Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1912 — EARTH GRADUALLY DRYING UP [ARTICLE]

EARTH GRADUALLY DRYING UP

Scientific Theory That Water le Pawing Into the Upper Air aa Hydrogen, Never to Return. When-water ia decomposed by radittm or by ultra-violet rays It produces hydrogen aud peroxide of hydrogen, and it does not form oxygen. Electrolytic decomposition forms oxygen. A German investigator bases a mm theory relating to the drying of

the earth on the fact that one form of decomposition oxygen, while the other form does not. Part of the water vapor emitted by the seaa la decomposed by the ultra-vio-let rays of the sun; the hydrogen foraged rises toward the high atmospheric strata, and all the water does not return to the surface. Therefore, the quantity of water on the faoe of the globe Is always diminishing and the earth is incessantly, If gradually, drying.

To cite one example: On the north efde of the Alps there 1s a continual falling off in the depth of the lakes and a gradual formation of swamps. Two hundred and fifty years ago there were 149 lakes in the canton of Zurich, today ther are sevehty-eix. The destruction of the forests and the cultivation of the land partly explain this, but the loss of hydrogen is an Important factor. The hydrogen accumulated In the higher atmosphere la diffused in interstellar apace.—Harper's Weekly