On The Existence Of Day And Night

COPERNICUS had evolved another theory, which he
also explains in his Treatise on the Revolution of
the Celestial Spheres, that if a body is to revolve
round another, the first one must have a spherical
shape and rotate about its axis in the manner of a
spinning top. Consequently, in order to make this
notion fit in with the movement of the earth round
the sun which he had devised in order to explain the
seasons, he suddenly decreed that the earth was
round, contrary to the general opinion at the time,
and then proclaimed that it had a movement of rotation
about its axis. The great inconvenience in this
proposition is that the rotation of the earth cannot be
seen to exist, either with regard to the position of the
sun or clouds during the day, or of the moon and
other planets by night. On the other hand, the fact
of the immobility of the earth has an immense advantage
over the theory of the rotation in that it can
positively be recognized as such, and it can safely be
said that if the earth cannot be seen to move, there
are hundred chances in a hundred that it does not
do so.

The theory of the rotation of the earth, however,
may once for all be definitely disposed of as impracticable
by pointing out the following inadvertence.

It is said that the rotation takes twenty-four hours
and that its speed is uniform, in which case, necessarily,
days and nights should have an identical duration
of twelve hours each all the year round. The sun
should invariably rise in the morning and set in the
evening at the same hours, with the result that it
would be the equinox every day from the 1st of
January to the 31st of December. One should stop
and reflect on this before saying that the earth has a
movement of rotation. How does the system of gravitation
account for the seasonal variations in the
lengths of days and nights if the earth rotates at a
uniform speed in twenty-four hours? At all events,
we have previously seen that there is no such movement
as the revolution of the earth round the sun;
and as the rotation was its sine qua non, it automatically
fails at the same time. There is also reciprocal
invalidity; if the rotation is manifestly impossible as
demonstrated above, the translation which was
uniquely derived from this movement, becomes void.

Further, if flying had been invented at the time of
Copernicus, there is no doubt that he would have
soon realized that his contention regarding the rotation
of the earth was wrong, on account of the relation
existing between the speed of an aircraft and that
of the earth’s rotation. The distance covered by an
aircraft would be reduced or increased by the speed.

On the fact that the earth does not rotate 
of the rotation according to whether such aircraft
travelled in the same direction, or against it. Thus,
if the earth rotates, as it is said, at 1,000 kilometers
an hour, and a plane flies in the same direction at
only 500 kilometers, it is obvious that its place of
destination will be farther removed every minute.
On the other hand, if flying took place in the direction
opposite to that of the rotation, a distance of
1,500 kilometers would be covered in one hour, instead
of 500, since the speed of the rotation is to be
added to that of the plane. It could also be pointed
out that such a flying speed of 1,000 kilometers an
hour, which is supposed to be that of the earth’s
rotation, has recently been achieved, so that an aircraft
flying at this rate in the same direction as that
of the rotation could not cover any ground at all. It
would remain suspended in mid-air over the spot
from which it took off, since both speeds are equal.

There would, in addition, be no need to fly from one
place to another situated on the same latitude. The
aircraft could just rise and wait for the desired
country to arrive in the ordinary course of the rotation,
and then land; although it is difficult to see how any
plane can manage to touch ground at all on an airfield
which is slipping away at the rate of 1,000 kilometers
an hour. It might certainly be useful to know what
people who fly think of the rotation of the earth.
It could also be said that if the earth did rotate,
such motion, as in the case of its assumed revolution
round the sun, would create in all directions apparent,
fast and erratic movements of the planets and constellations,
whereas, in fact, the movements ruling in
the heavens are extremely slow and perfectly orderly;
and notwithstanding the artless explanation that has
been offered that everything goes so fast that nothing
can be seen to move at all.

It has also been endeavoured to explain day and
night, probably by way of giving an opportune and
additional utility to the rotation, apart from its indispensable
role in the assumed revolution round the
sun, by the fact that the two halves of the earth are
alternately exposed to the rays of the sun in twenty four
hours. But day and night do not result from a
play of light and shade caused by a turn of the earth.

As it can be realized by anyone, daylight is produced
by the arrival and passage of the sun, and night by
the disappearance of the latter. It is daylight when
the sun rises, and night when it sets. There is no
need at all for the earth to revolve in order to create
these facts of nature, the cause of which is evident
and sufficient unto itself.

A factor, however, other than the presence and
absence of the sun, might be taken into account in
the alternation of day and night. It is known that the
ancients insisted on the fact that day was caused by
a luminous vapour, and night by an opaque sort of
fog; but this explanation is not satisfactory as far as
night is concerned, as the stars would not be visible,
or at least, they would be obscured. What may be
assumed, in reality, is the presence of a warm cosmic
breath during the day, and of a cold one during the
night, to correspond respectively to the warm breath
of the summer and the cold breath of the winter as,
no doubt, day and night are on a small scale what
the two main divisions of the year are on a large one.

There is, moreover, a noticeable increase of temperature
after mid-day, which points to the existence of a
breath in its phase of expiration. The passage of this
On the fac t that the earth does not rotate 13
breath of day would begin in the early morning at
dawn, the usual pause between inspiration and
expiration taking place about mid-day; and we have,
in this connection, the infallible test of the behaviour
of man, who by reflex action, stops work at this
moment for a time. The passage of the warm day
breath would, then, end at dusk upon the arrival of
the cold night breath stream.

It might be considered that the breath of day has
a certain luminosity in view of the fact that it is daylight
long before sunrise, and also that the light persists
after sunset, as well as during total eclipses of
the sun. It can be seen from photographs taken during
such eclipses that the details of the landscape,
buildings and objects remain visible, so that the presence
of a luminous factor not dependent on the sun,
but provided by the breath of day can be assumed.

The cold breath of night would, inversely, flow
from nightfall to dawn, with the usual interval some
time after midnight. There is a sharp drop of temperature
about this hour, which corresponds to the
increased intensity of the cold night breath in its
breathing out phase.

There is an opposition in the circulation of the day
and night breaths round the world, so that when one
is north of the equator, the other is south of the
equator, and vice versa.

The day and night breaths are certainly connected
with, and influenced by the greater breaths of summer
and winter, and it is, therefore, their combined
actions which regulate the height of the sun and the
hours of its rising and setting; but not directly, as
said before, but through intermediate circumstances
which are explained later on.

As to the origin of these breath streams, it may
only be surmised that they emanate from living cosmic
centres possessing the organic function of respiration,
and that they are situated in some distant
regions outside our immediate Universe.
It is also possible that there may be a connection
between the v^rinds and these cosmic breaths. There
are winds which prevail regularly during certain
seasons of the year and which, under the circumstances,
might correspond to the semi-yearly breaths
of summer and winter. Further, high-flying American
airmen have reported the existence of a vast, high
altitude current of air, six miles deep and three hundred
miles wide, circling at a fantastic speed round
the northern hemisphere; and from Australia similar
reports indicate the presence of a corresponding high
velocity air stream south of the equator. There might
be an analogy between these recently discovered air
currents and the semi-annual cosmic breath streams.
As to the breath of day, it might have a connection
with the lesser winds which rise in the morning and
drop in the evening.

It would also appear that the breath streams are
accompanied by vibrations or cosmic pulsations; the
breaths of day and night, by twelve pulsations each,
which are the hours; and the semi-annual breaths of
summer and winter, by six great pulsations each, of
a duration of thirty days. These are the months.
It could be added that it is probably the regular
and constant flow of these cosmic breaths which constitutes
the passage of time.