The Waters Above the Firmament; or, The Earth's Annular System (Second Edition) (1902)

Download: PDF — The Waters Above the Firmament; or, The Earth's Annular System (Second Edition) (1902)

THE LABORATORY OF COMMERCE AND ENGINEERING

The Waters

Above the Firmament

OR

The Earth's Annular System

THE MOSAIC RECORD SCIENTIFICALLY EXPLAINED

By ISAAC N. VAIL

AUTHOR OF "THE DELUGE AND ITS CAUSE," "THE COAL PROBLEM,"

"EDEN'S FLAMING SWORD," "OPHIR'S GOLDEN WEDGE,"

"The GREAT RED DRAGON," ETC.

Second Edition REVISED AND ENLARGED

"Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns."

FERRIS & LEACH

29 North Seventh Street 1902.

THE LIBRARY OF

CONGRESS,

Two Copies Received

MAY. 9 1902

COPYRIGHT ENTRY

Jan. 28, 1902

CLASS a XXC. No.

25894

COPY B.

COPYRIGHT, 1902 BY ISAAC N. VAIL.

"The Annular Theory" was first given to the world in a pamphlet entitled "The Deluge and Its Cause," in 1874. The first edition of this volume was published in 1885, and entitled "The Story of the Rocks; or, The Earth's Annular System." Both were published by a common printer, and sold without advertising. Revised and enlarged, it is again given to the public through the regular business channels of well-established publishers, as "The Waters above the Firmament." The theory—the history of which is left for other times and other pens—originated with me many years ago as a small conception. The idea led me into practical investigations and deep research of ancient records, with the result that it has grown and developed into a theory, I believe, "not born to die," and caused me to produce the following series of volumes (of which "The Waters above the Firmament" is the first), nearly all ready for publication—the work of more than thirty years. These volumes occupy separate but contiguous fields, and present an overwhelming array of testimony in support of the claim that our planet was, until long after the beginning of the human period, surrounded by vast lingering remnants of its Saturn-like rings. They will be published, Providence permitting, as indicated at the end of this volume.

"The World, an Eden," succeeds this. It presents the claim that the home of infant man was the greenhouse earth, made such by a vapor world-roof like that which now surrounds the planet Jupiter. It gives the irrefutable testimony of the world's ancient records on this question, and as an inevitable result proves that the Mosaic cosmology is the golden record of canopy times, and must be interpreted accordingly. It places all ancient writings on a higher plane of human thought simply because it demonstrates the world conditions that existed at the birth-time of human history. It shows beyond a doubt that some of the primitive watery vapors surrounded the earth when the prophets lived, and that even down to the time of Christ they gave specific character to the terrestrial skies.

"The Gods Unvailed" is Volume III. of this series. It is the "Annular Theory" proved by witnesses speaking from the very cradle-time of humanity. It proves that legendary lore is canopy lore, and elevates the great mass of classic mythology to the level of historic truth. It simply unveils the mythic world, showing that the history of the ancient deities is the history of great world changes. It proves that some of the myths apparently the silliest—are the veritable facts of recent terrestrial conditions altogether misunderstood and misinterpreted by mythologists. It carries the birth-time of humanity's reliable annals back into what has hitherto been considered the midnight of history, and consequently transforms the darkest pages of discarded ancient thought into a shining argument of evolving skies.

It opens the door and clears the way to a new, immeasurable and fascinating field of research, showing that the gods of humanity's childhood were imposing, all-involving and all-commanding celestial forms, persistently linked to a revolving world-roof of sun-lit clouds, such as we see to-day investing other planets. Taking this as a basic thought a thousand truths unfold to view, and as surely as time rolls on, the scientist and theologian will meet on this ground, abandon their old structures and rebuild by the light of the unvailed gods.

"The Fall of Lucifer," or Volume IV., of the "Annular Theory," is a philosophic and final solution of the problem of Eden, its deluding serpent, and its trees of life and death. It proves beyond a doubt that "Lucifer," the "light-bearer," and "Agathodæmon," the "good demon," were one and the same deified spirit of the shining vapors that possessed the skies of primeval man. That the "Great Red Dragon" which also fell from the skies, and the "Leviathan," slain in primordial waters, were the same flood-vomiting spirit that held the destiny of man as Jupiter's canopy of clouds holds the fate of the life-forms on that planet to-day. Thus the serpent of all mythic times is shown to be the personified genius of the watery skies. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (Isaiah 14:12.)

"Canopus, or the Mystic Vail." Volume V. This volume is a collection from the vast fund of canopy memorials found in ancient classic and mythic thought.

Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, India, China, Japan, Scandinavia and America all saw the last earth-canopy, and each has left an immortal record of the fact. Canopus was the Egyptian celestial water god, with the water vase and the serpent his symbols, and the very name is a canopy memorial as enduring as stone. The Bible, the Zend Avesta, the Sagas, and other ancient Scriptures, testify in this volume, and the world's jury takes the evidence.

"And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations." (Isa. 25:7.)

I have published the following pamphlets, all in exploitation of the Annular Evolution of Earth: "The Coal Problem" (1885), "The Great Red Dragon" (1894), "Eden's Flaming Sword" (1896), "Alaska, Land of the Nugget. Why ?" (1897), "Ophir's Golden Wedge" (1898).

I certainly would neglect a duty did I not here express my obligations to the many friends who have aided me in this work by word and deed. Letters of cheer—many hundreds of them—have been light and comfort to me during the laborious work of unfolding the truth from the footprints of the ages, and a source of great encouragement through the dark and cloudy days of the business difficulties. I want especially to thank my old friend and fellow teacher, William H.

Zelley, of Marlton, New Jersey, for his advice and review upon many points, and his valuable aid in performing much of the executive work, and in placing the contract of publication. But first and last of all my creditors is the dutiful copartner of all my hopes and failures—she whose pen traced the page when mine could not, whose nursing care carried the author of the "Annular Theory" temporarily over the chasm of the grave, is the one to thank for the expansion of this hypothesis into wider fields. Also, my two daughters, young but diligent workers in this new field, have greatly aided me. Learned in their especial lines of research, they dare to teach with the courage of their convictions.

ISAAC N. VAIL.

PASADENA, CAL., First month, 1901.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fig. 1. Early Stage of Ring Formation ... 30

Fig. 2. Earth Cooled from a Molten State (Its Ring System Formed) ... 45

Fig. 3. Earth and Its Annular System ... 74

Fig. 4. The First Canopy Slowly Spreading Polarward ... 82

Fig. 5. The Last Canopy of Earth ... 100

Fig. 6. The Closing Scene (Earth with Belts Capping the Poles) ... 167

Fig. 7. View of Northern Heavens (Poles, Arches, Stars, Etc.) ... 175

Fig. 8. Sun with Perihelia ... 232

Fig. 9. Uranus (Rings Forming) ... 241

Fig. 10. Saturn (Rings Formed) ... 257

Fig. 11. Jupiter (Rings Fallen) ... 273

Fig. 12. Earth in Edenic Times... 310 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

All Worlds Made Alike ... 13

CHAPTER II.

Some General Considerations ... 31

CHAPTER III.

Evidence Supplied by the Planets Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in Support of the Annular Theory ... 46

CHAPTER IV.

The Geological Record Examined ... 62

CHAPTER V.

The Earth's Annular as Demonstrated by Historic Testimony ... 77

CHAPTER VI.

The Noachian Deluge ... 99

CHAPTER VII.

Legends of the Flood ... 110

CHAPTER VIII.

A Consideration of the Evidence in Support of the Claim that the Waters of the Ocean Have Been Greatly Increased in Volume in Very Recent Geologic Times ... 131 CHAPTER IX.

Some Topographical Features that Prove the Declension of Exterior Matter 151

CHAPTER X.

The Glacial Epochs and Eden Ruins—Annular Snows the Only Competent Cause ... 167

CHAPTER XI.

A Brief Review of the Geologic Ages and a Presentation of the Evidence They Afford of Primitive Glaciation, etc. .. 202

CHAPTER XII.

Evidence Advanced in Support of the Claim that the Earth's Annular System was the Seed Bed of Organisms, and Consequently a Region of Microscopic Life and Infusorial Forms 232

CHAPTER XIII.

A Consideration of the Evidence that Leads to the Conclusion that the Carbon Strata of the World were Deposited as Aqueous Sediment from the Earth's Annular System, Where It Had Remained for Countless Ages as a Primitive Distillation Expelled from the Incandescent or Burning Earth ... 2

CHAPTER XIV.

Is Coal a Vegetable Product? An Examination of the Coal Beds Under the Light of the Annular Theory ... 274

CHAPTER XV.

Some Emphatic and Positive Evidence of the Annular Origin of Coal in the Metamorphism of Carbon Beds. Also, Some Conclusive Testimony from the Cretaceous and Tertiary Coals 3 CHAPTER XVI.

Oil, Gas and Other Carbons 336

CHAPTER XVII.

Conclusive Evidence of Annular Downfalls in the Tertiary Ocean of the Northern Hemisphere 356

APPENDIX.

Note I.—The Last Advance of Glaciers 372

Note II.—The Lost Continent 375

Note III.—Anthracites in British America 376

Note IV.—A Significant Admission 376

The True Origin of Coal. The Vegetation Theory Disproved 377

Captain Carter's Original Demonstration 395

The Origin of Petroleum 396

Lord Kelvin on Oxygen and Coal 405 The Waters Above the Firmament.

CHAPTER I.

ALL WORLDS MADE ALIKE.

To endeavor to prove the truth of the theory that supposes this earth to have been, from the close of the igneous era till the close of the antediluvian period, surrounded by an annular system, seems to me, since I have been so long gathering in the fund of evidence, like trying to establish a self-evident truth; yet, since geologic science has been pursued by a host of honest and indefatigable workers, with ideas at variance with this claim, and since established theories are not expected to be abandoned abruptly, it is plain, that as the annular theory demands a general and thorough review of the geologic record, as now interpreted, a great effort will be necessary to bring it within the purview and consideration of science.

The geological "column" reveals many facts that have not yet been recognized by investigators. It would be strange, indeed, if frail and erring man should have erected a faultless fabric out of the crude materials supplied; strange, indeed, if the "records" have in all cases been interpreted without fault; strange, indeed, if the edifice will not some time have to be taken down and rebuilt, as it has been at different times. The time was, when investigators were "few and far between." Thousands of eyes now run over the field where trod the investigators of fifty or a hundred years ago, and the day is past when a geologist can sit in his studio and frame a theory for the great mass of thinkers.

The true theory was written by the hand of the great Master-builder, and it must be read on the spot, where the wondrous mystery lies.

It is with no desire to find fault with, or undervalue the work of the noble band of ardent workers now in the field, that I advance the claim that we have greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted the fascinating volume whose time-stamped pages are unfolding to our view. We have misapprehended the rock-engraved hieroglyphics from the very first rude lines, traced on the archaean piles.

It was a sublime conception of Prof. Winchell that represented all the waters of the terrestrial oceans as held in suspension on the outskirts of the primeval atmosphere by the inveterate heat of the igneous earth.

The reader, no doubt, remembers his glowing description of the Titanic contest between the powers of Vulcan and Neptune. How the waters on high descended, while yet the earth was a hot and seething mass, and were again and again flung into space by the irritated fires; till, finally, worried by the eternal attacks of Neptune, the fires grew tame, and the oceans of vapor settled upon the earth. Thus is portrayed the mistaken idea now universally prevalent, that from that period, beginning as soon as the waters could remain upon the earth, these having all descended upon it, worked as the universal ocean now does in building up the aqueous crusts; that the work of denudation and the distribution of detrital matter was participated in by the entire ocean as it now exists, from the very period when the internal fires grew quiet and permitted the waters to remain upon the surface of the planet.

Now is this claim philosophic? Did the oceans all descend at that time? I try to settle this point by the test of philosophic law; for, here is the foundation stone of the geologic edifice men have built, and coming scientists will lift it from its bed and relay it. I ask geologists to critically examine this point and see whether it be not a fact that only a small part of the oceans fell at the time alluded to, and that the remainder continued to revolve about the earth for immeasurable time, as an annular system, or a belt system like that of the planet Jupiter. Now if the oceans all fell to the earth at the close of the igneous era, then the current theory of crust evolution is correct; but if not, it is incorrect.

It will be shown in the following pages that the terrestrial waters did not all fall at that time; that physical law demands that they should not. This is susceptible of the clearest demonstration. The importance of this question cannot easily be overestimated; and yet, the first thought may be, "Of what value is it?"

The reader who patiently reviews this problem will see that a more important one has never come before man for his consideration.

In the first place, let me press this question: Is there any thing unreasonable or unphilosophic in the claim, that the aqueous vapors, kept away from the molten earth by the repelling force of heat, were necessarily whirled into independent revolution about the central fiery orb? Since we see at least two giant planets in the solar system attended by such revolving vapors, is it not a reasonable claim?

It is conceded that Jupiter's belts are aqueous vapors.

These make a complete revolution in about ten hours, and it is claimed by eminent astronomers that they are held away from the planet by his own native heat.

Well, suppose this heat were suddenly removed? The Jovine atmosphere would contract, and what would become of Jupiter's moving belts? They are so many tons of moving matter, possessing so many tons of moving energy, and every one must see that that energy would prolong their stay in Jupiter's firmament. It is evident that revolving vapors would be no more likely to fall immediately upon the withdrawal of heat, than a revolving moon in the same situation; and if their moving energy was great enough, it is plain that Jupiter's belts would continue to revolve independently about him after he had cooled down. Now, since the equatorial belts of both Jupiter and Saturn move more rapidly than the polar, they must be moving independently of each other and also independently of the bodies of those planets. That is, they do not move in those planets' atmospheres, but are revolving about them in their own independent orbits. Then Jupiter's belts do possess energy sufficient to insure their continuance in a belted or annular system revolving about him, for unknown time. This feature of the question will be fully elaborated in another chapter.

We know that the terrestrial waters, like Jupiter's, were at one time kept away from the surface of our planet, and we know, too, that in the revolving mass, a moving energy was imparted to these also, and that that energy must have prolonged their stay in the terrestrial firmament, after the earth cooled down.

One must see that on the very threshold of this investigation, my claim that the earth's oceans did not all return to the earth at the close of the igneous era, is a reasonable and philosophic one. I might almost say a necessary one.

No geologist, astronomer, or physicist, will, I presume, for a moment doubt the now firmly established conclusion, that the earth was at one time in an igneous-fluid state; and also that while it remained in that fiery condition, all its waters, and whatever else that was vaporized and sublimed by the inveterate heat, such as the less refractory minerals and metals in the boiling mass, were driven away from its surface and hindered from falling upon it by the repelling energy of heat. A failure to follow this conclusion, and the consequences necessarily flowing from this primitive condition of our planet, has involved us in a maze of difficulty and error. A failure to comprehend many of the legitimate consequences of the measureless force employed, every pound of which must have been conserved in after-effects, has immeasurably checked the solution of some of the grandest problems of Nature.

Let us now begin at the very foundation of this physical problem, and critically examine every step of our progress. We will reject every link of evidence that will not bear the test of scientific scrutiny. I must ask the reader to patiently follow me in the line of argument I am about to pursue, for it requires a round of investigation that few men will at first appreciate.

Our foundation is the molten, or igneous world. The vaporized water, mineral and metallic elements repelled from it, existed as a great vaporous atmosphere, that rotated with the earth, just as our atmosphere now does.

If the earth then rotated once in every twenty-four hours, the atmosphere turned with it in the same time. If it rotated in the short space of about three hours, as claimed by Proctor and other eminent astronomers, the great primeval atmosphere rotated with it in three hours. Does not this postulate demand unconditional assent from all men? Will any fair reasoner claim that I assume here what is not self-evident? A little thought will induce the most incredulous to admit that my claim here made is just and necessarily true. Let us remember, then, that the primeval atmosphere rotated with the earth—in the same time, no matter how long or short that period was. Then the question is at once reduced to this:—When did those vapors and other material constituting that atmosphere return to the earth? For they have returned. The question, how did they return, is also a legitimate one, and will receive due consideration.

They returned or fell to the earth, either immediately after it cooled down and the heat ceased to repel them, or they continued for a time to revolve around it. If some of those vapors fell at the close of the igneous era, then a part of them continued to revolve. As before intimated, the science of Geology has been built entire upon the former supposition, and the annular theory is planted upon the latter. Witnesses must determine which of these foundations is false; with a reasonable probability in the truth of the latter, as attested by the Jovial and Saturnian belted or annular systems; and the improbability that the potential energy stored up in the rotating mass of vapors during its repulsion by heat, would all be expended in their decline in the period between azoic and paleozoic time.

The most eminent scientists agree that the great mass of swaddling vapors in the primitive atmosphere were driven at least 200,000 miles from the earth. Others claim that the earth's vaporous atmosphere during the igneous era, embraced the orbit of the moon within its boundaries. It must be remembered that all the carbon in the great casement of aqueous rocks, the vast oceans of oxygen now contained in the silicates, sulphates, carbonates, and oxides of the crust, as well as the nitrogen and hydrogen, in numerous compounds, enormously swelled its volume, so that a modern chemist speaking from his laboratory, makes the claim that if that atmosphere pressed on the earth in proportion to its depth as ours does to-day, unaffected by repelling heat, it would be equal to a column of mercury more than 22,000 inches high. I believe it was M. Figuier that first advanced the idea that this atmosphere extended to the moon, and others would extend it still farther. This, of course, is understood to be its extent at the close of the igneous era, and before the aqueous beds were laid down. Now, however conditioned the atmosphere was at that time, one thing is very evident, it was one of vast extent. If I should take advantage of these claims and base my calculations upon an atmosphere 200,000 or 240,000 miles deep, it would greatly aid me, and make my conclusions much more apparent and conclusive. But to be sure that we are moving entirely within philosophic bounds, and to give no possible opportunity for an opposer to claim that I strain any point or take undue advantage of extravagant admissions of men of science, I will not claim 240,000 nor 200,000 miles as the atmosphere's depth but will base my calculations on a depth of only 100,- 000 miles.

This is amply sufficient for us, and with this depth it is easy to prove beyond a doubt, that a mighty fund of vapors continued to revolve for unknown time about the earth.

Again, it is to-day a favorite theme of astronomers that, during the igneous era, the earth rotated in a period of only three or four hours. If this be true, the probability that the matter in the primeval atmosphere was whirled into belts or rings is increased from six to eight fold. It seems scarcely needful for me to say, that astronomers came to this conclusion by a legitimate process of philosophic deduction. It must be evident that this rate of rotation would be of great advantage to us in establishing annular conditions; for, almost every school-boy has learned that if the earth should rotate more than seventeen times as rapidly as it now does, the oceans at the equator would be whirled into space, and made to revolve around it. Then, a rotation in three hours, or eight times as rapidly as at present, would whirl matter already floating in the atmosphere to a greater height and increase annular tendency in the same proportion. However, we will decline to make use of this advantage, and use only that rate of rotation that every one knows to be correct, viz:—one revolution in 24 hours.

Here, then, we have true philosophic data which all men will certainly admit to be fair; and upon which all men proceed to erect the annular theory, and we will endeavor to square every timber in the edifice by one unvarying rule:—Philosophic Law. If we succeed with these data to start with, men of science may multiply its certainty by at least twelve, for their own satisfaction.

The data then are: a primeval atmosphere admitted on all hands to be 100,000 miles deep, and a known velocity of rotation of once in 24 hours.

With this rate of rotation, we also know that the velocity of any point on the equator of the earth was about 1,000 miles per hour, while the equatorial periphery of the great vaporous atmosphere moved with an actual velocity of more than 25,000 miles per hour. This, the most ordinary mind can determine; but as we are searching for facts that any child who may peruse these pages may understand, I will give the simple calculation here.

If the atmosphere were 100,000 miles deep, and the earth 8,000 miles in diameter approximately, the diameter of the sphere would be 208,000 miles, and the circumference a little more than three times that or about 624,000—the space that any point in the outer boundary of the atmosphere would move through in 24 hours, and of course 1⁄24 of that distance in one hour, or 26,000 miles (I will give 1,000 miles to the other side out of pure liberality).

The simple conclusion drawn from this is, as any one can see, that a ton of matter at or near the equator of the earth would have a momentum of 1,000 tons, in the rotating mass, while a ton of vapor or any other matter on the peripheral boundary of the atmosphere, would have a moving energy of 25,000 tons.

Suppose the former were placed ten miles above the surface of the earth, and the latter brought down to the same position; the former with a velocity of 1,000 miles per hour would immediately fall to the earth, while the latter would rise, and revolve around the earth as a satellite, as can be readily proved by a simple calculation.

The mass possessing 25,000 tons of moving energy must lose 8,000 tons of that moving force before it would, or could reach the earth; for, as I have before stated, it is a well-known fact that any body moving around the earth at a rate of more than 17,000 miles per hour, can never fall to its surface, and a ton moving at that rate would possess 17,000 tons of momentum, and it becomes a known fact that if that momentum were increased to 25,000 tons, or a velocity 25,000 miles per hour, it would rise and revolve in its appropriate orbit about the earth, and never until its velocity became diminished to about 17,000 miles per hour could it reach the surface of the earth. Now it could make no difference whether a body be a ton of stone or a ton of aqueous vapor, it would continue to move around the earth so long as the centrifugal exceeded the gravital force. Hence it is evident that upon the data assumed above, of an atmosphere less than half so extensive, as scientists assumed, and with a radial velocity more than six times less than they claim for the mass, the centrifugal force of a vast portion of the aqueous vapors and other matter in the primitive atmosphere was such as to effectually hinder their fall to the earth, as the latter cooled down and the vapors condensed. It is also evident that the matter in the lower regions of the atmosphere would fall on the withdrawal of terrestrial heat, and it is an easy thing to ascertain the line, or height in the atmosphere, beneath which all vapors upon condensing would fall, on account of insufficient centrifugal force or moving energy to keep them there, and all vapors beyond which would remain there because of insufficient gravital force to bring them down.

What, then, must have been the condition of those materials that formed the upper and outer stratum of that great atmosphere after the earth became cool and the atmosphere shrank to near its present dimensions, and all the aqueous matter, etc., to the height of 20,000 or 30,000 miles had fallen to the earth? These must have been vast oceans of clouds possessing a velocity that prevented their descent, and which continued to move around the earth; that is, the earth had an annular system. If any criticism can shake this conclusion, there is nothing in law! One would suppose that this is all-sufficient to settle the question forever, that the oceans did not all fall to the earth at the close of the igneous era, but that such as existed when they had not centrifugal force sufficient to retain them on high, did fall; but I will not put this conclusion aside until I have shown still further the impregnable grounds upon which it is based. It is easy to demonstrate by a mathematical calculation that the above depth of atmosphere and rate of rotation are much greater than that which was actually necessary to produce annular formation about the earth.

The analytical expression used by mathematicians to represent the whole force of gravity at the earth's equator is g + \frac{c2}{D} , where g is the visible force of gravity, or the space a body will fall at the equator during the first second of time; c is the chord of an arc over which a revolving body moves in one second, and D the diameter of the orbit of which c, or the arc, is a part, and \frac{c2}{D} is the centrifugal force or the part of gravity destroyed by rotation, or movement in an orbit.

It is evident that the arc c or the space passed over by the moving body in one second, will be practically equal to the chord of the same arc, and I will therefore use it as such; that is, as a straight line. Now, as \frac{c2}{D} is the centrifugal force, and g the gravital or centripetal force, when these forces are equal, and the body neither falls nor rises, but moves on continually in its orbit, g = \frac{c2}{D}.

Now there are 86,164 seconds in one complete rotation of the earth, and the circumference of the earth is D × 3.1416 nearly, and this divided by 86,164, number of seconds in one rotation, gives the length of the arc c, or the distance any point on the equator moves in one second of time; in other words, the rate of motion. But when g=\frac{c2}{D} it is evident that gD=c2 or c=√(gD), and as often as c, the distance a body moves in one second, is contained in the whole circumference, so many seconds are there in one revolution; that is, D× 3.1416 divided by c or its equal, √(gD), thus: D× 3.1416⁄√(gD) = num-ber of seconds in one revolution when g=\frac{c2}{D} or when the earth rotates so rapidly that the centrifugal force on the equator equals gravity. Then we evidently have

$

\frac {D \times 3 . 1 4 1 6}{\sqrt {q D}} = \frac {7 9 2 5 \times 5 2 8 0 \times 3 . 1 4 1 6}{\sqrt {1 6 . 0 7 6 \times 7 9 2 5 \times 5 2 8 0}} ^ {*} =

$

\ast 7 9 2 5 × 5 2 8 0 = number of feet in the earth's diameter, and 1 6. 0 7 6=g=distance a body falls at the equator during the first second. Let D be the earth's equatorial diameter (7925 miles), and X the versed sine of the arc or distance a point on the equator moves in one second; A X is the chord of the arc, and practically equal to the chord itself, where so small a portion of time is considered.

FIG. I.

5069 seconds = 1h , 24m , 29s , or the time in which a ton of matter would have to revolve about the earth just at its surface at the equator, so that it would neither rise nor fall, and when, if its velocity were increased, it would move away from the earth, and in another orbit. Now this velocity is 17 times the present velocity of the earth's rotation, or about 17,000 miles per hour. Hence, we have an absolute demonstration that any body in our present atmosphere or in the great primeval atmosphere, or at any point above the earth, moving at the rate of 25,000 or 20,000 or even 17,500 miles per hour around it, could not fall to its surface! But vast quantities of primeval vapors did move with this velocity according to our assumed data, which data we have no reason to dispute, and therefore we are abundantly justified in the claim that the earth for unknown time was accompanied with an annular system, and the geological record has been misinterpreted, and must be reviewed, and geological theories remodeled.

The foregoing calculations, it might seem, are all-sufficient to establish the fact of annular formation about the primitive earth. But this formation, once effected, demands a permanency of existence, which an immensity of time only can affect. Rings once formed about the earth after the lapse of countless millions of years, cannot collapse in a day. They must lose their momentum with a steadiness as invariable as the flood of ages. It would be as unreasonable to suppose the earth's present satellite would in an hour break loose from its anchorage, and descend to the earth, as to suppose that one of its rings could do the same thing. Then with the primitive earth surrounded with a ring system whose longevity could be counted only by geologic ages, are we for a moment to suppose that the aqueous strata-formation only began after that system had fallen?

Is it not more reasonable to suppose that the aqueous strata began to form as the vapors began to descend, and that the latter continued their decline through all geologic time? What is there unreasonable in the claim?

Rings of aqueous vapor, however associated with mineral and metallic matter, must follow in all respects the same laws as a moon or planetary satellite in their motions around their primary. There is a law well known to the mathematical world, called "Kepler's Third Law." Let us bring it into use. By it we can readily demonstrate not only that the primitive distillations, repelled from the fiery sphere, were thrown into a ring-system, but by it we can also readily show how far above the earth's surface they must have revolved about it. This law may be stated thus: The squares of the periodic times of revolving satellites are proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the primary around which they move. This is of universal application whatever be the shape or constitution of the satellites, as all must know. Then if we take the cube of the radius of the moon's orbit, which is sixty times the equatorial radius of the earth, and divide it by the square of the time of its revolution in seconds, it must be equal to the cube of the orbital radius of a ring of any kind of matter revolving about the earth, divided by the square of the time of its revolution in seconds.

As before stated, the primeval atmosphere in which the matter distilled from the igneous earth existed, and out of which matter all terrestrial rings must have been formed, rotated with the earth; and we have assumed this rotation to be once in twenty-four hours, which the reader will readily grant.

Then it must be seen that we have three known terms of a proportion to find the fourth. This fourth term is readily found, and is the actual distance of any terrestrial ring from the earth's center. Put this unknown quantity = R and we will have the following easy calculation. The time of the primitive atmosphere's rotation = 86,164 seconds, moon's time 2,360,608 seconds, and we have the following equation:—

$

\frac {\mathrm {R} ^ {3}}{(8 6 , 1 6 4) ^ {2}} = \frac {6 0 ^ {3}}{(2 , 3 6 0 , 6 0 8) ^ {2}}

$

developing and reducing by simple calculation or more readily by logarithms, we will find R3=2 7 9. 7 2 5 2 6 4 and R=6. 5 4 times the equatorial radius of the earth, or the semi-diameter of a ring revolving about the earth once in twenty-four hours. In other words, vapors, of whatever kind, in the primitive atmosphere, at the height or distance of 26,000 miles from the earth's center, or a little more than 22,000 miles from its surface, possessed all the independent energy of a revolving satellite; and all vapors farther off possessed still greater momentum, and those nearer the earth did not possess the energy of a satellite, and fell to the earth as it cooled down, leaving the more distant matter moving independently about it. Is there anything wrong with this demonstration? Thus "Kepler's Third Law" establishes the truth of the annular theory, or proves itself to be of no value at all!

Then we must see that we need no atmosphere 240, 000 miles in depth, nor 100,000, nor even 22,000 miles in order to show that annular formation was an absolute necessity in the evolution of the earth.

Every mile added to this paltry depth, adds to the certainty of the fact. Did the earth then rotate in 86,164 seconds, or did it rotate in half that time? Every second of diminution adds to the certainty of the fact. How can we escape this conclusion? Thus is rendered plain and irrefutable the claim that the lower part of the great aqueous atmosphere, upon contraction and condensation resulting from the loss of terrestrial heat, fell away from the upper part, simply because the latter (like the rim of a great revolving wheel) moved so rapidly it could not descend, but continued to revolve about the earth until it lost so much of its independent inertia, as to permit it to descend, as will be shown in its proper place.

Proceeding thus from the known condition of the primitive earth along a track, every step of which is known, we have by adhering to strict philosophic demands, laid the foundation of a theory that no man can shake. The reader will from this time observe, that the fabric built upon this foundation, is not an obelisk, but a pyramid, whose successive stages add permanence to the adamantine sills upon which it stands.

Let us look back upon the ground over which we have passed. We see a fiery globe rolling through space with a vast and heavy atmosphere, rotating so rapidly that its outskirts are unavoidably-made to assume such a velocity as to prevent them from falling. The earth was then a glowing sun, or a gleaming star, as analogy seems to prove. But when this earth from "its inmost bosom burned," when its oceans of molten minerals beat upon a seething coast, when its rivers were fluid fire, and its fountains dashing flames, when its "clouds by fiery tempests driven," dropped their steaming floods, an energy potential was stored up in the mighty upper deep—a vast abyss that literally built the aqueous world in after times.

We can easily imagine a world and its atmosphere turning so slowly that the vapors would fall immediately after it cooled down, leaving the heavens clear, and a vast universal ocean washing it. But no such conditions have ever existed on the earth that could bring these things to pass. Every mathematician must know full well, that the rotation of such a mass once in twenty-four hours, would inevitably separate the upper vapors from the lower, leaving the upper far above the atmosphere or terrestrial firmament, obeying the demands of inexorable law. And when investigators recognize this fact, as it stands to-day demanding a respectful consideration, then, and not till then, will they be able to unlock some of the most perplexing questions of science, which now defy explanation. It is the Philosopher's key to "nature's vast cathedral," I dare not now point out the grand avenues of thought which it opens; but time will make all things visible. I almost said, "all things new," not only in physics, but also in metaphysics! All I ask of the reader of these pages is implicit recognition of Law, in this field of labor so near the Great Fountain of Truth. The moment we leave it, we land in shadow and darkness. To propagate and teach one error hides a multitude of truths. An error taught in the name of science is a pernicious falsehood. We must, sooner or later, acknowledge the declaration of the missed and lamented Agassiz: "A physical fact is as sacred as a moral principle;" for a physical fact ignored sends violated impulses through the nerve centers of society; and their impress is traced in imperishable lines, as by a hand unseen.

But one physical fact stands out prominent in the universe, viz: Annular formation is a necessity in the evolution of worlds from their primitive state !!

It must be plain from the foregoing that if geologists had followed the grand train of philosophic events resulting from the igneous fluidity of the burning earth in primitive times, they must have long since concluded that much of the aqueous crust of the earth once existed with the revolving vapors, as infinitesimal particles, or tellurio-cosmic dust, in the ring-system. It must be so; from the very nature of that great sublimation of terrestrial elements, we are forced to this conclusion. And now if men of science will but open their eyes and look, they must see it. Let them follow this conclusion to its legitimate end, and they must see with the keenest regret, the fruitless toil of centuries. No, not fruitless! They have sailed along the very boundary of this field of investigation, and its explored avenues have yielded returns that will aid in the new realm of thought. The glories of a brighter day are dawning in mankind's sky, when all men must see more nearly eye to eye.

Fig. 1. EARLY STAGE OF RING FORMATION.

During the igneous era the rotation of the molten earth, supplemented by the expelling fires, carried all vapors, whether aqueous or metallic, to the terrestrial skies. Those vapors took the direction along which the combined forces (heat and centrifugal energy) were strongest, i.e., to the equatorial heavier. In that day the young earth, could it have been viewed from the moon, would have presented approximately the form shown in figure 1.

The incipient rings are seen forming over the equator (a, a) and all vapors lifted into the polar skies (b, b) would, by their forced rotation, be carried toward the equator, as water is thrown from a turning wheel.

CHAPTER II.

SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

To those who are able to follow physical causes to their legitimate and necessary effects, it will not be difficult to satisfactorily explain the mode of ringformation about the primitive earth. The grand and stupendous changes that have recorded their waymarks, are the guide-posts of the investigator, pointing unmistakably to unavoidable conclusions. Being the physical means by which an incomprehensible Planner and Architect has completed a beautiful world for the habitation of man, according to unchanging law, if we follow philosophically the unmistakably known conditions stated in the previous chapter—i.e., those flowing from a state of igneous fusion, we cannot draw erroneous conclusions. Then let us be careful that no error enters the threshold of our work as we pass from the known to the unknown.

We all know with absolute certainty that when the earth was in a state of fiery fluidity, the entire oceans of water now on its surface were held suspended at a great distance from it. Not one drop of the mighty waters now surging against the shores of the earth, could have remained for an instant on its surface, nor in its flaming firmament. This we can all see so plainly that no one can entertain a doubt upon it. There is another known condition that will greatly aid us in this argument, when properly understood: the evident disposition of the cooling and contracting earth to absorb or draw the waters into its rock-forming crust, as they fell to its surface.

It is not difficult to determine how much water or moisture a heated stone of any kind will absorb as it cools, so that we can give a reasonable and just approximation of the amount of water existing in the various rock formations of the globe. Many investigators have worked upon this question, and it has been found by analysis and experiment that even the solid lime-rock contains from one-half to one per cent. of water. Coals vary from five to twelve per cent. in the amount of water they contain. Iron ores from one to six per cent. Some sand-stones contain from six to ten per cent., clays much more, while granite, mica, feld-spar, and even solid quartz crystals, contain moisture in different amounts.

In our deepest caves and mines, some of them far below the ocean's level, water is found running down and into the bosom of the earth. This proves that the solid crust is still imbibing the waters of the ocean with a quenchless thirst, and that coming ages must diminish its volume and depth. If no more than a single barrel of water is absorbed in a day, a sufficient number of days will cause the solid earth to appropriate all the waters on the globe. The question then, what volumes of water has the earth already absorbed, becomes an interesting and very important one; one that geologists have scarcely considered.

Dana estimated that the oceans would be 400 feet deeper if these imbibed waters were returned to them. Many of the Atlantic and Gulf States would be entirely submerged. New York city, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, would be more than 200 feet under water. Three-fourths of the islands of the earth would be submerged, and a vast portion of Europe and Asia would be one great sweep of waters.

Then if Dana's estimate be a true one, and if it be true that all the oceans fell to the earth in pre-laurentian times, the general depth of the same is less to-day by 400 feet than it was then. But Dana's estimate is a very cautious and moderate one; and based upon a thickness of supercrust of about five miles, while modern researches have demonstrated it to be vastly thicker,—some eminent physicists reckoning it as high as 1,000 miles, so that if we reckon it to be 100 miles thick and admit the rocks to contain one-half of one per cent. of moisture, or one-fifth what Dana claimed, the oceans the world over would rise 2,500 feet upon the shores of the continents; or admitting his estimate of rock moisture to be correct, it would be increased to 8,000 feet.

Hence it must be seen that if all the terrestrial waters rolled as a primitive ocean around the earth, they have diminished from 2,500 to 8,000 feet in depth during geologic times. How many of my readers are ready to admit that the primitive ocean was, on an average, deeper than it now is? Whatever testimony we can gather from the rocky volume, points to the conclusion that that ocean was very shallow. Hence we are irresistibly forced to believe that the oceans fell to the earth in great installments. If the seas of the earth were never any deeper than now, then 2,500 feet (or the 400 feet of Dana's reckoning) fell after the solid crust had imbibed that much, and I am inclined to think the intelligent reader will yet agree with me, that the ocean is now many thousand feet deeper than it was even in devonian times, to say nothing of the cambrian age.

But whatever be the present volume of the subterranean waters and rock-imbibed moisture, it is evident that there was a time when the earth did not contain them.

So that the present waters on the surface of the globe, do not by any means represent the great expanse of vapors that once enveloped it. Let us remember this conclusion, to which we are necessarily impelled.

But all these revolving vapors fell to the earth, for they are on the earth and within it! and further, every pound that fell, by force of impact and actual mechanical pressure, was registered in the rocky frame of the earth as so much potential energy! This fact has never been regarded at all by men of science. In another chapter it will be seen that this energy was conserved in mountain-making and plication of strata, and that if the materials of the annular system had not reached the earth at different geological ages, there would have been no general upheaval after the close of the laurentian era;—that the mountain systems and the continents of the earth are a measure of the stupendous force expended in the fall of the oceans to their present level, and that the starts and mountain-making ages resulted from successive installments of matter.

When the waters were held suspended in the primitive atmosphere, they would move in that direction towards which the impelling forces would drive them. The centrifugal force of the rotating mass superadded to the driving force of heat, was greater in the direction of the equator, hence they would accumulate in the equatorial regions. Let the reader understand how this must have occurred. There being no centrifugal force at the poles, the vapors were kept from falling there by heat alone; but all other parts of the surface possessed some centrifugal energy tending to carry the suspended matter away from the earth in lines, at right angles to the earth's polar axis.

This force, to use the language of mathematicians, "decreases the weight of the sea, which is thereby rendered susceptible of being supported at a higher level than at the poles, where no such counteracting force exists." *

Now during the igneous era, gravital force could in no sense operate to bring matter back to the earth, which had undergone vaporization. Hence centrifugal force carried it much farther from the earth and into the equatorial heavens at that time than it could today; for it is evident that if the earth did not rotate at all during that era, the vapors would occupy great heights of the ancient atmosphere, and the centrifugal force then added by actual rotation would cause them to occupy greater heights. That is, there were two forces operating to keep the vapors away from the earth: heat repelling them, and centrifugal force gathering them, as it were, over the equator, and whirling them into rotation with the mass, so that in course of time the vapors must have occupied a vast space in the equatorial telluric heavens, or firmament.

Again it is apparent, that whenever the earth cooled down, so as to allow the vapors to descend, all that did not possess sufficient centrifugal energy to hold them on high, would descend to the earth. This was particularly the case with all polar vapors, if any were there which had not been previously drawn into the equatorial ring. So that the polar heavens became clear of primitive vapors and all other matter associated therewith before the equatorial matter could possibly descend upon the earth.

Then it is plain that we have arrived at an actual age of the earth, in our investigations, when it rolled through space with an annular appendage over the equator, while the stars and the sun looked down upon its surface as they do to-day, in the circumpolar heavens.

At that age rolled the first-born ocean around the earth. From necessity clouds formed and rains descended, winds swept over the earth, summer and winter, and day and night joined in the round of perpetual change; for solar action under such conditions literally forced such things upon the young planet. When men talk about the "heavy," "damp" and "murky" air of primeval time, they ignore the fact that pure gases are invisible, and all floating particles, as mineral and metallic dust or particles of vapor, which render the air visible or murky and damp, must fall as surely as a flake of snow. If such were not inexorable law, what kind of an atmosphere would surround a planet like the earth?

The same causes operated in primitive times to clear the atmosphere as now promote that end. But laying these considerations all aside as comparatively unimportant, we have the grand feature of that age standing out in bold relief, and that feature is the revolving fund of vapors composing the annular system. We must examine this more minutely, beginning, as before, with known features.

The outer perimeter of the revolving vapors condensed first because that part of the mass was farthest removed from the heated earth. But in condensing the vapors occupied less space than before. The mass revolved eastward, just as the earth rotates.

The moon fell back westward as it does to-day, drawing the rings-yielding surface after it, just as it draws a tidal wave westward in the ocean to-day. Now as this tidal wave rolls with immeasurable force against the western shores of the ocean, it checks to an exceedingly small extent the radial motion of the earth. It produced the same effect upon the rings. It put a brake, as it were, upon the condensing rim of the great revolving wheel, affecting the outer surface more than the interior. But just in proportion as the condensed vapors were checked, would they decline inwards, causing the segregating particles to form a more dense rim or boundary. For their motion being reduced, their centrifugal force would be diminished, and the gravital force comparatively increased, and the rings would begin their decline under lunar influence, and never cease to approach the earth till the last remnant of annular matter reached its surface.

While this condensation went on in the rim, causing a contraction of the same upon the interior mass, particles next to the rim on the inner side would be attracted to it. Thus the condensed rim, for a certain distance inward, would gather matter, as it were, from below, thus forming a hiatus or division between the rim condensed and the great mass uncondensed. Here, then, we have the outermost ring of the system. It can be readily understood how that it would be impossible for this ring of vapor to fall in and unite with the mass. Every particle of the former having a velocity of, say, 24,000 miles per hour, could not unite with the rim of the remaining inner mass, revolving 23,000 miles per hour, any more than two aerolites in adjacent paths, one moving 1,000 miles per hour more rapidly than the other.

And never until the first ring had lost so much of its motion as to move with the same velocity as the mass within, could the two bodies become united again.

The same process continued downwards or inwards would form the second ring; likewise the third, each separated from its neighbors with certain definite spaces or divisions.

Can any one following the index finger of philosophy point out any valid objection to this mode of annular formation? When we shall have gone over the geological record we will see that the annular system was very complex. The number of rings formed was great, each separated from the rest as we have shown above.

Here now we have formed the earth's annular system, but let it be understood that we are not now going to build a house upon this foundation—we are only expecting to bring a mass of evidence to prove that this is the foundation! We will continually add testimony as we go along, and we will not build the house until the reader can see an immovable base to build upon. We have demonstrated, so far as a physical question can be settled by law, that there were waters revolving about the earth! We have shown, as I think, the only reasonable mode of annular formation and division.

Let us turn our glass to the skies. Yonder is a bright gleaming orb, nearly 1,000 times as bulky as the earth. Around it revolves an annular system. Across the vast abyss of nearly one thousand millions of miles, we see Saturn's annular appendage, divided into three grand divisions, and these divisions each further divided into a system of smaller ones. The number is not known.

The clearest and best telescopes exhibit the greatest number of divisions, so that it is likely a telescope of greater power and clearness than has yet been directed to it, would reveal many more. So here is a world surrounded by a complex system of rings, just as reason teaches the earth was at the close of archæan time. It is divided as philosophic reasoning proclaims. The exterior ring is about 173,500 miles in diameter, and is itself 10,000 miles broad, and the innermost one is more than ten thousand miles from the surface of the planet. Here, then, we have strong reasons for claiming that the process of annular development on both Saturn and the earth was the same. Igneous action was no doubt the only competent cause. We return to the consideration of our own orb, strengthened in the belief that our reasoning is correct.

The earth's annular system has fallen, and we will now philosophize upon the manner of its declension. I have said that the moon put a brake, as it were, upon this appendage, just as it now does upon the earth, and its effect upon its motion extended throughout the system, from the exterior to the innermost ring, so that when condensation and segregation had completed the system, it must have declined bodily toward the planet, and of course the innermost ring reached the outskirts of the earth's atmosphere first. But what would be the immediate effect of the entrance of such a body into the upper regions of the air? Slowly it descended, but the moment it touched and began mingling with the air, its down-progress would be checked. For, however rare the atmosphere at that elevation, it was matter occupying space, and no other matter, however dense, could displace it without encountering some resistance.

This resistance or checking force operating upon the vapors in front while they pushed on from above would cause them to spread into the form of a belt, and this belt would widen and spread from the equator toward the poles. When this innermost ring had so far declined as to be freed from the system, it of course continued to revolve for some time more rapidly than the atmosphere rotated with the earth. Moving in a greatly attenuated atmosphere with an independent motion, there would be two forces resisting its fall, viz: Its own independent revolving energy, and the resistance afforded by the atmosphere, and this latter increasing in a direction toward the earth on account of greater density. Under these conditions the newly-formed belt would float away from the equator in two divisions, one toward each pole, and must have reached the earth's surface in regions beyond the tropics, perhaps beyond the temperate regions and in the polar zones.

Now, it is a well-known physical fact, that the gravital force is stronger in the polar regions than elsewhere upon the earth, from two causes-i.e., the greater attraction, and the absence of centrifugal force at the poles. Thus we see, as in the ring formation the vapors followed the direction of the greatest driving force toward the equator, so in ring declension they returned along the same line and fell where there was the least resistance. Now the resistance occasioned by centrifugal force is zero at the poles, and gravity is greater on this account alone by its 1⁄289 part, while at the same time the polar world attracts a body about 1⁄590 more than the equatorial, so that the two forces combined make the gravital tendency 1⁄194 greater at the poles than at the equator. Hence it is evident that a belt would fall from the equatorial heavens down to the polar world.

This will be abundantly proven as we proceed. Now we see there must be a division between belts and space of time between falls of matter from the annular system.

There is another point in belt declension we must now consider. When a belt entered the atmosphere, the resistance of the latter would put a brake upon it on the inner side and continue to check its motion until it reached the earth's surface, or wound up its spiral orbit at one of the poles. Hence an equatorial belt necessarily revolves more rapidly than a polar one, and the motion of the polar one more nearly represents the time of the planet's rotation than the equatorial; and further, the slower motion of a polar belt shows that it has been under the resisting influence of an atmosphere longer than the equatorial. In other words it shows that it fell from an annular system over the planet's equator, and has floated away with an actual falling motion towards the poles. I state this as a demonstrable fact.

Let us return to view the planet Saturn, and see how many of these conditions obtain on that ringed world. We first notice that it possesses a number of belts, pretty well defined. We see they are separated by visible divisions or partitions which necessitates the conclusion that they were separated in the annular system, for we know of no force to separate them after they once left the annular and assumed the belt form, but rather a tendency to re-unite. But we find that the polar belts move more slowly than the equatorial! Here, then, are two important links of evidence pointing directly to the conclusion that these belts of Saturn have descended from the annular form,—that they are revolving in the outskirts of Saturn's atmosphere.

In order that the reader may more fully understand the importance of these witnesses, speaking from the heavens and bearing emphatic evidence from analogy that annular development is a philosophic and necessary part of planetary evolution, we must more minutely examine the only annular system now visible, and also bring in the invaluable testimony of Jupiter, the "King of planets" and giant of the solar system. We must be allowed the privilege of drawing conclusions respecting the former condition of the terraqueous globe, from present known condition of her sister planets. I believe the birth, growth and development of worlds are regulated by inexorable law, and if one planet was ever surrounded by rings, a sister planet under the same circumstances, ruled by the same dynamic and static conditions of force, in process of development, must also be attended by rings during some stage of its career. Not that I ignore the fact that circumstances varying must vary the resulting phenomena of ruling forces, but the great principles of planetary growth must obtain on all planets. It is, for instance, as essential that ring-formation should follow igneous action, as the oblatoidal form of a planet should follow its rapid rotation. They are pure results of acting forces everywhere apparent in the solar system, from the great burning, seething and smoking sun, to the utmost and smallest satellites. If we can detect this universal disposition in the worlds around us, we may rest assured that our own has passed through the same grand cycles of change. Nay, we may in fact read the geological history of the earth in the ringed and belted worlds of the solar system.

…