The Temperature of the Surface of the Sun

Abstract

IT will be recollected that Messrs. M. E. Vicaire and Sainte-Claire Deville read some papers before the Academy of Sciences at Paris last January, showing that the temperature of the solar surface does not exceed that produced by the combustion of organic substances. Their reasoning being based on the law of radiant heat established by the investigations of Dulong and Petit. I have in the meantime instituted a series of experiments on a comparatively large scale, in order to test the correctness of the said law. Accordingly, the dynamic energy developed by the radiation of a mass of fused iron weighing 7,000 pounds raised by “overheating” in the furnace to la temperature of 3,000° F., has been carefully measured.