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Nature's Miracles: Familiar Talks on Science, Vol. 1.

<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> <h3>THE ATMOSPHERE.</h3> Meteorology is a science that at one time included astronomy, but now it is restricted to the weather, seasons, and all phenomena that are manifested in the atmosphere in its relation to heat, electricity, and moisture, as well as the laws that govern the ever-varying conditions of the circumambient air of our globe. The air is made up chiefly of oxygen and nitrogen, in the proportions of about twenty-one parts of oxygen and seventy-nine parts nitrogen by volume, and by weight about twenty-three parts oxygen and seventy-seven of nitrogen. These gases exist in the air as free gases and not chemically combined. The air is simply a mixture of these two gases. There is a difference between a mixture and a compound. In a mixture there is no chemical change in the molecules of the substances mixed. In a compound there has been a rearrangement of the atoms, new molecules are formed, and a new substance is the result. About 99-1/2 per cent. of air is oxygen and nitrogen and one-half per cent. is chiefly carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a product of combustion, decay, and animal exhalation. It is poison to the animal, but food for the vegetable. However, the proportion in the air is so small that its baneful influence upon animal life is reduced to a minimum. The nitrogen is an inert, odorless gas, and its use in the air seems to be to dilute it, so that man and animals can breathe it. If all the nitrogen were extracted from the air and only the oxygen left to breathe, all animal life would be stimulated to death in a short time. The presence of the nitrogen prevents too much oxygen from being taken into the system at once. I suppose men and animals might have been so organized that they could breathe pure oxygen without being hurt, but they were not, for some reason, made that way. Air contains more or less moisture in the form of vapor; this subject, however, will be discussed more fully under the head of evaporation. The air at sea-level weighs fifteen pounds to the square inch, and if the whole envelope of air were homogeneous—the same in character—it would reach only about five miles high. But as it becomes gradually rarefied as we ascend, it probably extends in a very thin state to a height of eighty or ninety miles; at least, at that height we should find a more perfect vacuum than can be produced by artificial means. The weight of all the air on the globe would be 11-2/3 trillion pounds if no deduction had to be made for space filled by mountains and land above sea-level. As it is, the whole bulk weighs something less than the above figures. As we have said, the air envelopes the globe to a height at sea-level of eighty or ninety miles, gradually thinning out into the ether that fills all interstellar space. We live and move on the bottom of a great ocean of air. The birds fly in it just as the fish swim in the ocean of water. Both are transparent and both have weight. Water in the condensed state is heavier than the air and will seek the lowest places, but when vaporized, as in the process of evaporation, it is lighter than air and floats upward. In the vapor state it is transparent like steam. If you study a steam jet you will notice that for a short distance after it issues from the boiler it is transparent, but soon it condenses into cloud. If we could see inside of a boiler in which steam had been generated, all the space not occupied with water would seem to be vacant, since steam before it is condensed is as transparent as the air. We will, however, speak of this subject more fully under the head of evaporation and cloud formation. It is not enough that we have the air in which we live and move, with all of its properties, as we have described: something more is needed which is absolutely essential both to animal and vegetable life—and this essential is motion. If the air remained perfectly still with no lateral movement or upward and downward currents of any kind, we should have a perfectly constant condition of things subjected only to such gradual changes as the advancing and receding seasons would produce owing to the change in the angle of the sun's rays. No cloud would ever form, no rain would ever fall, and no wind would ever blow. It is of the highest importance not only that the wind shall blow, but that comparatively sudden changes of temperature take place in the atmosphere, in order that vegetation as well as animal life may exist upon the surface of the globe. The only place where animal life could exist would be in the great bodies of water, and it is even doubtful if water could remain habitable unless there were means provided for constant circulation—motion. The mobility of the atmosphere is such that the least influence that changes its balance will put it in motion. While we can account in a general way for atmospheric movements, there are many problems relating to the details that are unsolved. We find that even the "weather man" makes mistakes in his prognostications; so true is this that it is never safe to plan a picnic for to-morrow based upon the predictions of to-day. The chief difficulty in the way of solving the great problems relating to the sudden changes in the weather and temperature lies in the fact that two-thirds or more of the earth's surface is covered with water; thus making it impossible to establish stations for observation that would be evenly distributed all over the earth's surface. Enough is known, however, to make the study of meteorology a most wonderfully interesting subject. We have already stated that air is composed of a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen chiefly, with a small amount of carbon dioxide. So far as the life and health of the animal is concerned we could get along without this latter substance, but it seems to be a necessity in the growth of vegetation. There are other things in the air which, while they are unnecessary for breathing purposes, it will be well for us to understand, as some of them are things to be avoided rather than inhaled. As before mentioned, air contains moisture, which is a very variable quantity. In a cold day in winter it is not more than one-thousandth part, while in a warm day in summer it may equal one-fortieth of the quantity of air in a given space. There is also a small amount of ammonia, perhaps not over one-sixty-millionth. Oxygen also exists in the air in very small quantities in another form called ozone. One way to produce ozone is by passing an electric spark through air. Anyone who has operated a Holtz machine has noticed a peculiar smell attending the disruptive discharges, which is the odor of ozone. It is what chemists call an allotropic form of oxygen, just as the diamond, graphite, and charcoal are all different forms of carbon, and yet the chemical differences are scarcely traceable. It is more stimulating to breathe than oxygen and is probably produced by lightning discharges. As has been before stated, the oxygen of the air is consumed by all processes of combustion, and in this we include the breathing of men and animals and the decay of vegetable matter, as well as the more active combustion arising from fires. A grown person consumes something over 400 gallons of oxygen per day, and it is estimated that all the fires on the earth consume in a century as much oxygen as is contained in the air over an area of seventy miles square. All of these processes are throwing into the air carbon dioxide (carbonic acid), which, however, is offset by the power of vegetation to absorb it, where the carbon is retained and forms a part of the woody fiber and pure oxygen is given back into the air. By this process the normal conditions of the air are maintained. One decimeter (nearly 4 inches) square of green leaves will decompose in one hour seven cubic centimeters of carbon dioxide, if the sun is shining on them; in the shade the same area will absorb about three in the same time. There is another substance in the form of vegetable germs in the air called bacteria. At one time these were supposed to be low forms of animal life, but it is now determined that they are the lowest forms of vegetable germs. Bacteria is the general or generic name for a large class of germs, many of them disease germs. By analysis of the air in different locations and in different parts of the country it has been determined that on the ocean and on the mountain tops these germs average only one to each cubic yard of air. In the streets of the average city there are 3000 of them to the cubic yard, while in other places where there is sickness, as in a hospital ward, there may be as many as 80,000 to the cubic yard. These facts go to prove what has long been well known, that the air of a city furnishes many more fruitful sources for disease than that of the country. Some forms of bacterial germs are not considered harmful, and they probably perform even a useful service in the economy of nature. Within certain limits, other things being equal, the higher one's dwelling is located above the common level the purer will be the air. This rule, however, has its limits, as the oxygen of the air is heavier than the nitrogen, so that the air at very great altitudes has not the same proportion of oxygen to nitrogen that it has at a lower level. An analysis that was made some years ago of the air on the west shore of Lake Michigan, especially that section where the bluffs are high, shows that it compares favorably with that of any other portion of the United States. In view of the foregoing, it is of the highest importance to the sanitary condition of any city, town, or village that it be not too compactly built. If more than a certain number of people occupy a given area, it is absolutely impossible to preserve perfect sanitary conditions. And there ought to be a State law, especially for all suburban towns, which are the homes and sleeping places for large numbers of business men who spend their days in the foul air of the city, stipulating that the houses shall be not less than a certain distance apart. Oxygen is the great purifier of the blood, and if one does not get enough of it he suffers even though he breathes no impurities. The power to resist the effects of bad air is much greater when one is awake and active than when asleep, and this is why it is more important to sleep in pure air than to be in it during our waking hours. It is best, however, to be in good air all of the time. By pure air I do not mean pure oxygen, but the right mixture of the two gases that make air. Too much of a good thing is often worse than not enough. Pure food to eat, pure water to drink, and pure air to breathe would soon be the financial ruin of a large class of doctors. <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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