emperature
at the sun's surface would undergo no diminution." Sir John Herschel
further says: "All the heat we enjoy comes from the sun. Imagine the
heat we should have to endure if the sun were to approach us, or we the
sun, to a point the one hundred and sixtieth part of the present
distance. It would not be merely as if 160 suns were shining on us all
at once, but 160 times 160 suns according to the rule of inverse
squares--that is, 25,600. Imagine a globe emitting heat 25,600 times
fiercer than that of an equatorial sunshine at noonday, with the sun
vertical. In such a heat there is no solid substance we know of which
would not run like water, boil, or be converted into smoke or vapour."

Lockyer points out that the heat radiated from every square yard of the
sun's surface is equal to the amount of heat produced by the burning of
six tons of coal on that area in one hour. Now the surface of the sun
may be estimated at 2,284,000,000,000 square miles, and there are
3,097,600 square yards in each square mile; what therefore must be the
number of tons of coal which must be burnt per hour to represent the
amount of heat radiated from the sun into space? The approximate result
may be calculated by multiplication, but the figures arrived at fail to
give any adequate conception of the actual result.

From these facts it may be seen that the sun has a temperature far
exceeding any temperature that can be produced on the earth by
artificial means. All known elements would be transformed into a
vaporous condition if brought close to the sun's surface. It may readily
be seen, therefore, that the sun is constantly sending forth an
incessant flood of radiant heat in all directions, and on every side
into space. Now if heat be motion, and be primarily due to the vibratory
motion of Aether, what must be the volume and the intensity of the
aetherial waves, known as heat waves, generated by the sun? When we
remember its ponderous mass, with its volume more than 1,200,000 times
that of our earth, its huge girth of more than 2-1/2 millions of miles,
and this always aglow with fire the most extensive known--fires so
intense that they cover its huge form with a quivering fringe of
flames which leap into space a distance of 80,000 miles, or even
100,000 miles, or over one-third of the distance of the moon from the
earth,--remembering all these facts, what must be the volume and
intensity of the aetherial heat waves which they generate an