Atmosphere (unit)

“ There is a constant ratio between the quantity that runs down and the quantity that is carried back. Were evaporation to cease, or the atmosphere to stand still—were the winds never to blow, our rivers would become dry, and the earth itself unfit for man's use. What a circulator, purifier, cooler, and condenser! In every point of view this atmosphere is a grand machine—perfect in all its parts, wonderful in its offices, sublime in its operations. ”

“ Eagerly we watched as the mighty world's surface changed from convex to concave, and as we dropped on we saw the needle of our atmosphere-pressure dial moving steadily forward, to show that this strange world had air, at least. ”

“ His must be an atmosphere coextensive with the universe, in which we can expand and breathe. For the most part we are smothered and stifled by one another. I go and see my friend and try his atmosphere. If our 110 atmospheres do not mingle, if we repel each other strongly, it is of no use to stay. ”

“ We may add, that it is, in addition to all that we have hitherto noticed, a constant source of utility and beauty in its effects on light. Without air we should see nothing, except objects on which the sun’s rays fell, directly or by reflection. It is the atmosphere which converts sunbeams into daylight, and fills the space in which we are with illumination.
The contemplation of the atmosphere, as a machine which answers all these purposes, is well suited to impress upon us the strongest conviction of the most refined, far-seeing, and far-ruling contrivance. ”

“ On the second day God made a space or expansion, surrounding the solid earth to a certain height, called the atmosphere. This word is derived from ἀτμός and σφαῖρα, and signifies a body of vapor in a spherical form. By this name we understand the “entire mass of air which encircles all parts of the terrestrial globe, which moves with it round the sun, which touches it in all parts, ascending to the tops of its mountains, penetrating into its cavities, and incessantly floating on its waters. It is a fluid which we inhale from the first to the last moment of our existence.” ”

“ Imagine a world with an atmosphere devoid of all substances that would in any way reflect light or give to it softness or color tone. Imagine a sun or a moon without visible rays—for without a reflecting atmosphere there would be none. Imagine a sky that was no sky at all, but only a dark void, with no protecting vault. Think of the shadows, so dark that you could see nothing in them. These would be some of the effects that would come from an atmosphere that had no sky substance in it. Imagine the world lighted by one great arc light. ”

“ It was necessary, I suppose, that the atmosphere should be composed of the most subtile particles, in order that they might remain suspended in space; the earth did not require to be of so delicate a texture. ”

“ Thus light is separated from darkness; waters from waters; water from earth. And by a like analogy we may suppose that the “firmament” or atmosphere, the lower part of which we breathe, was also eliminated in its component gases from the primitive shapeless bulk of matter.
If we take forty-five miles as the average height of this atmosphere above the surface of our globe, it is proportionately, like the thin rind upon an apple, or the bloom [152] upon a peach; and may very well have come forth without any violence done to nature, or any waste of her resources, from the womb of the earth. ”

“ And thus the wonderful march of the most powerful steam-engine with which we are acquainted, the atmosphere, appears to be permanently regulated. The irregular distribution of physical qualities over the earth's surface is here seen to be a preserving principle for terrestrial life. ”

“ The solid globe of the earth is enveloped in a mixture of gases, principally oxygen and nitrogen, which we call the air, or the atmosphere, and upon whose presence our life and most other forms of life depend. The atmosphere is retained by the attraction of the earth, and it rotates together with the earth. If this were not so—if the atmosphere stood fast while the earth continued to spin within it—a terrific wind would constantly blow from the east, having a velocity at the equator of more than a thousand miles an hour. ”

“ The atmosphere in motion is wind, with which the sailor has so much to do, and it behooves him to understand, not only the causes which produce it, but the laws which control it. “Whence cometh the wind, and whither goeth it?” It comes from heat, and as the sun is the father of heat, he is the father of the winds. Let us suppose the earth, and atmosphere both to be created, but not yet the sun. The atmosphere, being of equal temperature throughout the earth, would be in equilibrium. It could not move in any direction, and there would not be the slightest breeze to fan the brow. ”

“ Our atmosphere, charged with aqueous vapour, serves to shield us from the intense action of the solar powers. By it we are protected from the destructive influences of the sun’s light and heat; enjoy those modified conditions which are most conducive to the healthful being of organic forms; to it we owe “the blue sky bending over all,” and those beauties of morning and evening twilight of which
—— Sound and motion own the potent sway. ”

“ The atmosphere is, then, an integral portion of the earth, a body of air revolving with the solid mass upon its axis, the higher strata, of course, increasing in velocity with the distance from the axis of revolution. ”

“ Notwithstanding all this, we see no reason why the sun should not have an atmosphere of exactly the same kind as the earth's, composed of exactly the same kinds of gases, including vapour of water in some part of it, though, perhaps, far removed from the photosphere. ”

“ Its functions.—"The atmosphere affords the gas which vivifies and warms our frames; it receives into itself that which has been polluted by use, and is thrown off as noxious. It feeds the flame of life exactly as it does that of the fire. ”

“ But if you say, can the sun be inhabited? Yes, certainly: and that too by beings of an organisation not wholly unlike our own, is my answer.” That dense and cloudy inner atmosphere we have spoken of may effectually protect it from the dazzling light of the photosphere, and conduct but little of its heat. ”

“ The second region or stratum of air terminates I suppose where the twilight ceases to be refracted, that is, where the air is 3000 times rarer than at the surface of the earth; and where it seems probable that the common air ends, and is surrounded by an atmosphere of inflammable gas tenfold rarer than itself. ”

“ But once conceive the atmosphere as arranged like a perfectly adjusted instrument for the meeting-place and co-operation of sun-force, and earth-force, where are elaborated all the benefits designed for our mundane creation, and we begin to look for better explanations. ”

“ A thin layer of air surrounds the Earth that we denominate the atmosphere as a whole, which protects us from the Sun’s UV radiation and from particles such as cosmic rays, and it also provides us oxygen to breathe. ”

“ Much the same effect would be produced if you or I, having been accustomed, of course, all our lives, to the fluidity of air, which opens for our passage, were opposed by a solid block of transparent atmosphere. Imagine any one running for a train, and striking his head with all his might against such a block. ”

“ The specific atmospheres of flowers, and when excited by friction, those also of some metals, and even of stone crystals, are often perceptible to the sense of smell, and are in that way distinguishable not only from the atmosphere of the earth, but also from the atmospheres of each other. But properly speaking, the psychic aura surrounding man and spirits should no longer be called an atmosphere, that is, an atom-sphere or sphere of atoms, but simply a “sphere;” ”

“ To answer any of its purposes, to carry on any of its processes, separately, requires peculiar arrangements and adjustments; to answer, all at once, purposes so varied, to combine without confusion so many different trains, implies powers and attributes which can hardly fail to excite in a high degree our admiration and reverence.
If the atmosphere be considered as a vast machine, it is difficult to form any just conception of the profound skill and comprehensiveness of design which it displays. It diffuses and tempers the heat of different climates ”

“ We actually know, then, beyond conjecture, by a comparison of the sun's atmosphere, where it is thickest and where it is thinnest, that an apparently colorless atmosphere can have such an effect, and analogous observations which I have carried on for many years, but do not now detail, show that the atmosphere of our own planet, this seemingly clear air in which we exist like creatures at the bottom of the sea, does do so. ”

“ Thus it is with regard to the earth, it is a solid body covered - 30 - with an atmosphere extending to a certain height, which adheres to, and moves with it, as the down does with the firmer substance beneath it. Above our atmosphere is the celestial matter, incomparably more pure, subtile and active than air. ”

“ This objection has no weight, because the Earth controls not only all the objects fixed to the soil, but also the atmosphere, and the clouds that surround it like a light veil, and all that exists upon its surface. The atmosphere, the clouds, the waters of the ocean, things and beings, all are adherent to it and make one body with it, participating in its movement, as sometimes happens to ourselves in the compartment of a train, or the car of an aerostat. ”

“ The pure atmosphere is a perfectly transparent medium, which neither radiates, absorbs, nor conducts caloric, but transmits the rays of the sun to us without in any way 87 diminishing their intensity. The air is therefore not more heated, by the sun’s rays passing through it, than diamond, glass, water, or any other transparent medium. ”

“ There are, by the bye, some lines which we know are caused by our atmosphere, especially when it is full of invisible water vapour, and these we easily detect, because they show more distinctly when the sun is low and shines through a thicker layer of air than when he is high up and shines through less. ”

“ But in the night, the atmosphere grows cool, while the earth, retaining a superior degree of heat, continues to throw off the particles of water. These particles, meeting the colder atmosphere, are condensed, and lodge upon the surface of the earth, grass, trees and other objects. ”

“ I suppose, therefore, that the globe, in the first state in which the imagination can venture to consider it, was a fluid mass with an immense atmosphere, revolving in space round the sun, and that by its cooling, a portion of its atmosphere was condensed in water which occupied a part of the surface. In this state, no forms of life, such as now belong to our system, could have inhabited it ”

“ Yes: all the clouds are within the atmosphere, for they are supported by the air. Well—this atmosphere rolls about along with the earth, as if it were a part of it, and moves with it through the sky, which is a vast field of empty space. In this immense space are all the stars and planets, which have also their several motions. There is nothing to stop them, and therefore they continually go on, by means of the force that the Creator has originally impressed upon them. ”

“ To mortals, at this altitude, the atmosphere would be too rarefied and too cold to be endurable, but, as you perceive, Spirits sufficiently evolved, are not subject to physical conditions. How deep is Earth's atmosphere? ”

“ Fig. 28 shows a part of the earth surrounded by such a dust-laden atmosphere, which is illuminated on the left by the rays of the sun, but which, on the right of the figure, lies in the shadow cast by the earth. To an observer placed at 1 the sun is just setting, and all the atmosphere above him is illumined with its rays, which furnish a bright twilight. ”

“ Heat rarifies atmosphere as we here realize by the influence of the sun. If the addition of a few rays of the sun will dissipate the dense clouds, and so materially rarify our atmosphere at the distance of ninety-five millions of miles, what may we suppose the condition of the atmosphere ninety millions of miles nearer its source? ”

“ The atmosphere is a great basin which envelops this globe, and every plant and animal that grows thereon is dependent for its well being upon the laws which govern and control the 'wind in its circuits,' and none more so than man, the lord of all. To study these laws, we must treat the atmosphere as a whole. We have now the sea made white with floating observatories all equipped with instruments that are comparable, observing the same things according to a uniform method, and recording these observations according to a universal plan. ”

“ The atmosphere would not consist of oxygen and nitrogen only or chiefly, any more than, in all probability, the primeval atmosphere of our own earth was so constituted. We may adopt some such view of the moon's atmosphere—mutatis mutandis—as Dr. ”

“ It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own "atmosphere"; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought atmosphere—the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced by. ”

“ But while the atmosphere may be considered generally as an aerial zone of the earth, the companion of the massy spheroid in its annual revolution round the sun, and rotating with it upon its axis, it has independent movements which present very complex phenomena, however clear the causes which put them in operation. The particles of air are constantly suffering displacement, and it is easy to conceive of various circumstances disturbing the dilatable and elastic fluid in which we live. ”

“ Besides our atmosphere of aqueous vapour, we have another and far larger atmosphere of common air; a permanently elastic fluid, that is, one which is not condensed into a liquid form by pressure or cold, such as it is exposed to in the order of natural events. ”