Outlines of a mechanical theory of storms : $b containing the true law of lunar influence, with practical instructions to the navigator, to enable him approximately to calculate the coming changes of the wind and weather, for any given day, and for any part of the oceanBassnett, Thomas
Science
Outlines of a mechanical theory of storms : $b containing the true law of lunar influence, with practical instructions to the navigator, to enable him approximately to calculate the coming changes of the wind and weather, for any given day, and for any part of the ocean
Bassnett, Thomas
Weather
In passing judgment on this relation, it must also be borne in mind,
that the recognized masses of the planets cannot be the true masses, if
the theory be true. Both sun and planets are under-estimated, yet, as
they are, probably, all to a certain degree proportionally undervalued,
it will not vitiate the above calculation much.
The spots being considered as solar storms, they ought also to vary in
number at different times of the year, according to the longitude of the
earth and sun, and from their transient character, and the slow rotation
of the sun, they ought, _ceteris paribus_, to be more numerous when the
producing vortex is over a visible portion of the sun's surface.
The difficulty of reconciling the solar spots, and their periodicity to
any known principle of physics, ought to produce a more tolerant spirit
amongst the scientific for speculations even which may afford the
slightest promise of a solution, although emanating from the humblest
inquirer after truth. The hypothesis of an undiscovered planet, exterior
to Neptune, is of a nature to startle the cautions timidity of many;
but, if the general theory be true, this hypothesis becomes extremely
probable. We may not have located it exactly. There may be even two such
planets, whose joint effect shall be equivalent to one in the position
we have assigned. There may even be a comet of great mass, capable of
producing an effect on the position of the sun's centre (although it
follows from the theory that comets have very little mass). Yet, in view
of all these suppositions, there can be but little doubt that the solar
spots are caused by the solar vortices, and these last made effective on
the sun by the positions of the great planets, and, therefore, we have
indicated a new method of determining the existence and position of all
the planets exterior to Neptune. On the supposition that there is only
one more in the system, from its deduced distance and mass, it will
appear only as a star of the eleventh magnitude, and, consequently, will
only be recognizable by its motion, which, at the greatest, will only be
ten or eleven seconds per day.
MASSES OF THE SUN AND PLANETS.
We have alluded to the fact of the radial stream of the sun necessarily
diminishing the sun's power, and, consequently, diminishing his apparent
mass. The radial stream of all the planets will do the same, so that
each planet whose mass is derived from the periodic times of the
satellites, will also appear too small. But, there is also a great
probability that some modification must be made in the wording of the
Newtonian law. The experiments of Newton on the pendulum, with every
variety of substance, was sufficient justification to entitle him to
infer, that inertia was as the weight of matter universally. But, there
was one condition which could not be observed in experimenting on these
substances, viz., the difference of temperature existing between the
interior and surface of a planet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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