The Gradual Cooling of the Earth.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1800, 19 January 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Gradual Cooling of the Earth.

In a " Treatise on Naiui^l Philosophy," hy Professors Sir W. Thompson and P. G. Taifc, Sir W. Thompson, speakkii> of an opinion advanced by Sir Charles Lyell, respecting the possible maintenance of the earth's heat without change throughout countless ages, used words which, says Knouledqe, may fee applied without change ol a word to the stupendous theoiy advanced by Sir 0. Siemens not so very long sinee — such &n idea of a practically endless cycle "violates the principles of natural philosophy in exactly the same manner, wid to the same degree, as to believe that a clock constructed with a self-winding movement may fulfil the expectations of its ingenious inventor by going for ever." The earth is necessarily cooling from century to century ; her volcanic energies arc certainly diminishing, as certainly, to use an illustration ox Sir W. Thomson's, as the quantity of gunpowder in a " monitor " ia diminishing when hour after hour she is £cen to discharge shot and shell, whether at a nearly equable rate or not, without lecciving fresh supjxlies of ammunition.