Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1892 — Can Water Run Uphill? [ARTICLE]

Can Water Run Uphill?

It would be a legitimate answer to this question, perhaps, to cite the flow of water, through a siphon, its capillary action, as in a lamp-wick, or its upward course when drunk by an animal. Tho inquiry should be made more explicit. Can a river, in its natural channel, open to the air, run Aiphill? lin possible as this seems, it is an established fact. In fact, every river flowing toward the equator for u sufficient distance runs uphill. , Tho mouth of the Mississippi la throe miles higher than its source. That is, Minnesota, where the Mi*slssippl risds, is throo miles nearer tho center of the 'earth than is the Gulf of Mexico. In tho reason for such a difference In level will bo found tho explanation of tho river’s uphill flow. As any schoolboy will tell us, the earth is a ball flattened at the poles. This flattening, while comparatively insignificant, is still sufficient to make tho polar diameter twenty-eight miles shorter than the equatorial diameter. In other words, the north and the south pole are fourteen miles nearer the earth’s center than is the equator. Now, the distance from tho north polo to tho equator, measured along the earth's surface, is six thousand miles; and the distance from the source to tho mouthof tho Mississippi is about flftoen hundrod miles, or onefourth of six thousand. If, therefore, there is a difference in level of fourteen miles between tho north pole and the equator, there will be a difference in lovel botwoon tho source of tho Mississippi and its mouth, of onefourth of fourteen miles, or three and one-half miles. But tho territory watered by the , Mississippi has bceh elevated ! somewhat by volcanic or similar forces, and the actual excess In height of tho river’s mouth is reduced to the three miles first mentioned. How is it possible for the river thus to run upnill? When, eons ago, the sun bod thrown the earth from Its surface like u drop of water from a swiftly turning wheel, our globe, became a huge ball of molten rock, itself swiftly revolving in space. As it gradually cooled, It shrank; and by shrinking its velocity increased, Just as a stone tied to a string and twirled about a boy’s finger revolves more rapidly as the string winds about the finger. When the centrifugal force bad so increased as to exceed gravitation, a huge mass shot off from the earth's equator, and became the moon. Still, the centrifugal force retained ample power to expand the earth’s equator, and to retain It in this form until cold and rigid. Nor has this force yet abated. As It drew toward the equator the earth’s material when plastic, it still continues to attract in the same direction all the fluids upon the earth’s surface. In this way gravitation la partially overcome, and the Mississippi River flows steadily up Its threemile hill to the Mexican Gnlf. A second question Is sugg<stsd-~ What would ensue If the revolution of the earth should be by ■some means gradually retarded? The Mississippi would become more and more sluggish; the entire valley and the great lakes would swell into an inland sea, and the Gulf of Mexico would seek through them Its way to the North Pole. If the earth should cease to revolve altogether, £he oceans of the equator would forsake their beds and hasten toward the poles. Probably the entire globe north of the latitude of Boston Would be submerged.