Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-05-29

under him or, as he walks ~leisurely
away from the foot of a mountain, it is
not that the fexors and extensors of his
legs, acting upon their appropriate
bones. shove him away from the noun
tain, but shove the mountain away from
him. Ridiculous, however, as this may
seem, let every intelligent man, and
especially every astronomer, think be-
fore he laughs for it is identically the
principle which is adopted in the gravest
and sublimest of sciences, when it de-
scribes the zenith, the highest point of
the visible universe, as eliminating
directly above the observers head, and
the nadir as the point directly beneath
his feet, and the horizon, the apparent
boundary between earth and sky, as a
circle of which his eye is the center.
point and our unit of measure, we give
our attention first to the lesser velocities.
A mans rate of locomotion, as deduced
from the march of an army, is fairly
stated at twenty miles a day, two miles
per hour, and three feet per second.
The slow pace of the OK, and the still
| slower of the tortoise and the snail,
whatsoever lessons they may teach of
the wonders to be accomplished
by perseverance, have little the aspect
of romance. We let them pass.
The slowest motion in nature, of
which the naked eye can take cogniz-
ance, is that of a star, as it passes over
a small moveless twig, while the watch
er rests his head against a support. The
star. we mean a fixed star, can never be
magnifed by the most powerful tele-
scope to be more than a point of light,
and we might reasonably expect that in
passing the twig it would be suddenly
and wholly quenched On one side, and
as suddenly appear in full glory on the
other. But this is not so its fading
occupies a number of seconds, probably
because the pupil of the watchers eye
is broad enough to graduate its light
into a kind of penumbra.
But there are motions in Nature too
slow to be perceived except after a lapse
of time, though We are certain of them
as we are of the march of an army
the growth of a plant, for instance that
is. he increase Of distance between its
root and the terminal bud. True,
farmers tell us that they can sometimes
hear their corn groW for that, in a
| IlC1 DOllOlu. d1tCI d D11OMOI3 LII S1ON1AS
weather, the shuck will crack audibly of
a still night, as its overlapping parts
give way to the increasing ear. But
who yet, unless it be whilom Jack, of
moon-climbing memory, ever professed
to see the growth of anything, even of
the most rampageous vines?
Slow as these motions are, however,
they are rapid in comparison with others,
which are familiar enough to US all
though few persons may have ever had
the curiosity to calculate their rate. We
find it to be three feet in diameter, and
one hundred and fifty feet in length,
from the earth to its topmost twig. On
counting its concentric rings, each one
of which required a year for its deposi-
ton, we learn that it is three hundred
and sixty years old. These figures
enable us to determine that the growth
of the tree upward has been at the aver
age rate of five inches a year-a low rate
of velocity, truly! But what shall we
say of that other velocity, represented
by the increase of size from the center
of the trunk outward? Eighteen inches
in the three hundred and sixty years is
at the rate of one-twentieth of an inch IL
one year, or 1-7300 of an inch a day, OF
: 1-175300 of an inch an hour.
Slow as these rates of motion are, they
are as truly velocities-however they
may seem rather to be tdrdities-as the
flight of arrows, or as the flashing Of
sunbeams, for all velocities are com,
parative.
Let us now exchange the microscope
for the telescope in other words, turn
from the lower to the higher velocities
The ordinary rate of human travel OF
, foot is estimated at twenty miles a day
But men have not been content with THU
snail's pace. They first increased thei-
speed by the use of horsepower, which
gave them an average rate of thirty O
forty miles a day. Then they devised
steam-power, the average locomotive
, rate of which no one as yet is able tx
specify. Already the newspapers hav
, announced, in large capitals, the astound
, ing fact
"ARoUND THE ART IN sEvENTY-FoU1
DAYS! p
a feat which, only a few years since, re
= quired tenfold the time. Enormous
] however, as this rate of travel seems t
! be, when compared in the aggregat
= with former rates, it will be shorn Q
: much of its apparent glory when sma-
I portions of the average are compare
: with other ~wel-known rates for twenty
! five thousand miles divided into seventy
four parts gives the average of not quit
three hundred and forty miles a day, G
{ fourteen miles per hour. This rate wa
not only attained, but Eve exceeded, b
y many a juvenile savage of the Pacif
I islands, who would learn to balance hin
, self on the forward declivity of an ocea1
!, billow, and ride his wild horse shor'
ward until lodged upon the sands. Whs
is the speed of these pillows has prol
> ably never been estimated, but those
= mid-ocean have been known to outru
- the storms that raised them, and to hay
= = attained a velocity of forty or more mile
;, the hour. The average rate OF trave
y indicated by the average OF "Roun
= the world il seventy-four days" is fl
= :. from being the highest attained In trave
. ING. Forty miles per hour, e~quivalel