Chapter VIII
SOLAR HEAT
ON a clear, frosty day in winter, if you happen to be in a field or in the forest, and look around you and lis-ten, you see the snow everywhere, the rivers are frozen across, the dry grass sticks out from the snow, the trees stand bare; there is not a sound.
Then look in the summer : the rivers are running and murmuring; in every little pond the frogs are calling and croaking; l the birds are flying about and singing and whistling; flies and gnats are humming and buzz-ing; 2 the trees and the grass are growing and waving. Freeze a kettle of water, it grows as hard as stone. Place the frozen kettle on the fire; the ice begins to crack, to melt, to move. The water begins to tremble and to send up bubbles; then when it begins to boil, it tosses and is agitated. The same phenomenon happens all over the world by the action of heat. When there is no heat, everything is dead. When there is heat, everything lives and moves. Little heat little motion; more heat more motion; much heat much motion; great heat great motion.
Whence comes the heat to the world ?
It comes from the sun.
In winter the sun runs low, its rays do not warm the earth, and nothing stirs. The little sun begins to go higher above our heads; it begins to send its light down directly on the earth everything grows warm, and life and motion increase.
The snow begins to melt, the ice on the rivers begins to break up, the brooks come leaping down from the hills, the vapor from the waters rises into the sky and becomes clouds, and the showers fall.
What does all this ?
The sun.
Seeds are sown, the germs sprout, the roots catch hold of the soil, from the old roots new runners strike out; the trees and grasses begin to grow.
What does all this ?
The sun.
The moles and bears come out of their lairs, flies and bees grow lively, gnats abound, fishes come out from their eggs into the warmth.
What does all that ?
The sun.
In one place the air grows warm, begins to rise, and into its place flows a colder air there is a wind.
What does that ?
The sun.
The clouds come up, they roll up and they separate, then there is lightning.
What makes those flashes ?
The sun.
Herbs, grain, fruits, trees grow. Animals feed on them, human beings make their sustenance of them, and store them up for fodder and fuel against the winter; men build houses, railways, and cities.
What furnishes the material ?
The sun.
A man builds himself a house. What does he make it out of? Of lumber. The lumber is sawed out of trees, the sun made the trees grow.
You heat a stove with fuel.
What produced the fuel ?
The sun.
A man eats bread and potatoes.
What produced them ?
The sun.
A man eats meat. W 7 hat fed the animals, the birds ? Grass, but the sun produced the grass. A man builds a stone house with brick and mortar. The brick and mortar were burnt with fuel. The sun produced the fuel.
Everything needed by man, everything that comes directly into use, is due to the sun, and^ much of the sun’s heat goes into everything. Grain is necessary to all men because the sun makes it grow and there is much solar heat stored away in it. Grain warms who-ever eats it.
Fuel and lumber are useful because there is much heat in them. Whoever buys fuel for winter’s use, buys solar heat. And in winter you can burn your fuel when-ever you please and liberate the solar heat into your room.
And when there is heat there is also motion. What-ever motion there is, it all comes from heat either di-rectly from the sun’s heat or from heat stored away by the sun in coal, in firewood, in grain, and in grass. Horses and cattle draw loads, men work; what moves them ? Heat. But whence comes the heat ? From food. But the food was produced by the sun.
Water-mills and windmills are set in motion and grind. What moves them ? Wind and water. But what drives the wind ? Heat. And what drives the water? Heat, to be sure. It raises the water in the form of vapor into the sky, and if it were not for heat the water would not fall.
A machine does work. Steam moves it. What makes the steam ? Fuel; and in the fuel is the sun’s heat.
Out of heat comes motion, and out of motion comes heat. And both the heat and the motion are due to the sun.
The End
