Henry Smith Carhart

“ Such, then, are the magnitudes and distances which the godlike human intellect has undertaken to determine. And still art vies with science to fashion lenses that shall gather at their focus still more and more of that luminous intelligence that discloses to the mind of man the secrets of the outside universe. But as the space-penetrating power of the telescope is increased, and the bright spots of light are resolved into groups of brilliant stars, more nebulous haze comes up from the deep distance, indicating that the visual ray is not yet long enough to fathom the mighty depths. ”

“ Patiently the astronomer centres that little circle around which the pole-star sheds its guiding light, that he may adjust his instrument to parallelism with the axis of a revolving world. But since that light left its source at the pole-star, a child has grown through youth to manhood, and in his hair the gray of silver lines has begun to develop under the cares of six-and-thirty years. And these are only our nearest neighbors among the stars! ”

“ The earth, unlike the moon, contains still a vast store of unexpended energy; and in the ebb and flux of its mighty internal, contending forces, and the bending and swaying of its magnetic lines of force, in obedience to the magic wand of the sun, there is ample room for the generation of those comparatively feeble forms of energy that manifest themselves in the electrical disturbances of the air. ”

“ When Copernicus, the Polish astronomer, sought to extricate astronomy from the hopeless complexity into which it had become entangled by cycles, epicycles, and eccentric positions, and proclaimed the heliocentric system, his opponents objected that the earth's axis, produced to the celestial sphere, with its successive positions day after day parallel to each other, should be seen to describe a circle in the heavens as the earth sweeps round through its orbit of nearly 600,000,000 miles in length. ”

“ When any force acts, energy is expended in doing work; and the numerical value of the scientific expression "work" is the measure of the energy expended or the resistance overcome. "Work" means the product of the force into the distance over which it acts. The lifting of five pounds through a distance of ten feet requires the expenditure of fifty foot-pounds of work. Hence "electrical potential" may be defined in terms of work as follows: The electrical potential at any point is the work required to carry a unit of electricity from that point to infinity. ”

“ Also the electrical density is greater on projecting parts of the earth's surface than on those which are plane or concave. These facts are precisely what we should find to be the case in the vicinity of an irregular, charged conductor; and they are sufficiently explained if we regard the earth itself as charged with electricity varying in density. In fact, observations of the potential of so-called atmospheric electricity are simply "determinations of the quantity of electricity residing on the earth's surface at the place of observation." ”

“ We modestly lay claim to this small corner of the universe, denominated the solar system, and assert our right to possession by calling it ours. What is the area of this plane bounded by Neptune's orbit, with which the planes of the other planetary orbits nearly coincide? What is the space swept by the radius-vector of this planetary child of Adams's and Le Verrier's calculations? Since circles are as the squares of their radii, this area is 900 times that comprised within the earth's orbit. ”

“ In the theory here proposed, the earth is the charged body, acting inductively on the air, aqueous vapor, and clouds about it. Whenever moisture condenses to cloud, a better conductor is thereby formed, and increased inductive action takes place, causing an accumulation of electricity both in the cloud above and the earth beneath. If, then, the lower part of the cloud, under this inductive influence, condenses to rain and falls away from the upper part, a separation of the two electricities is effected, and an increase in potential results from the enlargement of the drops, as explained above. ”

“ There are only twenty stars of the first magnitude, that is, of the first degree of brightness. It is demonstrable that Sirius is a hundred and sixty times as bright intrinsically as our sun. From a comparison of Sirius with the moon, and the moon with the sun, it is found that sunlight is 6,000 million times brighter than that of Sirius. But since Sirius is 1,000,000 times more distant than our sun, if brought as near us, the intensity of its light would be increased in the ratio of the square of 1,000,000 or 1,000,000 millions. ”

“ The sun's distance being ascertained, its absolute diameter is determined from the apparent by the process applied to the moon, A near approximation to the sun's radius is 430,680 miles. Imagine the earth at the sun's centre: its surface would appear as far distant as does now the celestial vault, and the moon's orbit would fall nearly 200,000 miles within the surface, or little more than half-way from the centre out, A locomotive at thirty miles an hour would run from centre to surface in 1.63 years. ”

“ Vast and incomprehensible as we have found our distance from the sun to be, we have still to contemplate far greater reaches within the limits of the solar system. Jupiter holds on its silent course 5210 as far away from the sun as the earth, and therefore receives only 127 the intensity of solar radiant energy. ”

“ But when we reflect that the spectroscope shows at least many terrestrial elements present in the sun, and that the sun contains enough of such substantial stuff as Mother Earth consists of to make more than 300,000 like her, we are prepared to admit that the ratio between the masses even is large enough for all practical purposes. ”

“ Thermal electricity, which might be presumed to exist at the sun in great quantity, would traverse the distance in one hour thirty-six minutes. Sensation travels along our nerves at the slow rate of about 150 feet a second. Imagine an infant with an arm long enough to reach the sun. ”

“ Further, when evaporation takes place from an electrified locality, the rising vapor must carry away a charge of electricity by convection, as air and dust carry away electricity from a charged conductor. The condensation of this vapor increases its potential, and, if sufficiently rapid, gives rise to electrical displays. It is a fact of recent establishment that "northern lights" occur in various high latitudes only with southerly winds, which come laden with moisture and probably with electricity. ”

“ FROM the earliest periods the flash of lightning and the peal of thunder have excited curiosity, stimulated awe, and inspired fear in man; and according to his mythological, religious, or poetic habit of mind has he regarded the latter as the bolt of Jove, the voice of God, or the conscious utterance of the heavens. ”

“ As vapors exhaled from the surface of water are carried up into the atmosphere, in like manner the effluvia of solid bodies are continually ascending thither. Now, we find by experiment that there are several inflammable bodies which, being mixed together in due proportion, will kindle into flame by fermentation alone, without the help of any fiery particles. ”

“ Counting three a second day and night, it would require an entire year to count the miles intervening between us and the sun; and to count the distance in feet, at the same rate, would consume 5,280 years, or nearly as much time as has elapsed since the introduction of man upon the earth, according to Biblical chronology. ”

“ In view of these facts, the theory is submitted as worthy of consideration that the earth itself is the seat of those disturbances that manifest themselves in atmospheric electricity. Fluctuating currents ebb and flow through the confining walls of this immense reservoir of cosmic energy. ”

“ Such is the distance that the astronomer has successfully attempted to measure, starting with a primary triangle based on a determined line of only a few miles in length.
The nearest fixed star is Alpha Centauri, with a parallax of 0.928", corresponding to a distance of 20,518,000 millions of miles. Light, traveling at the rate of 186,500 miles a second, requires 3.5 years to reach us from this nearest star. So the solar system, with its immense distances, is yet alone in the universe of stars ”

“ In such case their attraction and coalescence are determined by static induction, the resulting force of which is always attractive; and with slight electrification the inductive effect always prevails over the repulsion due to like charges, when the charged bodies are brought near together. Hence strongly electrified particles do not actually collide, but are kept apart by electrical repulsion; while those feebly charged approach within the charmed circle where the attraction of static induction determines their collision and coalescence. ”

“ In the Rocky Mountains electrical storms are of frequent occurrence. They consist of electrical displays without precipitation of rain, hail, or snow. Usually, though not always, the sky is overcast. In February, 1880, a remarkable electrical excitation was manifest at Boulder, Colorado. ”