets in their orbits are
regulated and preserved by virtue of the substantially constant mass
of the sun, any progressive and considerable increase in its mass must
constantly bring the planets nearer and nearer, and thus increase
their orbital velocity. Helmholtz quotes from Sir William Thomson's
investigation, that, "assuming it to hold, the mass of the sun should
increase so rapidly that the consequences would have shown themselves
in the accelerated motion of the planets. The entire loss of heat from
the sun cannot, at all events, be produced in this way; at the most a
portion, which, however, may not be inconsiderable." R. Kalley Miller,
in "The Romance of Astronomy," says, "But more recent observations
have led Sir William Thomson to a modification of his theory. He
has calculated that if the meteoric shower were sufficiently heavy
to make up for the sun's whole expenditure of heat, the matter
of the corona must be so dense as seriously to perturb the orbits
of certain comets which pass very close to his surface,--a result
which is found not to be the case. But the meteoric theory is only
thrown back a step. If the sun's mass were originally formed, as is
not at all improbable, by the agglomeration of these particles, Sir
William Thomson has calculated that the heat generated by their thus
falling together would be sufficient to account for a supply of twenty
million years of solar heat at the present rate of emission. And thus,
though the meteors are not sufficient to maintain the energy of our
system unimpaired, they may yet have been the original storehouse
from which all that energy was derived.... But if the economy of our
system be spared long enough, the day must come when the sun with age
has become wan; when the matter of the corona has all been drawn in
and used up without avail; when the lavish luxuriance with which he
has showered abroad his light and heat has finally exhausted all his
stores. He has still power, aided by the resisting medium, to drag his
satellites one by one down upon his surface; and the shock of each
successive impact will, for a brief period, give him a fresh tenure
of life. When the earth crashes into the sun it will supply him with
a store of heat for nearly a century, while Jupiter's large mass will
extend the period by nearly thirty thousand years. But when the last
of the planets is swallowed up, the sun's energies will rapidly die
out and a deep and deathly gloom gather about nature's grave. Looking
into the ages of a future eternity, we can see nothing but a cold
and burnt-out mass remaining of that glorious orb which went forth
in the morning of time, joyful as a bridegroom from his chamber,
and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race."
The sixth hypothesis is that to which most credence is now given. It
is that of evolution of energy by condensation of volume. Professor
Proctor ("The Sun as a Perpetual Machine") says, "In company with this
great mystery of seeming waste comes the yet more difficult problem,
how to explain the apparent continuance of solar light and heat during
millions of years. We know from the results of geological research
that the earth has been exposed to the action of the solar rays with
their present activity during at least a hundred million years. Yet it
is difficult to see how, on any hypothesis of the generation of solar
heat, or by combining together all possible modes of heat generation,
a supply for more than twenty millions of years in the past and a
possible supply for as long a period in the future can be accounted
for." Of these vast periods of terrestrial existence in the past we
quote the following from a recent publication:
"Professor C. D. Wolcott expresses the opinion that geologic time
is not to be measured by hundreds of years, but simply by tens of
millions. This is widely different from the conclusion arrived at
by Sir Charles Lyell, who, basing his estimate on modifications of
certain specimens of marine life, assigned 240,000,000 years as the
required geological period; Darwin claimed 200,000,000 years; Crowell,
about 72,000,000; Geike, from 73,000,000 upward; McGee, Upham, and
other recent authorities claim from 100,000,000 up to 680,000,000."
Helmholtz ("On the Origin of the Planetary System") says, "It is
probable rather that a great part of this heat, which was produced by
condensation, began to radiate into space before this condensation
was complete. But the heat which the sun could have previously
developed by its condensation would have been sufficient to cover
its present expenditure for not less than 22,000,000 of years of the
past.... We may therefore assume with great probability that the sun
will still continue in its condensation, even if it only attained the
density of the earth, though it will probably become far denser in
its interior, owing to its far greater pressure; this would develop
fresh quantities of heat, which would be sufficient to maintain for
an additional 17,000,000 of years the same intensity of sunshine
as that which is now the source of all terrestrial life." Of this
process of condensation Professor Ball, in his recent work, "In
the High Heavens," says, "It goes without saying that the welfare
of the human race is necessarily connected with the continuance
of the sun's beneficent action. We have indeed shown that the few
other direct or indirect sources of heat which might conceivably
be relied upon are in the very nature of things devoid of necessary
permanence. It becomes, therefore, of the utmost interest to inquire
whether the sun's heat can be calculated on indefinitely. Here is
indeed a subject which is literally of the most vital importance,
so far as organic life is concerned. If the sun shall ever cease
to shine, then it must be certain that there is a term beyond which
human existence, or indeed organic existence of any type whatever,
cannot any longer endure on the earth. We may say once for all that
the sun contains just a certain number of units of heat, actual or
potential, and that he is at the present moment shedding that heat
around with the most appalling extravagance." Quoting from Professor
Langley, he says, "We feel certain that the incessant radiation
from the sun must be producing a profound effect on its stores of
energy. The only way of reconciling this with the total absence of
evidence of the expected changes is to be found in the supposition
that such is the mighty mass of the sun, such the prodigious supply
of heat or what is the equivalent of heat which it contains, that
the grand transformation through which it is passing proceeds at a
rate so slow that, during the ages accessible to our observations,
the results achieved have been imperceptible.... We cannot, however,
attribute to the sun any miraculous power of generating heat. That
great body cannot disobey those laws which we have learned from
experiments in our laboratories. Of course no one now doubts that the
great law of the conservation of energy holds good. We do not in the
least believe that because the sun's heat is radiated away in such
profusion it is therefore entirely lost. It travels off, no doubt,
to the depths of space, and as to what may become of it there we have
no information. Everything we know points to the law that energy is
as indestructible as matter itself. The heat scattered from the sun
exists at least as ethereal vibration, if in no other form. But it
is most assuredly true that this energy, so copiously dispensed, is
lost to our solar system. There is no form in which it is returned,
or in which it can be returned. The energy of the system is as surely
declining as the store of energy of the clock declines according as
the weight runs down. In the clock, however, the energy is restored
by winding up the weight, but there is no analogous process known in
our system." The purpose of the present work, however, is to clearly
demonstrate that just such a process is actually being carried on, and
has been so carried on from the beginning, and will be forever. This
writer continues reviewing the suppositions formerly entertained,
that the sun was a heated body gradually cooling down, or that it
was undergoing absolute combustion, and shows that they were utterly
insufficient. He then refers to the theory of meteoric supply, of
which he says, "It can, however, be shown that there are not enough
meteors in existence to supply a sufficient quantity of heat to the
sun to compensate the loss by radiation. The indraught of meteoric
matter may, indeed, certainly tend in some small degree to retard the
ultimate cooling of the great luminary, but its effect is so small
that we can quite afford to overlook it from the point of view that we
are taking in these pages. It is to Helmholtz we are indebted for the
true solution of the long-vexed problem. He has demonstrated in the
clearest manner where the source of the sun's heat lies.... A gaseous
globe like the sun, when it parts with its heat, observes laws of a
very different type from those which a cooling solid follows. As the
heat disappears by radiation the body contracts; the gaseous object,
however, decreases in general much more than a solid body would do for
the same loss of heat.... The globe of gas unquestionably radiates heat
and loses it, and the globe, in consequence of that loss, shrinks to
a smaller size.... In the facts just mentioned we have an explanation
of the sustained heat of the sun. Of course we cannot assume that
in our calculations the sun is to be treated as if it were gaseous
throughout its entire mass, but it approximates so largely to the
gaseous state in the greater part of its bulk that we can feel no
hesitation in adopting the belief that the true cause has been found."
Regarding the constitution of the sun, it may be stated, however,
that we only see its photosphere, which is the visible sun, and
the whole volume has a density about that of water; but no man
has ever seen the body of the sun itself. In this respect it is
like the planet Jupiter: we only know that its density cannot be
less than one-fourth the density of the earth's solid globe. If
the photosphere extend to a depth of one thousand, ten thousand,
or a hundred thousand miles, the density of the sun's body or core
will be correspondingly increased. Even computing the whole visible
volume, the density is far greater than that of any gas we know, even
with the solar pressure of gravity; with the sun's metallic vapors,
if the whole core were already vaporized, we would not, to say the
least, be likely to observe the sun-spots and other solar phenomena
as we find them actually to occur; this, however, will be more fully
considered later on. The author continues, "But there is a boundary
to the prospect of the continuance of the sun's radiation. Of course,
as the loss of heat goes on the gaseous parts will turn into liquids,
and as the process is still further protracted the liquids will
transform into solids. Thus, we look forward to a time when the
radiation of the sun can be no longer carried on in conformity with
the laws which dictate the loss of heat from a gaseous body. When this
state is reached the sun may, no doubt, be an incandescent solid with
a brilliance as great as is compatible with that condition, but the
further loss of heat will then involve loss of temperature.... There
seems no escape from the conclusion that the continuous loss of solar
heat must still go on, so that the sun will pass through the various
stages of brilliant incandescence, of glowing redness, of dull redness,
until it ultimately becomes a dark and non-luminous star.... There
is thus a distinct limit to man's existence on the earth, dictated
by the ultimate exhaustion of the sun.... The utmost amount of heat
that it would ever have been possible for the sun to contain would,
according to this authority (Professor Langley), supply its radiation
for eighteen million years at the present rate.... It seems that the
sun has already dissipated about four-fifths of the energy with which
it may have originally been endowed. At all events, it seems that,
radiating energy at its present rate, the sun may hold out for four
million years or for five million years, but not for ten million
years.... We have seen that it does not seem possible for any other
source of heat to be available for replenishing the waning stores of
the luminary." He concludes by saying that the original heat may have
been imparted as the result of some great collision, the solar body
having itself been dark before the collision occurred, and that it
may be reinvigorated by a repetition of a similar startling process,
but indicates in general terms that such an operation would be bad
for the round world and all contained therein. It would, in fact,
be rough treatment for even a hopeless case.
Condensation of the solar volume is unquestionably a source of heat,
for we know that the solid or liquid interior of the earth increases
in temperature at a definite ratio as we descend through its crust;
but long before the sun shall have become contracted to the density of
the earth all its heat will have become substantially internal heat,
and it can then supply no more by radiation to its surrounding planets.
It will be seen that the radiant energy of the sun on any of the above
hypotheses is not sufficient to account even for the life period of the
earth in the past, and that its future period of energy must be still
more brief. Professor Ball ("In the High Heavens"), basing his views
on Laplace's "Nebular Hypothesis," says, "Looking back into the remote
ages, we thus see that the sun was larger and larger the further back
we project our view. If we go sufficiently far back, we seem to come
to a time when the sun, in a more or less completely gaseous state,
filled up the surrounding space out to the orbit of Mercury, or,
earlier still, out to the orbit of the remotest planet." According
to this hypothesis, all these brilliant suns, the author says, will
"settle down into dark bodies like the earth," and that "every analogy
would teach us that the dark and non-luminous bodies in the universe
are far more numerous than the brilliant suns. We can never see the
dark objects; we can discern their presence only indirectly. All the
stars that we can see are merely those bodies which at this epoch
of their career happen for the time to be so highly heated as to be
luminous.... It may happen that there are dark bodies in the vicinity
of some of the bright stars to which these stars act as illuminants,
just in the same way as the sun disperses light to the planets." One
would naturally suppose, however, that there must be some sort of
laws to govern such stupendous operations, and that nature is not
merely engaged in blowing bubbles. To quote Professor Newcomb: "At the
present time we can only say that the nebular hypothesis is indicated
by the general tendencies of the laws of nature; that it has not been
proved to be inconsistent with any fact; that it is almost a necessary
consequence of the only theory by which we can account for the origin
and conservation of the sun's heat; but that it rests on the assumption
that this conservation is to be explained by the laws of nature as
we now see them in operation. Should any one be sceptical as to the
sufficiency of these laws to account for the present state of things,
science can furnish no evidence strong enough to overthrow his doubts
until the sun shall be found growing smaller by actual measurement,
or the nebulæ be actually seen to condense into stars and systems."
While the validity of the views set forth in the present volume
does not depend on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the nebular
hypothesis, and in fact requires the condensation as well as the
expansion of the solar volume under the influence of heat to be
recognized and its extreme importance pointed out, yet it must not
be supposed that this great generalization of Kant and Laplace,
based on the views presented originally by Sir William Herschel, is
established, or that the difficulties in its way are not so enormous
as to be almost insuperable. Professor Ball points out that thousands
of bodies occupy our solar system, and together compose it as a whole;
that these have orbits of every sort of eccentricity and direction,
and occupying all possible planes which can pass through the sun; that
the bodies circle around the sun, some backward and others forward,
and that only the planets seem to conform to some common order; and
without this order, which may be accidental, so far as our knowledge
goes, the system would have been disrupted long since, if it ever
could have begun its operations; and that in this view the heavens
may be strewn with wrecks of systems which failed to survive from
inherent want of harmony,--that is to say, as based on observation
only. Whether the nebular hypothesis be a universal or a partial law
of development, or whether the real processes be quite different,
cannot, however, depend on the continued maintenance and evolution
of the sun's energy, as this source must in truth be sought for in
quite a different direction.
The remaining hypothesis (the seventh) is considered in detail in
Professor Proctor's work, "Mysteries of Time and Space." The fatal
defect in Dr. Siemens's theory is, that his gases will not be projected
from the sun's equator. Professor Proctor says, "Thus the centripetal
tendency of matter at the sun's equator is very much greater (many
hundreds of times greater) than its centrifugal tendency, and there
is not the slightest possibility of matter being projected into space
from the sun's surface by centrifugal tendency. Nor is there any part
of the sun's mass where the centrifugal tendency is greater than at
the surface near the equator. So that, whatever else the sun may be
doing to utilize his mighty energies, he is certainly not throwing
off matter constantly from his equatorial regions, as Dr. Siemens's
theory requires." There are other difficulties which Professor Proctor
considers, such as the doubt as to the power of the sun's rays to
disassociate combined gases in space, and also that, since both light
and heat must be utilized in this work, if the sun's energies are to
be perpetually renewed, these forces would sensibly disappear in work,
and the result would be that the fixed stars would be invisible beyond
their domains, and their light, when not totally cut off, would be
greatly diminished, in any event, as distances increased, which is
not the case. Besides, these gases thus disassociated could never be
entirely used by the sun, and the remainder would be wasted, and the
part wasted would vastly exceed that utilized, probably in as great
proportion of waste as that of the sun's light not utilized by the
planets, which gather but one two-hundred-and-thirty-two-millionths
of the whole. It may be further added that these gases would be
mechanically mixed, the combined and the disassociated, and this
would be mostly the case in those parts nearest the sun, so that large
volumes of spent and useless gases would have to be carried in to no
purpose whatever. In fact, these gases would gradually form a closed
circuit of supply and discharge, and surrounding space would be but
slightly affected. Professor Proctor concludes, "We have, in fact,
the fallacy of perpetual motion in a modified form."
It will be apparent that under any single one, or all, of these
hypotheses, the future prospect for created forms and continued
existence is hopeless, and that the inevitable result must do
violence to every conception of either an intelligent creative
power or the operations of universal law. The mind revolts from
the continued degradation and destruction of all organic creation,
while the malevolent and iconoclastic forces of nature hold high
revel over final ruin and eternal destruction, brought about by their
own incessant efforts, striking out blindly to make or mar, and they
alone the deathless survivors, the half-blind fates and furies of the
eternal future. It betokens, not the processes of orderly government,
but the reign of anarchy.
Note.--Since this work has been in press, at the annual meeting of the
British Association, August 8, 1894, Lord Salisbury, the President,
delivered a powerful and lucid address on the present status of
scientific knowledge and its limitations. With reference to the
antiquity of the earth we quote the following: "It is evident,
from the increase of heat as we descend into the earth, that the
earth is cooling, and we know, by experiment within certain wide
limits, the rate at which its substances--the matters of which it is
constituted--are found to cool. It follows that we can approximately
calculate how hot it was so many million years ago; but if at any
time it was hotter at the surface by fifty degrees Fahrenheit than it
is now, life would then have been impossible upon the planet, and,
therefore, we can without much difficulty fix a date before which
organic life on earth cannot have existed. Basing himself on these
considerations, Lord Kelvin limited the period of organic life upon
the earth to a hundred million years, and Professor Tait, in a still
more penurious spirit, cut that hundred down to ten." If a period of
anything like ten million years, even, has been requisite to cool the
earth's surface only fifty degrees in temperature, what time must have
elapsed since the terrestrial globe had a temperature high enough to
effect the difficult chemical combinations of many of the elements
which compose its structure? And even this must have been far less
than the vast cycles of time during which original consolidation was
effected. Through all these ages the sun must have been pouring out
his radiant energy at at least his present rate. Radiation of heat
from the earth may have been relatively less rapid from a denser
carbon-laden atmosphere in times past than at present, but it never
could have been more so. The whole address cited is, indeed, strongly
corroborative of the facts upon which the present work is based.