Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-05-28

OF our day; or, if it should succeed in en-
terlng the open back-door, it would move
with such seeming laziness that a passen-
ger II, might easily capture it in his hat!
rms brings us to consider two highly
interesting velocities in which all jewellers
upon earth are vitality concerned, vet to
which few people have deigned more than
a passing thought. The description Just
now given OF the maximum rate of travel
attained, and possibly attainable upon
railways, was penned by the writer with
Dated breath, for he had a vivid recollec-
ton OF the thunder and rush of forty miles
the nour over railroad not so smooth
and safe as it is now More than one
reader, probably, will sympathize in the
1eellng. Now, were the highest rate al
ready attained, of sixty, eighty, or hun
dred miles the hour increased tenfold who
would willingly trust himself aboard any
tram OF cars, on any railroad built by hui
man hands? Or who, being aboard, would
think OF lying down to sleep, except un-
der the full meaning of his childhood's
prayer, of [ should die before [ wake?n
Yet there is not mothers son or daugh-
ter OF us who has not been riding at this
tenfold rate all our lives, and been going
TO sleep, too, every night Of our Journey
as quietly and trustfully as little children
40 within reach OF a parents arm. It is
true, our road is very smooth and very
sale, never having experienced, during the
last SIX thousand years, the first jolt or Jar
much less the first "run-Off'' or collision
But the fact that our SO-called car is the
earth, and its great superintendent the
Almighty Creator, does not in the least di
minish the velocity with which we travel;
nor need it diminish our wonder though
we must admit that it adds vastly to our
sense of security
The motion of the earth has been spoken
of as if it were one only; but, of course
no one can forget that it is twofold In
its daily whirl upon its axis, all who live
at the equator are swept along at the rate
Of twenty-five thousand miles in twenty
four hours, or upward Of one thousand
miles an hour Those who live in latitude
60 Q move at exactly half the speed. The
average rate at different points of the
United States may therefore be set down
at about seven hundred miles the hour,
though it is really greater But only to
think Of travelling at this lesser rate of
seven hundred miles the hour-more
than double the velocity of sound or of
cannon-ball!
And now what language shall we use in
speaking of that other motion of the earth
in which we all participate? We make
yearly circuit round the sun of above five
hundred and fifty million miles To &C
this requires a velocity of one
million five hundred thousand miles
day, or sixty-two thousand miles an hour,
which is upward of one thousand miles
eoery minute! This is a speed which is
inconceivable. Yet at this rate,
as was just now said, we travel without
jolt, without collision, and even without
fear of evil We sit comfortably in our
easy going car, look complacently at the
stars past which we so madly rush, then
go to bed and sleep and dream, and awake
IN the morning, and seldom think of the
grand eQuipage in which we'are travelling
at the rate of SIXTEEN miles q Sec0nd
At this point of our survey it might
seem the dictate of reason to stop, since
we are already beyond the boundary of
the conceivable. But although past that
boundary we are far from having reached
the limits Of the calculable. The electric
fluid, shot along our telegraph wires, so
far outstrips the daily motion of the sun
that cable dispatch dated London, five
O'Clock p. M, of any day, is delivered in
Washington City about twelve o'clock NJ
of the same day. The rapidity of its
though seemingly infinite,
or, as we ordinarily say, instantaneous, is
not actually so. There is an appreciate
portion of time occupied in it's transit, |
and that time has been measured. The |
distance by wire between Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and San Francisco Cali
fornia, is about thirty-siX hundred miles.
In an experiment undertaken for the pur-
Of 81 Al
electric spark was sent and returned over
this distance in three-fourths of second; |
a rate sufficient to carry it round the
complete the circuit of the earth's orbit
in two hours and forty minutes, instead
of three hundred and sixty-ive days.
We have but one more velocity to no.
tice. 1t is that of light. Until the year
1915, the passage Of light was supposed
to be instantaneous, and the discovery of
the truth was the result almost of acct
dent The celebrated Romer had calcu-
lated with great precision the eclipses of
Jupiter's satellites when that planet and
the earth Were,On the same side of the
sun. 10 his surprise and perpleXity,
however, the eclipses took place sixteen
minutes too late, when Jupiter was on the
side OF the sun opposite to the earth.
Every observation and temperance of
these satellites took place exactly in the
order predicted, and at nearly the calcu-
lated intervals, but they were regularly
sixteen minutes behind time The only
solution of the phenomenon was to be had
in supposing that light requires sixteen
minutes to pass through the diameter of
the earth's orbit, i. e., one hundred and
eighty four million miles This astound-
ing fact was soon corroborated by other
testimony, until now there is scarcely any
fact in physical science more firmly es-
tablished than that light travels with the
enormous velocity of one hundred and
ninety-two thousand miles a second.
To form conception, as near as posi-
BILE, Of this degree of speed, let us put two
things together. Were the earth girdled
with speaking-tube capable of convey
ing sound through all its length. at the
rate of five miles a minute, a message
around would occupy five thousand min
utes, or eighty-three and two-thirds hours,
or nearly three and a half days for it's pas
sage; whereas light, if it could be sent
around on the same track, would encircle
the earth eight times between each beat of
a secOnd-measuring clock!
Here, now, we are compelled to stop.