COSMOS Volume 1Alexander Von Humboldt
Taschenbuch
Excerpt: . . . only boast of having opened a greater number of paths which may possibly lead to an explanation of this subject. In the physical science of terrestrial p 193 magnetism, which must not be confounded with the purely mathematical branch of the study, those persons only will obtain perfect satisfaction who, as in the science of the meteorological processes of the atmosphere conveniently turn aside the practical bearing of all phenomena that can not be explained according to their own views. Terrestrial magnetism, and the electro-dynamic forces computed by the intellectual Ampere, stand in simultaneous and intimate connection with the terrestrial or polar light, as well as with the internal and external heat of our planet, whose magnetic poles may be considered as the poles of cold. footnote Instead of ascribing the internal heat of the Earth to the transition of matter from a vapor-like fluid to a solid condition, which accompanies the formation of the planets, Ampere has propounded the idea, which I regard as highly improbable, that the Earth's temperature may be the consequence of the continuous chemical action of a nucleus of the metals of the earths and alkalies on the oxydizing external crust. " It can not be doubted, " he observes in his masterly ' Theorie des Phenomenes Electro-dynamiques', 1826, p. 199, "that electro-magnetic currents exist in the interior of the globe, and that these currents are the cause of its temperature. They arise from the action of a central metallic nucleus, composed of the metals discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy, acting on the surrounding oxydized layer. " footnote The remarkable connection between the curvature of the magnetic lines and that of my isothermal lines was first detected by Sir David Brewster. See the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh', vol. ix. , 1821, p. 318, and ' Treatise on Magnetism', 1837, p. 42, 44, 47, and 268. This distinguished physicist admist two cold poles (poles of maximum cold) in. . .
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