Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1882 — Bun Storm. [ARTICLE]

Bun Storm.

Providence Journal. It is pitiful to witness the condition of the sun. The great fire-ball is in intense commotion. His surface is seamed and scarred in every direction, with black spots that indicate the disturbing elements at work in his chaotic mass. Occasionally, for a day or two, the blemishes disappear, and the glorious king of day snows a face like a shield of glowing gold. But the aspect quickly changes; spots come rushing in all directions and assuming all forms. They appear singly and in pairs, and again in groups and rows. Immense groups break up into small ones, and small onesjunite to form great chasms, into which half a dozen worlds might be dropped and there would still be room for more. Sometimes the spots are visible to the naked eye, and at that time a good opera glass or a spy glass will make them easily perceptible. lundreds of observers all over the world watch the sun’s face every clear day, and keep a record of the number of spots, their size, and the direction in which they move, for as the sun turns on his axis they turn with him, some of them remaing for months without much change, some taking on new forms and some disappearing entirely. Very little is known of this mysterious sun or the spots that are visible more than ninety millions of miles away. Once in about eleven years the sun takes op his present sun-spot phase, and we are approaching the maximum of disturbance. No one knows the cause. Some believe that it is planetary attraction, some that it is the fall of great masses of meteoric matter, and some that it is the result of internal commotion and the rush upward of gaseous explosions in comparison with which our fiercest volcanic eruptions are but the flicker of a flame. Besides the sun-spot agitation, the gaseous outbursts are marked and vivid. The tongues of flame or rosy protuberances are darting forth in all directions and bearing their testimony to the solar commotion. Mr. Trouvelot, of Cambridge, who makes daily observation of the sun’s chromosphere, gives a graphic description of a remarkable solar protuberance that he witnessed on the 16th of November. When first seen it was large and complicated, extending upward from the sun about a hundred thousand miles. Three or four hours after it had developed into huge proportions, extending far out into space, and vanishing gradually to regions where it could not be perceived. As nearly as it could be measured, it reached a height of over a quarter of the sun’s diameter, or about two hundred and thirty-five thousand ipiles. Such a protuberance hurled upward from the earth would almost reach the moon! Two hours after,* the whole structure had collapsed, and was only about eighteen thousand miles high. Observations like this give an idea of the mighty forces at work in the solar orb, and make observers long for the time when a satisfactory solution may be found for this mysterious periodical solar disturbance, so intimately connected with the meteorogical condition of the earth. An East Bridge water (Mass.) young man being in Kansas, recently, and desiring to get home but minus the means, resorted to the ingenious device of having a telegram sent to his friends saying that he was dead and desiring money to forward the body. The amount required was raised with difficulty, and sent on. but when the body appeared, the friends thought it a pretty lively corpse.