Familiar Talks on Science: World-Building and Life; Earth, Air and Water.

The sun is the great lamp that illuminates the world, while the atmosphere, which is filled with particles of various substances, becomes the shade of the lamp which diffuses and softens the light and gives it its color tones, whether of warmth or coldness. We could not well do without the reflected light of the sky. The poetry of life would be sadly marred. The beautiful effects of color and purity of tone would be wanting. We need to bathe in light as much as in water, and the character of the light is almost as important as the character of the water. Imagine a world with an atmosphere devoid of all substances that would in any way reflect light or give to it softness or color tone. Imagine a sun or a moon without visible rays – for without a reflecting atmosphere there would be none. Imagine a sky that was no sky at all, but only a dark void, with no protecting vault. Think of the shadows, so dark that you could see nothing in them. These would be some of the effects that would come from an atmosphere that had no sky substance in it. Imagine the world lighted by one great arc light. The reflex action upon the race living in such a light would be anything but desirable. The world would develop into an arc-light civilization – if one can imagine what that would be like; certainly one of intensely violent contrasts. Look on this picture and let us be thankful for the blue sky and golden sunsets.

"But," you ask, "why is the sky blue?"

In one of the chapters on the subject of light in Vol. II. the properties of soap bubbles are discussed. It is shown that when a film is stretched across the mouth of a tumbler held in a position so that the film is perpendicular, by the action of gravity (the moisture constantly falling to the lower part of the film) it will continually grow thinner, and horizontal bands of color will appear upon it, – first red, then followed by the other colors of the solar spectrum, ending with violet.

It is also stated that every color of light has a definite wave length. Where a band of blue color appears upon the film we know that its thickness is right for the wave length of that particular color which is reflected from the back of the film to the eye. If we could conceive the blue vault of the heavens to be half a sphere of a soap bubble, the color that the sky would appear to us (if the light could be thrown upon it from beneath) would be determined by the thickness of this film. If the film was 1-156,000 of an inch the sky would be red instead of blue. To reflect the other colors the film would have to grow thinner for each color, in the progression from red to violet. The color of the sky is determined by a light-reflection from minute globules of moisture floating in the air. If the sky is blue, then the globules must be of the right diameter to reflect that color. The various tints and colorings of the sky are determined by what is found in the atmosphere, and this is the reason why skies differ in coloring and tone in different sections of the globe. The finest skies are probably found in semi-tropical regions like southern Italy, Greece, and California.

In 1892 I visited Greece in the early part of June. In crossing the Adriatic, from Brindisi to Patras in Greece, the route was through the Ionian Islands that are grouped along the southwestern shore of Albania. The sky was without a cloud, and its beautiful blue color was reflected in the waters of the Adriatic, and I never shall forget the impression made upon my senses when we first came in sight of the mountains on the west coast of Albania. At this point they rise abruptly from the water and are colored with that peculiar azure haze, mixed with a shading of warmth, which is an effect that distance gives in the classic atmosphere of old Greece. The effect upon the beholder is to intoxicate the senses and to fill him with that deliciously poetic feeling that always comes when standing in the presence of the sublime in nature. It was not the mountains themselves that produced the effect, for I had seen grander than these; but it was the sky on the mountains. When we look at a distant mountain it seems to be partly hidden by a peculiar haze that is the color of the sky at that time; we are really looking at the mountain through a portion of the sky. While in Athens I took a trip to the top of Mount Pentelicus, which separates the plains of Athens on the south from those of Marathon on the north. From the summit of this mountain we have a most wonderful view of the archipelago of the Ægean Sea – a beautiful map of blue water and brown islands that melt together in the distance. At our feet lay the historic plains of Marathon, and in the distance rose the snow-capped peaks of Mount Olympus. It is doubtful if the world furnishes a more beautiful combination of ocean, island, continent, and sky than can be seen from Mount Pentelicus. Myriads of brown islands set in the bluest of water – graceful in outline and multiform in shape – jutting headlands and land-locked harbors – strong in color and outline in the immediate foreground, but gradually melting together in the distance, the brown becoming bluer and the blue a softer blue till the whole is lost on the horizon in a sky that shades back to the zenith in an ever-changing azure that for purity of tone baffles all description.

What wonder that a people born under such skies and whose eyes have feasted on such beauties in nature should conceive and execute such a masterful work of art as the Parthenon! While the variation of landscape, the stretch of water filled with islands, and the mountains capped with eternal snow were a prominent part of the picture, it was the sky with its beautiful color-tones that after all gave it its wonderful charm.

The skies in a northern latitude are colder and grayer, due to the fact that nearly always there is a certain degree of condensation of moisture existing, which, while it does not take the form of a cloud, still gives a toning to the sky.

There is no doubt but that the color-tones of the sky have an influence upon the character and temperament of the people who live under them. Under semi-tropical skies the poetic nature is more strongly appealed to, and a man is more likely to be controlled by his dreamy imaginings than his cold calculations. We find this latter characteristic prevailing to a greater or less extent among the people who live under colder and sterner skies. If all these qualities or influences could be combined in the right way, the race would be stronger intellectually and in other ways. It is always dangerous to a race of people to be developed along certain lines only. The development should be symmetrical. The strongest men are not those who are simply coldly intellectual, neither those who are simply emotional and sentimental, but those in whom heart, mind, and soul are so related that each one of these elements re-enforces and strengthens the others.

At certain seasons of the year and in certain localities it is not uncommon to have wonderfully beautiful displays of coloring upon the skies and clouds at sunset. The question is often asked why we do not see these displays at other times in the day than at sunrise and at sunset – for the same effects are seen in the morning, but they are not noticed so often, because to do so would interfere with the habits of the average man and woman.

The reason for this change of coloring is the angle at which the sun's rays strike the clouds of an evening sky, which are reflected to our eyes. When the sun is high in the heavens it shines against the back of the clouds, from the point of view of a person standing on the surface of the earth. It also shines a shorter distance through the air at midday than at sunset. At sunset the rays are able to shine on the under side of a cloud, especially if it is high in the air. The moisture globules of which the cloud is made up are much larger than the transparent ones that are uncondensed and just as they were when released in the process of evaporation.

As we have already seen, the reflections from these minute globules give us the blue coloring of the sky and are very much smaller in diameter than a globule that is able to reflect the red ray. When these small globules are condensed into cloud a great number are combined into one globule, and they are of all sizes, from the globule of evaporation to that of the raindrop when precipitation takes place. We have, then, in the various stages of cloud formation all conditions present for reflecting the various colors and combinations of colors that are found in the solar spectrum. Hence it is that, under certain conditions of atmosphere and cloud formation, we see at sunset painted upon the sky those wonderful combinations of colors, more beautiful and delicate in shading, more various in combination and purer of tone, than any artist, however cunning his fingers or brilliant his pigments, has ever been able to truthfully reproduce. Even when the sky is cloudless it often assumes a brilliant hue, which is partly a reflection from invisible moisture globules and partly due to floating particles of dust that may have been driven up from the surface of the earth, or may be the ashes of meteorites disintegrated by contact with the air.

Some years ago, commencing in August, 1883, there was a wonderful exhibition of red skies at sunset that lasted for several hours after twilight ordinarily disappears. This phenomenon ran through a period of several weeks, gradually fading away. It was afterward determined that these displays were occasioned by small particles of ashes or dust floating high in the air, that were thrown off from the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in the Island of Java. By the general circulation of the air the ashes were carried to all parts of the world, making a circuit of the earth in from twelve to thirteen days – which showed a velocity of over eighty miles an hour. This is an instance of the high velocity of the air currents in the upper regions of the atmosphere. The reason why the illumination extended so late in the night was because of the great height that these particles of dust attained. The higher the reflecting surfaces are in the air the longer they may be seen after sunset. Ordinary twilight is caused by a reflection of sunlight from the upper air; and from its duration as ordinarily observed it is estimated that the reflection does not proceed from a point more than thirty-six miles high. In the higher latitudes the twilight is long, from the fact that the sun does not go directly down, and if we go far enough north the whole night is twilight. In the tropical regions the twilight is shorter than at any other point on the globe for reasons that are obvious. The sun there goes directly down and is soon hidden behind the earth.

There are other optical effects to be seen sometimes on the horizon somewhat resembling twilight. The "aurora borealis" (northern lights), which we describe in Vol. III., is seen in the northern skies at certain times, and has very much the appearance of twilight in some of its phases. It is constantly changing, however, and is easily distinguished by anyone who has observed both. These appearances are undoubtedly electrical. There is another phenomenon seen in the arctic regions that causes a band of white light to appear on the horizon called "ice blink," and it is caused by the reflections from the great icebergs that abound in that region.

Curious optical effects are sometimes observed a little after sunset in the form of streamers or bands of light that shoot up into the sky, sometimes to a great height. These are undoubtedly due to cloud obstructions that partially shut off the sun's rays from a part of the sky, but allow it to shine with greater brilliancy in the path of these bands of light.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the sky in all of its phases is a product of sunlight and the substances that float in the air, including moisture, not only in the invisible state, but in all the stages of condensation, as well as particles of floating dust.

CHAPTER XVIII

LIQUID AIR

Air, like water, assumes the liquid form at a certain temperature. Water boils and vaporizes at 212 degrees Fahrenheit above zero, while liquid air boils and vaporizes at 312 degrees below zero.

Heat and cold are practically relative terms, although scientists talk about an "absolute zero" (the point of no heat), and Professor Dewar fixes this point at 461 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Others have estimated that the force of the moon during its long night of half a month, is reduced in temperature to six or seven hundred degrees below, which is far lower than Professor Dewar's absolute zero. However this may be, to an animal that is designed to live in a temperature of 70 or 80 degrees Fahrenheit, any temperature below zero would seem very cold. If, however, we were adapted to a climate where the normal temperature was 312 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, we should be severely burned if we should sit down upon a cake of ice. Such a climate would be impossible for animal existence, for the reason that there would be no air to breathe, since it would all liquefy.

Liquid air is not a natural product. There is no place on our earth cold enough to produce it. If the moon had an atmosphere (which it probably has not) it would liquefy during the long lunar night, for heat radiates very rapidly from a planet when the sun's rays are withdrawn from it.

As you have already surmised, liquid air is a product of intense cold. Any method that will reduce the temperature of the air to 312 degrees Fahrenheit below zero will liquefy it. Great pressure will not do this, for we may compress air in a strong vessel until the pressure on every square inch of the vessel is 12,000 pounds, or six tons, and still it will not liquefy unless the temperature is brought down to the required degree of coldness. If this is done it will change from a gas to a liquid, but will occupy as much space as before, if it is condensed to a pressure of six tons to the square inch.

Until twenty years ago it was supposed that oxygen and atmospheric air (the latter a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen) were fixed gases and could not be liquefied. In 1877, it is said that Raoul Pictet obtained the first liquid oxygen, but only a few drops. About fifteen years later Professor Dewar of the Royal Institution, London, succeeded in liquefying not only oxygen but atmospheric air. And besides liquefying the air he made ice of it.

In 1892 I visited London, where I met Professor Dewar, who invited me to witness an exhibition of the manufacture of liquid oxygen – and incidentally liquid air – at the Royal Institution. To me it was a most wonderfully interesting event. I saw air, taken from the room, gradually liquefy in a small glass test tube open at the top. When the tube was withdrawn from the refrigerating chamber it boiled by the heat of the room, and rapidly evaporated. We lighted a splinter of wood and blew it out, leaving a live spark on the end of it, and held it over the mouth of the tube, knowing that if anything like pure oxygen were evaporating the splinter would relight and blaze (an old experiment with oxygen gas). At first the splinter would not relight, because the evaporating gases were a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in the proportions to form air. But owing to the fact that nitrogen evaporates sooner than oxygen, a second trial was successful, for the splinter immediately began to blaze, showing that the gas evaporating then was pure, or nearly pure, oxygen.

When the liquid oxygen was poured into a saucer and brought into proximity with the poles of a powerful magnet the liquid immediately rushed out of the saucer and clung to the magnet poles; showing that oxygen is magnetic.

Since that time other experimenters have succeeded in making liquid air on a comparatively large scale, and the process is simple when we consider some of the old methods.

Mr. Tripler of New York, who has made liquid air in great quantities, does it substantially as follows: First, he compresses air to about 2500 pounds to the square inch. Of course the air is very hot when it is first compressed because all the air in the tank has been reduced in bulk about 166 times, and all the heat that was in the whole bulk of air is concentrated into one-166th of the space it occupied before it was compressed. It is 166 times hotter. There are two sets of pipes running from the compressor to a long upright tank called the liquefier. These pipes pass through running water, so that the compressed air is quickly cooled down to the temperature of the water (about 50 degrees Fahrenheit). The pipes – at least one set of them – run the whole length of the liquefier, and most likely are coiled. This set of pipes contains the air to be liquefied. A second set of pipes runs to the bottom of the liquefier, where there is a valve. By opening this valve a jet of compressed air is allowed to play on the other set of pipes, when intense cold is produced by the sudden expansion of the air. This cold air rushes up around the pipe containing the air to be liquefied and escapes at the top, thus absorbing the heat until the temperature is reduced to 312 degrees below zero. Then the air liquefies and runs into a receptacle, where it may be drawn off at pleasure.

It will be seen that a large part of the compressed air is wasted in cooling the remainder sufficiently to liquefy.

The use to which liquid air may be put, advantageously, is an unsolved problem; but no doubt it will have a place in time. All great discoveries do. Electricity had to wait a long time for recognition; but what a part it plays now in the everyday life of the whole civilized world!

Curious effects are produced by this intense cold. Meat may be frozen so hard that it will give off a musical tone when struck. Here is a pointer for the seeker of novelties in the line of musical instruments.

Liquid air furnishes a beautiful illustration of the fact that a burning gas jet is continually forming water as well as giving out heat and light. If we put liquid air into a tea kettle and hold it over a gas jet, ice will form on the bottom from the water created by the flame, and it will freeze so hard that the flame will make no impression upon it, other than to make the ice cake grow larger.

Although liquid air is not found in nature, and is therefore called an artificial product, it is produced by taking advantage of natural law. Without the intellect of man it never would have been seen upon this earth; and the same may be said concerning many things in our world, both animate and inanimate. The genius of man is God-like. He lifts the veil that shrouds the mysteries of nature, and here he comes in very touch with the mind of the Infinite. Man interprets this thought through the medium of natural law, and lo, a new product!

How much life would have been robbed of its charm and interest if all these things had been worked out for us from the beginning! For there is no interest so absorbing and no pleasure so keen as that of pursuit when the pursuer is reaching out after the hidden things that are locked up in Nature's great storehouse. From time to time she yields up her secrets, little by little, to encourage those who love her and are willing to work, not only for the pleasure of the getting, but for the highest and best good of their fellows.

WATER

CHAPTER XIX

RIVERS AND FLOODS

Water covers such a large proportion of the earth's surface and is such an important factor in the economy of nature that it becomes a matter of interest to study the process of its distribution. Water is to our globe what blood is to our bodies. A constant circulation must be kept up or all animal and vegetable life would suffer. Here, as in every other operation of nature, the sun is the great heart and motive power that is active in the distribution of moisture over the face of the globe.

The total annual rainfall on the whole surface of the earth amounts to about 28,000 cubic miles of water. Only about one-fourth of this amount ever reaches the ocean, but it is either absorbed for a time by animal and vegetable life or lifted through the process of evaporation into the air as invisible moisture, when it is carried over the region of rainfall and there condensed into water and falls back upon the earth – only to go through the same operation again. The whole surface of the earth is divided into drainage areas that lead either directly through rivulets and rivers to the ocean, or into some land-locked basin, where it either finds an outlet under ground or is kept within bounds through the process of evaporation, the same as is the case with our great oceans. In North America the amount of drainage area that has no outlet to the ocean amounts to about 3 per cent. of the whole surface. In other countries the percentage of inland drainage is much larger. The great Salt Lake in Utah is an instance where there is no outlet for the water except through the medium of evaporation. Inasmuch as all rivers and streams contain a certain proportion of salt, – especially in such strongly alkaline land regions as the Great Basin of the North American continent, – these inland lakes in time become saturated with this and other mineral substances.

Salt is constantly being carried into the lake by the water of the stream that feeds it, and the water is continually being evaporated, leaving the salt behind. This process has been going on in the valley of Utah for so long a period that 17 per cent. of the contents of the lake is salt. The Humboldt River in Nevada, which empties into a small lake of the same name, and lies at the foot of the Humboldt Mountains, is said to have an underground outlet. This must be the case, because the area of the lake is very small as compared with Salt Lake, while the river that feeds the latter is very small compared with the one that flows into the former. That is to say, in the one case a very small stream empties into a large lake, while in the other case a much larger stream feeds a very small lake. Besides, Humboldt Lake, unlike the Great Salt Lake, is said to be a fresh-water lake; if it had no outlet it would become in time saturated with salt. The largest body of water in the world having no outlet to the ocean is the Caspian Sea, on the border between Asia and Russia in Europe, it being 180,000 square miles in extent.

Where rivers empty into large bodies of water, such as the great chain of lakes on the northern border of the United States (and these lakes have an outlet connecting one with the other, and finally by a river to the ocean) a constant circulation is being kept up, and the water remains fresh. Owing to the fact, however, of the great evaporating surface that these lakes afford, there is a greater disproportion between the rainfall upon the drainage area tributary to these lakes, and the amount of discharge through the St. Lawrence River, than would be the case with a river that was not connected with a system of lakes. The amount of rainfall upon the area drained by the Mississippi River during one year amounts to about 614 cubic miles of water, while the discharge at the mouth of the Mississippi River is only about 154 cubic miles. The difference between the two figures has been carried up by the process of evaporation or stored in vegetation. These figures vary considerably, however, with different years.

The proportion of rainfall to discharge will vary greatly in different rivers from other causes than having a large evaporating surface. This variation is due to the difference in the ability of the soil to retain water after a rainfall. In some drainage areas the ground is more or less impermeable to water, and in this case the water runs readily off, causing a sudden rise in the river; and as suddenly it reaches the low-water mark. In other drainage areas the ground is very permeable to water, so that the rain penetrates to a greater depth into the earth, where it is held, and by a slow process drains into the rivers, while much more of it is carried off by evaporation and into vegetation than is the case in the drainage district before mentioned.

The courses of rivers are determined by the topography of the country through which they flow. The sinuous windings, that are found to be a characteristic of nearly all rivers, are caused by the water, through the force of gravity, seeking the lowest level, and avoiding obstructions, which they can flow around more easily than remove.

Great rivers often change their courses, especially where they flow through a region of made earth, such as is the case with the lower Mississippi River, and in other great rivers of the world. The loose earth is continually shifted by the current, and where the current is not very strong it will often hold the water back to such an extent of accumulated weight that the flood will break over at some weak point on its banks and make a new course for itself.

One of the great rivers of China – the Hwangho – often causes dire destruction to life and property owing to change in its bed from time to time. It is estimated that between the years of 1851-66 this river caused the loss of from 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 lives through drowning and famine by the destruction of crops.

Floods in rivers are occasioned from various causes. Of course the primary cause is the same in all cases, that is, from precipitation of moisture in the form of rain or snow. Some rivers are so related to the area of rainfall and to the permeability of the soil that there is but little variation in the amount of discharge throughout the year. The great river of South America, the Amazon, is an instance of a river of this class. A certain number of the smaller rivers that feed it lie in the area of rainfall during the whole of the year; for instance, the streams of the upper Amazon are being fed by rains at one season of the year, when those feeding the river lower down are at the lowest stage. When the rainy season prevails in the upper section of the river the dry season prevails farther down, while at another season of the year these conditions are reversed. Therefore, though the Amazon has a larger drainage basin than any other river in the world, and in some parts the yearly rainfall is 280 inches, there is no very great fluctuation in the stages of water. The Orinoco River, which flows through Venezuela, and whose drainage area is largely covered with mountains, has a greater fluctuation than any other river, the difference between high and low water amounting to seventy feet.

The River Nile has an annual rise of from fourteen to twenty-six feet. This river is the sole dependence of the inhabitants of lower Egypt, and their sustenance depends upon the height to which the river rises; if it does not rise high enough the agricultural lands are not sufficiently irrigated, and if it rises too high their crops are destroyed by the floods. In this section they depend entirely upon the overflow of the Nile for irrigation, and not upon the rainfall. There is scarcely ever a rainfall in lower Egypt except about once a year on the coast of the Mediterranean. After ascending the river for a short distance we come into an area of no rain for a distance of 1500 miles along the river. Egypt has a superficial area of about 115,200 square miles, and only about one-twelfth of this area is in a position to be cultivated.

As there is no rainfall in this region, the sole dependence for agricultural purposes is from the River Nile when it rises to a sufficient height to admit of irrigation. The river brings down quantities of rich earth which during the overflow is deposited, and thus the agricultural regions are refertilized annually.

The River Nile is what is called a tropical river and is fed by the rains in upper Egypt caused by the monsoon winds that prevail in that section of Africa during the summer season, as they do in India. As has been explained in a former chapter, the monsoon winds blow steadily for about six months from off the southern ocean. These winds are highly charged with moisture, which is not precipitated till it strikes the mountainous regions of the interior. Here the high mountains, which are often snow-capped, cause a profuse precipitation, which runs off into the various feeders of the Nile, causing a gradual rise in the river that reaches the highest point about September of each year. If the Nile should dry up, or if the annual floods should materially change in height, it would make a desert region of all that portion of Egypt now so productive.

The great rivers of China, the Yang-tse-Kiang and the Hwangho, are also tropical rivers and have an annual flood. Sometimes the rise is as much as fifty-six feet. These annual floods are also caused by the monsoon winds that carry moisture from the ocean, which is condensed and precipitated in the mountains of central Asia. The conditions are substantially the same as those which prevail at the sources of the Nile in Africa.

Rivers are produced from all sorts of causes, some of them flowing only during the rainy season, while others are fed by melting snow from the higher mountains, and as the snow is rarely melted away entirely during the summer, in the high mountains, there is a continual flow from this source. The snow forms a system of storage, so that the water is held back and is gradually given up as it melts. If this were not true mountainous regions would be subjected to disastrous floods. If the precipitation were always in the form of rain it would immediately run off instead of being distributed over a whole season. The Platte is an instance of a river largely fed by the melting snows – of the Rocky Mountains.

In the region of glaciers in the mountains of Alaska and Switzerland rivers are fed by the melting ice. These rivers are usually of a milky color occasioned by the pulverization of rock caused by the grinding of the great glaciers as they flow down the gulches in the mountain side. In some regions these glacial rivers have a diurnal variation. This is caused by the fact that the glacier is so situated that it freezes at night, which checks the flow, and thaws in the daytime, which increases it.