The moment the metal is plunged into the water it is enveloped in hydrogen gas decomposed from the water. This envelope of gas parts the water and metal, forming an arc, which raises the surrounding gaseous envelope to an enormous temperature; the metal surrounded by this arc is almost immediately raised to the same temperature. A flame of burning hydrogen appears around the metal on the surface of the water. The principle of the method is the same as that on which the burning of an arc light between two carbon points under water depends. An arc lamp will burn quite steadily under water if the connections are made water-proof; the arc itself requires no protection." It will be seen that the process above described is precisely analogous to that involved in the problem of the sun's energy. The planets correspond with the leaden plates, upon which oxygen is disengaged from the water, while at the same moment the liberated hydrogen necessarily appears at the opposite pole. The generation of hydrogen gas forms an envelope or atmosphere of hydrogen around the sun which forces back the aqueous vapor. The current, in passing through this gaseous envelope to the metal core within, intensely heats the hydrogen, which rapidly communicates its rising heat to the central core. If this core is composed of metals, and the temperature be raised sufficiently high, which only depends upon the quantity and working pressure of the electricity employed, the metal core will be volatilized in whole or in part, and, if of mixed metals, we will find the presence of these elements revealed in the spectroscopic lines corresponding thereto, and the flames and flashes of hydrogen at the surfaces beyond the envelope, at the surface of contact with the matter of space, will be also seen. In fact, such an experiment, properly prepared, could be made to show roughly most of the phenomena of solar light and heat as they actually appear, such as sun-spots, prominences, jets, plumes, faculæ, the photosphere, chromosphere, absorption bands, vortical disturbances, metallic vapors, and the complete solar spectrum, with the different Fraunhofer lines. In the case of the sun, these currents must be measured by millions of ampères, and possibly by hundreds of millions of volts, instead of by mere hundreds, while the hydrogen envelope extends outward from the sun's surface hundreds of thousands of miles until, perhaps, finally merged into the corona. As the currents pass from the planets and planetoids (for not only the larger planets, but all the planetary bodies of our system must contribute, if any of them contribute) to the sun, or rather to the sphere of its electrical action, without resistance, so long as these planets generate constant currents of the same, or nearly the same, potential, so long will the sun maintain his constant light and heat; if these are increased or diminished, the sun's light and heat will be temporarily, but only temporarily,