The constitution of matter : memoir on the probable constitution of matter, and laws of motion, as deducible from, and explanatory of, the physical phenomena of nature / by J.L. Riddell.

  • Riddell, John Leonard, 1807-1865.
Date:
[1846?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constitution of matter : memoir on the probable constitution of matter, and laws of motion, as deducible from, and explanatory of, the physical phenomena of nature / by J.L. Riddell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    bles us to comprehend the probable causes of the sun's luminosity. When we behold the multitude of fixed stars, that send their impulses of light to us, from immeasurably distant points in space, we are by analo- gy impressed with, the conviction, that each is some enormous solar sphere, vieing with or perhaps exceeding in magnitude our sun. For if very much smaller, they couW not be thus luminous. 122. Innumerable as may be the modifications of impulse in the jV/o % medium, our sense of vision can take cognizance of only a limit- ed range of these modifications. From all surfaces of all molecular and visible bodies, must at all times emanate impulses in the ]y/o z me- dium. Comparatively little of this momentum do we recognize as light; yet oftentimes we may perceive the effect of such invisible rays, in sundry electric, magnetic and chemical phenomena; and especially in the increase or diminution of momentum thereby induced in molecular bodies, as evinced by a change of temperature. 123. We will now inquire if the fo1 impulses, originate solely at the surface of the sun, or whether they are essentially derived directly from the sun's mass, being transmitted through the surface. And here without dwelling long, considering the density of the jjf©a medium which must pervade the sun, it is highly probable that to the total amount of 3/°2 impulses emanating from the sun, every molecular par- ticle in the sun's mass, directly contributes. Hence the radiation from the sun, must proceed, not merely from the surface, but also from the in- terior mass. Hence the intensity of the light and heat of the sun, as emanating from any particular part of the disc, might be expected to be greater or less, somewhat in proportion to the amount of the sun's mass lying in the special direction of the ray. Whereas if the solar radiation originated at the surface, the centre of the disc should be least, and the margin the most productive in light and heat. 124. Bouguer determined (Bowditch's Laplace, IV. 556) that the centre of the sun's disc is most, and the margin least luminous. The lio-ht contributed from a point, one-eighth the sun's diameter from the margin, bears in respect to intensity, to the light from the centre, the ra- tio of 35 to 48. Now if the line of vision be carried continuously through the sun's mas?, in the direction of these two points, it will by cal- culation be seen, that the chord of an arc which the first will describe, will bear to the sun's diameter which the second will describe, the ratio nearly of 35 to 52, which is too close an approximation to the ratio of intensity before stated to be accidental. CENTRAL HEAT OF THE EARTH. 125. For the present, I merely advert to the high temperature, probably existing in the interior of the earth, for the purpose of saying, that I think it can be shown to depend on causes now in operation. That a greater proportionate amount of molecular momentum should be possessed by the interior molecules of the earth, would seem fairly to result from the laws of dynamical equilibrium ;—from the relation of such molecules to others more nearly superficial; to the foa medium investing the earth, and to the ponderefacient impulses. POLARITY. 126. When we enquire into the habitudes of those enormous spheres revolving in space, properly deuominated stellar atoms, the sun, planets,