The Source and Mode of Solar Energy Throughout the Universe

by Isaac W. Heysinger

THE SOURCE OF SOLAR ENERGY.

The remarkable resemblance between the mode of operation and effects of these electrical induction machines and the vast rotating electrosphere of the earth must be at once apparent. The operation is precisely the same, and the results must, pari passu, be substantially similar. We need not seek for precise parallelism of structure, because these machines themselves, it has been shown, widely differ in structure among themselves. But the almost infinitely more vast terrestrial electrosphere, which cannot be less than ten thousand miles in diameter, and perhaps much more (if we may form an opinion from the relative magnitude of the field of action of the hydrogen envelope which constitutes the solar electrosphere), rotating in the attenuated vapors of space, among which vapors that of water plays a most important part, and which vapors constantly impinge with various disturbances of contact against the more and more attenuated layers of the terrestrial atmosphere, and which gradually, from within outward, less and less partakes of the earth’s rotation until, finally, its rotatory movement is lost in the vast ocean of space, establishes the certainty that enormous quantities of electricity must there be disengaged, precisely as in the machines which we have described, and to learn the potential or active pressure of this electricity we have only to consider the fact that we find a rise so rapid, as we ascend through our atmosphere, that the potential increases by from twenty to forty volts for each foot. That these currents are transmitted to the sun without appreciable resistance we already know, and that they are there transformed into light and heat we can, from the previously cited experiments, see.

But it may be urged that the resistance of such attenuated vapors in space, and the generation of electricity in such quantities, would inevitably retard and finally destroy planetary motion. The sufficient answer to this is found in the consideration that the same facts must exist under any possible mode of organization of our solar system, and that such interference, besides, must have absolutely prevented its formation at all, if such were the case. All the matter of our planetary system together is only one seven-hundred-and-fiftieth that of the sun; if this were added to the sun’s bulk it would but slightly enlarge it. But all this solar and planetary matter together, if distributed over the space occupied by our planetary system,—and, by the nebular hypothesis of the organization of our solar system, this is requisite,—and having an axial diameter one-half that of its equatorial (see Proctor’s “Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects,”—“Oxygen in the Sun”), would have had a density of only about one four-hundred-thousandth that of hydrogen gas at atmospheric pressure. This nebular mass must have had a diameter at least sixty times that of the distance of the earth from the sun and a depth of thirty times its distance. That this enormous mass of attenuated matter should ever have been made to rotate as a whole by any force of attraction, repulsion, or rotation, with a tenuity so great that, if measured by an equal volume of hydrogen gas,—the lightest substance known to us,—it would have furnished material for four hundred thousand such systems as ours, presupposes a resistance so slight that the planets themselves, when coagulated out of such a mass, could never in any conceivable time exhibit retardation from such a source; and we know to a certainty that such attenuated vapors do exist in space, for electricity cannot be transmitted through a vacuum, and it is transmitted with perfect freedom between the earth and the sun. But it may be said that the laws were then different. If they were different then, they are doubtless different now. If, on the other hand, we assume that the bodies of which our solar system is composed were simply aggregated into concrete masses from meteoric dust, the difficulty is not lessened; for if the resistances to their operation now are such as to perceptibly retard their motions, they must have operated still more powerfully to originally prevent them; while, if hurled forth by an almighty fiat, complete from the hand of creative energy, the same force which impelled them forward must have also established the laws under which they now move.

It is calculated that our earth must be losing time, by tidal retardation, at the rate of one-half the moon’s diameter in each twelve hundred years (see Proctor, “Light Science for Leisure Hours,”—“Our Chief Timepiece Losing Time”), and that “the length of a day is now more by about one eighty-fourth part of a second than it was two thousand years ago.” Perhaps, however, we may discover that these changes are themselves periodic and increase in cycles to a maximum, and then diminish, as is the case with magnetic, planetary, and stellar variations, and other similar changes, when sufficiently long observed; for while such changes may very well accompany a theory under which our system and all other systems are slowly running down to decay and death, it is entirely incompatible with the primal forces under which they must have been originally formed. In other words, if the tides are dragging back our earth without compensation, this dragging back can only come from the oceanic deposit of water on the earth from the aqueous vapors of space which do not partake of the planetary rotation and orbital movement of the earth. But if these can now retard the earth’s motion, they must have originally prevented it in the beginning. This loss of time is, moreover, merely inferential from mathematical computations, and its basis is found in the belief that all the operations of nature are in a slow process of degradation, and the calculated loss itself may be merely theoretical, and not true in fact. Professor Proctor himself concedes the uncertainty of this alleged retardation when he says in the same article, “At this rate of change our day would merge into a lunar month in the course of thirty-six thousand millions of years. But after a while the change will take place more slowly, and some trillion or so of years will elapse before the full change is effected.”

While the processes of nature are generally believed to be running down, everything is bent to that belief; but the forces of nature must, nevertheless, be uniform and supreme, for it is by these forces that the expected results are to be achieved. That changes occur constantly is inevitable, but the source of these must be looked for in the interaction of original forces, and not in the degradation of systems. There is reason to believe, in fact, that the repulsion of the terrestrial electrosphere by that of the moon may itself be sufficient to counteract such retarding force of lunar gravity, for the tides upon earth are not merely oceanic, but atmospheric, and on the latter the electrical repulsion of the moon must act very powerfully and with directly counteractive effect.

Planetary generation and transmission of electrical energy.—A, the planet; B, electrosphere showing circles of gradually diminishing rotation; E, interplanetary space; D, curve of gradually diminishing rotation; F, F, currents of electricity flowing to the sun; S, direction of the sun.

Let us now apply the preceding principles to the problem under review. All planetary space is pervaded with attenuated vapors or gases, among which aqueous vapor occupies a leading place. The planets and all planetary bodies, having opposite electrical polarity from the central and relatively fixed sun, by their orbital motions around and constant subjection thereto act as enormous induction machines, which generate electricity from the ocean of attenuated aqueous vapor, each planet being surrounded by an enormous electrosphere, carried with the planet in its axial and orbital movements, the successive atmospheric envelopes gradually diminishing in rotational velocity until merged into the outer ocean of space. As the planets advance in their orbits they plunge into new and fresh fields, and, as the whole solar system gradually moves onward through space, these fields are never re-occupied. These electrospheres, by their rotation, generate enormous quantities of electricity at an extremely high potential,—so high that we can scarcely even conceive it,—and this electricity flows in a constant current to the sun, where it disappears as electricity, to reappear in the form of solar light and heat. These planetary currents also flow towards such other negatively electrified bodies as may exist in space—the comets and fixed stars, for example—in proportion to their distance; for, since resistance is not appreciable between ourselves and the sun, as is also the case with light, so, like light, our electricity must pass outward as well as inward to take part in the harmonious operations of the whole universe. But it should be noted that the distribution of electric energy in the form of currents is quite different from that of light or other radiant energy; for while light is diffused from a center outward through space, electric currents, on the contrary, are concentrated and directed along lines of force to concrete centers of opposite polarity. As a consequence, the intensity of light decreases according to the squares of the distances traversed plus the resistance to the passage of the light itself, while the electric current is only diminished by the resistance of the medium through which it passes. As the light of the sun has a velocity of one hundred and eighty-eight thousand miles per second, and the electric current between the earth and the sun the same, it will be seen that the resistance is practically alike for these two forms of energy. Indeed, the striking resemblance between the ethereal vibrations which constitute light and heat and exceedingly rapid alternating currents of electricity through molecular media may suggest that the transformation of one force into the other is some sort of a “step-up” or “step-down” process, much higher in degree, but of the same character as the well-known analogous electrical transformations used in the arts. It should also be borne in mind that, while the intensity of light diminishes according to the above law, the quantity remains the same, less resistance, as the area covered increases precisely in the same proportion as the intensity diminishes,—that is, in the ratio of squares.

Upper figure.—Gradual discharge between two conductors, in partial vacuum.