The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe

CHAPTER XV.. Conclusion. the Harmony of Nature's Laws and

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.

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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.

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