A dependent center: The astrophysics of decentralized power and climate action

“ The condensation of volume of the planets will give rise to great elevation of temperature, while their currents of electricity, poured into the sun, will, by their passage through its enormously compressed hydrogen atmosphere, produce intense heat, and this, rapidly communicated to the solar core within, will raise its temperature to that of the sun as we now see it, and permanently maintain it in that state of incandescence. ”

“ It is an absolute certainty that electrical currents of enormous quantity and high potential are constantly passing between the earth and the sun, and that these currents have so free a passage—far more free than through any metallic circuits that we know of—that they pass over this enormous distance absolutely without appreciable resistance. ”

“ But while the sun’s energy is—as it must be in this case—the outcome of that of the planets, it is equally obvious that the planets themselves can have no permanent, inherent energy of their own to generate or modify such energy of the sun, since they are in fact supplied by the solar energy, and their motions are controlled and regulated by the sun itself. ”

“ Examining now the effects of passing powerful electrical currents through a compressed envelope of hydrogen gas surrounding a conductor, we find that great heat ensues, that the hydrogen becomes highly incandescent, and that the metallic nucleus within is raised to an extremely high temperature, and we also observe the same effects when the current is transmitted through the separated carbons of an electrical arc light. ”

“ We have no knowledge, however, of any planetary energy which could operate to increase or diminish the energy of the central sun in its emission of light, except that which we have already presented, and no theory of our own sun’s energy hitherto advanced has ever taken cognizance of the planetary energies of our system as an effective cause for those of the sun. ”

“ When considering the transference of energy from the peripheral regions of the solar system to the center, its conversion there into a new form of molecular force, and its subsequent distribution, we find a curious and instructive parallel in the action of the reflex nervous system of animal life. This system is one in which the brain or other conscious center of nerve-energy takes no part. Tickle the foot of a child, for example, and its whole muscular system is thrown into uncontrollable convulsions of laughter. ”

“ Whatever the sun may gain by increment of meteoric masses may pass for what it is worth, but the gradual contraction of his volume cannot proceed while his present temperature is maintained by the passage of such currents,—that is to say, his light and heat will remain constant, and also his mass and volume, so long as the electric currents which pass from the planets to the sun and the constitution of space which surrounds the sun and planets themselves remain constant.
Ideal view of the generation and transmission of planetary electricity. ”

“ They are the results of the great electric system [Pg 36] of attracting and repelling currents of magnetism that are as fixed in their lines of force and order of work as the rocks at the foundations of the mountains. In fact, all that is strong and abiding in matter rests upon these currents of energy, and all of life is dependent upon the constancy and perpetually pulsating flow of the unseen electrical potencies of creation. Life is a universal unity, as light, heat, electricity and polarization, which evolve it, are unities. ”

“ Every year new facts are discovered showing that electricity is the cosmic, evolving, ultimate and only force in nature and the universe is a vast electric machine or organism moved by electric currents of measureless force and power. The earth revolves around the sun, the sun gravitates around some siderial center in motion like itself, and myriads of suns and planets with their countless population move with many times the velocity of a cannon ball. ”

“ The circuit of the electric current on the car line starts from the dynamo at the power house and returns along the rails or through the earth back to the dynamo. In like manner, the vast electric currents of the sun pass to the earth through the ether without wires and do the lighting, heating and cosmic life-work, and return to the sun completing their circuit; and the earth sends its electric [Pg 28] currents to the sun and they return to the earth through the ether in the same manner and complete their circuit. ”

“ That the sun does not furnish heat to the earth at all, and is not a thermal or heating engine as claimed by the scientists, but is an electric generator like the earth and does not need to be hot. That the sun furnishes the electric power and the earth heats itself. In other words, the sun furnishes powerful currents of electricity which come in contact with the earth's opposite electricity and the resistance of its atmosphere, and which are converted into light, heat and vital force down near the earth's surface. ”

“ Hence the inference is irresistible that the planets must derive their primary force from an external source not solar, and this they can only do by means of their rotation in space, and the only force derivable from space of which we have any knowledge is electricity, so that the circle thus becomes complete. How now shall we explain these periodical aberrations of energy? The color of a star, as we know, is no criterion of its age or size. The color is due to atmospheric absorption of the radiant light. ”

“ Suddenly, with a mighty leap, the pent-up currents would flash across to their opposite electric pole, the auroras would gradually die away, and instantly the molecules of hydrogen would begin to sift out at the solar and those of oxygen at the planetary terminals. The electrical currents driving their furious pathway through the rapidly gathering hydrogen envelope, the sun would first begin to faintly flicker with hazy, nebulous light; the light would gather intensity, and soon flash and glow with energy ”

“ It will be seen that the want of luminosity in the dark companion of Algol finds a ready explanation in the fact that it is a planet, acting precisely as our own planets do, and that the luminosity of Algol itself is directly attributable to the electricity developed by the presence of this planet rotating axially and orbitally around it, and the darkness of the planet itself is the necessary correlative of the heat and light of its sun. ”

“ We must also bear in mind that sun-spots do not diminish the solar heat, as they are the result of increased and not of diminished energy. Electric currents of high potential pass directly, as we know, along the lines of least resistance to their opposite center of polarity, so that two planets nearly in conjunction with each other transmit their currents almost directly towards the sun’s center, and upon the same point of solar latitude, while, if at right angles with the sun, they must deliver their electricity along converging lines and thus strike the solar surface at different points. ”

“ The apparent retardation of the spots most distant from the sun’s equator may also be partially, at least, explained by planetary currents of electricity, as the equatorial atmosphere is deeper and more likely to carry forward such vortices when formed, while the planets act more directly on the sun’s mass beneath their direct influence. ”

“ We shall also find in such electric currents an explanation of sun-spots. It is not meant that a full knowledge can be obtained of their minute constitution, nor is it necessary; but the equatorial belt of six degrees, nearly free from sun-spots, we can readily understand to be caused—since sun-spots are depressions in the photosphere down to the deeper and denser cloud strata beneath—by the equatorial piling up of the sun’s atmosphere by its rotation. ”

“ We shall soon show that all the stars are suns like ours, shining with their own light, and foci of as many systems of worlds. Now, the stars are not scattered in all parts of space at hazard; they are grouped as the members of many families. If we compared the ocean of the heavens with the ocean of the earth, we should say that the isles which sprinkle this ocean do not rise separately in all parts of the sea, but that they are united here and there in archipelagoes more or less rich .... ”

“ As twenty-eight currents of electricity can pass over the same wire at the same time, fourteen each way, how many kinds of electric currents may the universe possess? May not each planet have its own peculiar current, and its own peculiar attracting power, and the sun give each a different electricity?
While each sun system, with its revolving planets, is held together by mutual electric attraction, the eighteen millions of sun systems are prevented from coming in collision with each other by the law of electric repulsion. ”

“ It is now an admitted fact of science that the earth is dependent upon the sun for the chief portion of the energy by which terrestrial effects are produced. With the exception of the ebb and flow of the tides, all the forms of earthly power are recognized as having, directly or indirectly, a solar origin. Wind-power, water-power, steam-power, the activities of organic growth, all animal energy, and the great phenomena of changes in the crust of the globe, due to the circulation of waters through atmospheric agency, are caused by the forces of solar radiation. ”

“ The lightning in the cloud, the reverberations of thunder, the ebb and flow of the tides, the wind currents in the air, the swaying of the forest, the variations of heat and cold, the falling of snow, the rain drop and the dew are all electric manifestations.
You cannot raise your arm, lift your foot, or move your body except by electric energy. ”

“ Progressive change has always, doubtless, been the universal law of creation, and the great ocean of space is, and ever has been, and ever will be the highway through which perpetually plough the great caravels which bear the fortunes of creative energy, laden with life and light and heat, in their eternal progression. The creative impulse once given, if it, too, was not primeval in the eternal past, must have gone on from development to development, like the transmission of life, from age to age and from realm to realm. ”

“ The molecular motions which give rise to light and heat in their passage through the vast distances of space are finally retarded by and disappear as radiated energy in the restoration or increase of the intermolecular tension of the vapors of space, and these processes continue, and must continue, to all eternity, if the sun exists and his planets continue to revolve in orderly circuit around him. ”

“ Professor Stewart takes the sun’s inherent energy as the initial point of departure, and reasons from that as to the final consequence when all its light and heat shall have been distributed or dissipated into the attenuated medium which occupies space, and which will be thus slowly heated until all space has been raised in temperature to that of the last dying sun, when all will thenceforth remain unchanged and unchangeable, silent, dark, and dead, to all eternity. ”

“ We have found that all these theories are alike, in that they recognize the sun itself as the only source of his energy, that his enormous emission of light and heat is almost entirely wasted in empty space, and that this will go on with the same frightful waste until he has squandered his whole patrimony and ends his melancholy career in the poor-house or the dungeon. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty for the love of it as they thought best. The officers saw the necessity for doing otherwise, and so the conflict was commenced and maintained to the end. ”

“ No soldiers ever marched with less to encumber them, and none marched faster or held out longer.
The courage and devotion of the men rose equal to every hardship and privation, and the very intensity of their sufferings became a source of merriment. Instead of growling and deserting, they laughed at their own bare feet, ragged clothes and pinched faces; and weak, hungry, cold, wet, worried with vermin and itch, dirty, with no hope of reward or rest, marched cheerfully to meet the well-fed and warmly clad hosts of the enemy. ”

“ It soon became apparent that the country wanted knowledge and ability, as well as muscle and endurance, and those who had capacity to serve in higher positions were promoted. Still it remained true that inferior men commanded their superiors in every respect, save one—rank; and leaving out the one difference of rank, the officers and men were about on a par.
It took years to teach the educated privates in the army that it was their duty to give unquestioning obedience to officers because they were such, who were awhile ago their playmates and associates in business. ”

“ The higher the social position, the greater the wealth, the more patriotic it would be to serve in the humble position of a private; and many men of education and ability in the various professions, refusing promotion, served under the command of men greatly their inferiors, mentally, morally, and as soldiers. ”

“ As discipline improved and the men began to feel that they were no longer simply volunteers, but enlisted volunteers, the romantic devotion which they had felt was succeeded by a feeling of constraint and necessity, and while the army was in reality very much improved and strengthened by the change, the soldiers imagined the contrary to be the case. And if discipline had been pushed to too great an extent, the army would have been deprived of the very essence of its life and power. ”

“ A large proportion of the eating of the army was done in the houses and at the tables of the people, not by the use of force, but by the wish and invitation of the people. It was at times necessary that whole towns should help to sustain the army of defense, and when this was the case, it was done voluntarily and cheerfully. The soldiers—all who conducted themselves properly—were received as honored guests and given the best in the house. ”

“ In the army the young man learned to value men for what they were, and not on account of education, wealth or station; and so his attachments when formed were sincere and durable, and he learned what constitutes a man, and a desirable and reliable friend. The stern demands upon the boy, and the unrelenting criticisms of the mess, soon bring to mind the gentle forbearance, and kind remonstrance, and loving counsels of parents and homefolks, and while he thinks, he weeps, and loves, and reverences, and yearns after the things against which he once strove and under which he chafed and complained. ”

“ No parent could watch a boy as closely as his mess-mates did and could, because they saw him at all hours of the day and night, dependent on himself alone: and were merciless critics, who demanded more of their protege than they were willing to submit to themselves.
The young soldier's piety had to perish ignominiously, or else assume a boldness and strength which nothing else could so well impart as the temptations, sneers and dangers of the army. Religion had to be bold, practical and courageous, or die. ”

“ To roll up the old blanket and oil-cloth, gather up the haversack, canteen, axe, perhaps, and a few trifles, in time of peace of no value, eat the fragments that remained, and light a pipe, was the work of a few moments. This slight employment, coupled with pleasant anticipations of the unknown, and therefore possibly enjoyable future, served to restore somewhat the usual light-hearted manner of soldiers, and relieve the final farewells of much of their sadness. There was even a smack of hope and cheerfulness as the little groups sallied out into the world to combat they scarcely knew what. ”

“ A war in defense of our homes and firesides, of our wives and children, of all that makes life worth possessing, is the result. While I most deeply deplored the necessity for the sacrifice, I could not but rejoice that I had a son to offer to the service of the country, and if I had a dozen, I would most freely give them all. As you are now cheerfully enduring the hardships of [Pg 11] the camp, I know you will listen to a father's suggestions touching the duties of your new mode of life.
1. Take special care of your health. More soldiers die of disease than in battle. ”

“ In no other State—the only one in respect to which a doubt can exist is Tennessee—in no other State is there such a portion of territory held, or any such portion of population under our control, or any such portion of it which is in our control inspired by such sentiments toward the Government of the United States, so free from fear of the returning wave of rebel invasion, so assured of the continued supremacy of the United States, that we ought to be willing to trust them with this power. ”

“ Admit you are in revolution; admit you are revolutionists; admit that you do not desire to restore the old order; admit that you do not fight to restore the Union. Take the responsibility of that position. Avow that you exercise the powers of the Government because you control them; that you are not bound by the Constitution, but by your own sense of right. Avow that resistance to your schemes is not treason, but war. Dissolve the spell which you have woven around the hearts of our people by the cunning use of the words conservatism, patriotism, Union. ”

“ Communism is no longer a creeping threat to America. It is a racing doom that comes closer to our shore each day. To resist it we must be intelligently strong.
Such strength will come only from men and women dedicated to the wholehearted defense of democracy. The average American who constitutes the heart and soul of this Nation is so dedicated. We must be sure that those who seek to lead up today are equally dedicated. We cannot survive on half loyalties any more than we can find the facts of Communist conspiracy with half-truths. ”

“ During the virtual meeting, Cabinet leaders and senior Administration officials discussed their respective plans to integrate addressing climate change throughout their agencies to put the United States in a position of strength to lead the world in a clean energy revolution that creates American jobs with the chance to join a union and builds back an inclusive, equitable economy. ”

“ Participants, including the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, also looked ahead to the Earth Day Leaders Summit on April 22 and opportunities for each agency to reduce emissions while supporting good-paying, union jobs, improve health in our communities, and ensure America leads the industries that will power the future. ”

“ We wind a simple ring of iron with coils; we establish the connections to the generator, and with wonder and delight we note the effects of strange forces which we bring into play, which allow us to transform, to transmit and direct energy at will. ”

“ Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason. It has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtile speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians, and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic? ”

“ We walk on the surface of a revolving magnet and dynamo more perfect in measureless power and [Pg 104] efficiency than any man has ever invented or dreamed of, and it generates the power which makes light, heat and life in its own electric environment, where all things "live, move and have their being." It does not get light and heat from the sun; it gets electric currents with which it manufactures light and heat. ”

“ Here upon the surface of suns and planets are the mighty and varied currents of electric power and magnetic force, weaving forms and substance from invisible atoms and molecules, under the laws of electric attraction and organic affinity. In the economy of nature there are no wasted energies, or useless activities. Light, heat and physical life in space or transparent ether would be useless and nugatory; therefore nature ignores such folly in all her fruitful processes. ”