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
hemisphere, and for accelerating the approach of both summer and winter,
while in the north they were both retarded.
We must now advert to another cause, which of all others is probably the
most important, at least to the other members of the solar system.
In every part of the solar vortex the ether is continually pressing
outwards. We are not now speaking of the radial stream, but of the
slower spiral motion of the ether around the axis of the vortex, whose
centrifugal force is bearing the whole body of the ether outwards, thus
rarefying the central parts, and thus giving rise to the polar influx,
from which arises the radial stream. This may be made more intelligible,
by reflecting that the polar current is comparatively dense ether, and
that the length of the axis of the vortex prevents this influx current
coming in sufficient quantities to restore an equilibrium in the density
of the medium. Yet, what does come down the poles, is distributed
rapidly along the equatorial plane, leaving the space still rarefied.
Now we perceive, that in order for the radial stream to continue in
action, requires the whole medium of the vortex to be also moving
outward; it is therefore continually condensed as it proceeds. This
condensation necessarily converts much of the specific heat of the ether
into sensible heat; so that the _temperature_ of the medium is
continually increasing, as the distance from the sun increases.
When we contemplate the solar system as the emanation of one Great Mind,
we naturally seek for evidence of the wisdom of a supreme intelligence
in _all_ the arrangements of that system. But, however humbly and
reverently we may speak of these arrangements, we can scarcely avoid the
wish, that the planetary distances had been differently arranged, if
Newton's doctrine be true, that space is a vacuum, and that the heat of
a planet, is inversely as the squares of the distances from the sun.
For, to speak of the temperature of space, except as dependent on this
law, is one of those many incomprehensible inconsistencies with which
philosophers are chargeable. If the Newtonian philosophy is literally
true, space has _no temperature_, and the surface heat of the planet
Neptune is nearly 1,000 times less than on our own globe. Again, on
Mercury it is seven times greater, which heat would scorch and consume
every organic substance on the earth, and speedily envelope the boiling
ocean in a shroud of impermeable vapor. Granting even that space may not
be a vacuum, and yet the law of gravitation be true, we may still be
allowed to consider both Saturn and Uranus and Neptune, as inhospitable
abodes for intelligent creatures; and, seeing the immensity of room in
the system, there is no reason why these planets might not have been
permitted to revolve nearer the great source of light and life and
cheering emanations. To suggest the resources of Omnipotence is no
argument. He has surrounded us with analogies which are seen, by which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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