Excerpt from The Progressive Journal of Education, Vol. 2: Septemer 15, 1909

The gaseous globe was rotating in the same direction as the present solar system, and as it rotated it lost its heat by radiation and consequently contracted, 'which increased the speed of rotation. Now two forces, the centripetal and the centrifugal, were holding the gaseous substance in place. But with the cooling and shrinking of the gaseous globe, attended by greater speed of rotation, there came a point when the increased centrifugal force at the equator equaled the centripetal force. When this point was reached the outer gaseous matter at the equator would cease to contract and the remainder of the globe, continuing to cool and contract, would draw away from it, leaving a-ring. This ring in turn would cool and contract, then break at the weakest point, and the entire sub stance finally draw together in a mass which would grow denser and denser until it would become solid. In this manner, it was argued, all the planets were made, Neptune, the farthest, first, and all the rest in their turn.

The planets, in their turn, while cooling and contracting, it was held, threw off other rings that collected themselves each into a smaller spheroid known as a satellite or moon.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.