Nature's Miracles, Volume 1

but movement of its ultimate particles. It has been determined by experiment that the ability of any s

a-level upward to the extreme limit of the atmosphere weighs fifteen pounds. The density of the air decreases as we ascend. Each successive layer, as we ascend, is more an

very much colder than at sea-level, and the other that it is very much lighter in weight. We find it difficult, when we first reach the summit, to take enough of oxygen into our lungs to carry on the natural operat

t of ascent. There is no exact way of arriving at this, as in ascending a mountain the temperature will be more or less affected by local conditions. If we go up in a balloon we have to depend upon the barometer as a means of measuring altitude, which, owing to the varying atmospheric conditions, is not a reliable mode of measurement. It is easily understood that a cubic foot of air at sea-level will contain a great many more atoms than a cubic foot of air will at the top of a high mountain; or, to state it in another way, a cubic foot of air at sea-level will occupy much more than a

e by shoving the plunger to the bottom, we can inflame the substance which has been placed in the bottom of the cylinder. In this operation the heat that was distributed through the whole body of air, that was contained in the cylinder before it was compressed, is now condensed into

tains all the heat that was distributed through the entire cubic foot before the compression took place. Now let it remain compressed until the heat has radiated from it, as it soon will, and the air beco

expands it will be very cold, because the heat of the cubic inch, now reduced to the

There is a gradual expansion as it ascends, and consequently a gradual cooling, because a given amount of heat is being constantly distributed over a greater amount

the region of absolute cold, because heat is atomic motion

where it shades off into the ether that is suppose

f light and li

pond'rous dreg

hout, however, arriving at any definite conclusion, further than that it is a substance possessing almost infinite elasticity, and whose ultimate particles, if particles there be, are so small that no sensible substance can be made sufficiently dense to resist it or confine it. It is easy to see that a substance possessing such qualities cannot be weighed or in any way made appreciable to our senses. But from the fact that radiant energy can be transmitted through it,

l chemical processes and relations, are able to produce certain affections of the ether, the result of which in the one case is an atom of gold and in the other an atom of oxygen, etc., to the end of the list. In this case all of the so-called elements may have their origin in one fundamental element that we call the ether. I am aware that we are wading in deep water here, but s

gress of a tornado, especially when confined in very narrow limits. Sometimes a tornado cloud will form a hanging cone, running down to a sharp point at the lower end, which lower end may drag on the ground, or it may float a little distance above the ground, but more frequently it moves forward with a bounding motion, now touching the earth and now rising in the air. This cone is

as though done with some sharp-edged tool, but it in no other way affected the rest of the building. One would suppose that the centrifugal force d

ike the straw or the air. If we should assume that there are infinitesimal vortices or whirling rings in the ether, of such rapi

etween Buffalo and Cleveland. The limited express was going west, and while rounding a curve the engineer suddenly came in sight of a wrecked freight train, a part of which was lying on the track where the express train had to pass. The engineer saw that he was too near the wreck to stop his train and that the only way

es beside those who