The Coming Storm | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 12, 1870

The Coming Storm.

Discoveries with regard to the essence of the sun have, during the last year, followed each other with such startling rapidity as to modify all previous theories as to its constitution and province in the economy of the universe. It is now an established fact that the gaseous envelop surrounding the sun, is in a highly-excitable condition, sending out forked tongues of glowing hydrogen in every direction from its surface. These flickering streams of light extend to the enormous distance of from seventy thousand to one hundred thousand miles, and oftentimes take on most fantastic forms. Some of them were photographed during the recent total eclipse; the largest one resembled a ship under full sail; another has branching horns like those of an antelope, and each curious protuberance possessed a character peculiarly its own. Moreover, great periodical disturbances take place in this seething cauldron of blazing gas, which, strangely enough are now thought to be produced by certain combinations in the movements in the little solid bodies, on one of which we live, in their revolution round the sun.

There is every threatening appearance now manifest that we are on the very confines of a great epoch of magnetic storm. The sun has recently been exhibiting surprising forms of disturbance and presenting to scientific eyes, features which, in extent and rapidity of motion, are almost incomprehensible. Vast spots have appeared, whose dimensions must be estimated by millions of square miles, and have presented rapid changes of figure, indicating the action of forces of inconceivable intensity, and moving with a velocity of which figures give no idea. Mr. Huggins recently traced the course of one which moved one hundred thousand miles in a second. Clusters of smaller spots have exhibited every conceivable form of solar disturbance and every degree of light, from the apparent blackness of the nucleus to the intense brilliancy of the faculous ridges.

Neither are these difficulties simply matters of curious speculation, which, occurring at a distance of more than ninety millions of miles, are of no practical importance. For the startling fact is well established that the changes now going on in the physical constitution of the sun, must powerfully affect the electric condition of our earth. These changes have, in former years, caused violent disturbances in magnetic instruments all over the world, and seem to be mysteriously and intimately connected with the most magnificent auroral displays that have ever been witnessed.

The solar magnet storms, like everything else in the universe, are regulated by fixed laws. They occur at regular intervals of eleven years. The last took place in 1859. We may, therefore, look for its recurrence in the coming year, 1870. Some very interesting observations were made at the one which occurred in 1859, by two astronomers, Messrs. Hodgson and Harrington, one being at Oxford and the other in London, where they were, at the same moment, examining a large group of sun spots. Suddenly two intensely-bright patches of light appeared in front of the cluster. They were of such surprising brilliancy that the observers supposed the darkening screens attached to their telescopes must have broken and let the full blaze of the sunlight in. This was not the case, however; but some mysterious process was going on upon the sun's surface, attended with such rapidity of motion that in five minutes the spots traveled over a space of 24,000 miles.

At the New Observatory there are self-registering magnetic instruments indicating the processes of change by which the subtle influences of terrestrial magnetism wax and wane. In a quiescent state of the great terrestrial magnet, the line traced by the pointer will be marked by undulations which are scarcely perceptible. In a more excitable condition, well marked waves along the line show the pulsations of the magnetic system in a manner perfectly intelligible to the practical operator. And there is a third form of disturbance, where the sharp, sudden jerks of the pointer exhibit the occurrence of those mysterious phenomena which are called magnetic storms.

When the records of the New Observatory were examined, it was found that at the exact instant at which the brilliant spots of light had appeared to Messrs. Hodgson and Harrington, the self-registering instrument had been subjected to the third and most significant form of disturbance. A great magnetic storm let loose its pent-up forces, just as the light broke suddenly forth. Neither was this the sole evidence of the sympathy between the sun and its planetary subordinate. It was afterward found that the whole frame of the earth had thrilled under the magnetic influence.

In the West Indies, in South America, in Australia, wherever magnetic observations are systematically made, the same remarkable developments were registered. In the telegraph stations at Washington and Philadelphia, the signalmen received strong electric shocks. In Norway, telegraphic machinery was set on fire. The pen of Bain's telegraph was followed by a flame. Wherever telegraphic wires were found, well-marked indications of violent action were manifested. Even this was not all. Hours passed before the disturbed earth returned to its normal condition, and the daylight faded while the storm was still in progress. In the darkness which followed, auroras spread their waving streams over the sky in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. As the disturbed needle vibrated, the aurora waved its colored banners in response, and the brilliant display only paled in its splendor when the magnetic storm subsided. Thus we see there are the most intimate relations between the peculiar disturbances in the sun and the magnetic current of the earth. When one of these mysterious changes takes place, more than 90,000,000 miles away, the flash is borne to us by the swift vibrations of the electric wave, and every fibre of the earth bends to the power which from the far distant realms of space brings auroral displays to write the story in living colors on the celestial archway, while every magnetic instrument bears its testimony to the influence of solar magnetism.

We are on the verge of great discoveries in astronomical science. If the next year confirms and increases these of the one which has passed, we shall have to throw our old astronomical treatise to the shade and begin anew. Meantime we shall watch with anxious interest for the great magnetic storm of 1870.

The following entitled “Something Coming” is the notice which another paper gives of the present disturbance in the sun's atmosphere.

The sun's atmosphere, say the scientific men, is in a highly excited condition. A column of magnetic light is shooting out further and further from the solar sphere, and it is now stretching out forty-five millions of miles. In other words, it has accomplished half the distance between us and the sun! The interesting question, and one on which, perhaps, we do not wish any more light of this character, is: How long will it be before it finishes the rest of the distance, and bridges the gigantic chasm between the earth and the sun? Is it a messenger sent out to snatch us up as food for the insatiate monster that keeps himself warm by devouring planets, and whose fire-eating propensities this whole earth would satisfy for a few days only! If so, how long will this emissary be in reaching us, and carrying the globe away as if we were a gigantic lump of coal for a roaring furnace?

It is predicted that before the end of the next year, 1870, this magnetic light will have got near enough to make its immediate and actual influence upon the earth distinctly felt. It is announced that in consequence we may expect to see phenomena that have never been seen or known before by the human race.