New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-02-19
.sGDEIE sisc SsSss.

New Y1r Ti.4ta IL. p.t Off le,tuschy Professor
f,Uvtos
Ii this earth was represented by q globe
one inch in diameter, then the suns globe
would be three yards in diameter, and if the
suns globe were represented by one inch,
the SUMS distance would be three yards.
That proportion was always maintained. 1t
had been calculated that Il bullet, fired from
an Armstrong gun, Travelled at the rate of
four hundred yards a second, and if that rate
were maintained for the entire distance be-
tween the earth ana sun, the bullet woull
take thirteen years to traverse that space,
while the sound Of the explosion would reach
the sun half year later. Thus the PRAYERS
Of those persons who worshpcd the sun, if
there were some intermediate means of com
munication to carry on the sound, would
take thirteen and-a-half years to reach their
god.
As another instance o. the great distance
Of the sun from the earth, the lecturer men
toned that il a steel rod connected the sun
and the earth, the pull oil the sun on that
would take three hundred DAYS before the
strain reached the earth. There was vet,
he said, another consideration to illustrate
the yhStpess Of distance. 1t had been asccr-
tanned that feeling was conveyed along the
nerves much mere slowly than the passage
Of light or sound, and under such condition
of things the following illustration would be
the more readily understood: II an infant
were born having an arm the rather incOnvc-
nient length Of % 600, 900 Of miles, and were
to burn the tips OF its fingers in the sun, that
infant might die and never know that the
tips Of its fingers had been sugned. In fact.
IL was neccssarytiat it should live to one
hundred and thirty-Gyc years before the sem
sation of burning at the tip of the finger could
be conveyed along the arm. Even light.
which travelled 1872 900 miles in single
second OF time, took eight minutes in reach
ing Us from the sun. Thus we never saw
the sun in the place which lie actually occu-
pied in the eclipse, but in the place which
he occupied eight minutes before. The force
oil gravity was the only power which appeared
To overcome this vast distance, and acted, as
was known, instantaneouslv
inns was for long time, however, denied.
aad even Newton said that the man must be
mad to assert that any force could so act
ojher"!sc than by direct contact. The lee
iuler next invited the audience TO the con-
>idSrati"n of the question how large the sun
l.. When informing audiences IN England
on this subject, lac was in the habit of sayinr
10 them that they knew how large England
was, and yet that, upon the suns disc. il
would be small triangular spot which would
not be recognizable. He was afraid that
that Illustration would not 10 in this country.
!ur there was no use telling Americans that
England was large Laughter But even
America was 50 small compared with the sun
tiiit Il there were spot on the suns disc as
large as America it would be invisible to the
mated eye. The suns diameter was, in fact.
one hundred and seven times that of the
earth, While its face WAS II 800 times greater.
Inc volume OF the sun was 2S0, 900 times
greater than the earth, but its matter WIS
hain 4
one-iOurth lighter than that of the earth in
proportion TO size, or 3Ij. 900 times actually
greater. But the vast difference which ex-
lsted between the sun and the earth even III
TINS matter could be understood when it was
stated that if this earth were to grow in dcu-
sity until it cqualled the entire density of the
sun, the little half-ounce weights with which
we are IN the habit Of Weighing letters would,
Ill lhclr proportion, have come to weigh four
aAd-a-ha!f tons, and an ordinary man would
weigh twenty thousand tons. Such, then,
was the mighty power which ruled this earth:
Inc lecturer next proceeded to the consi,i-
Grafton Of the suns heat and light. In ref
erence to the suns heat, Sir John IIerschcl
had experimental on the subject in South
Africa, and had found temperature of one
hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit four
inches below the soil. lie found also that
one third Of the suns heat and light were
eat oil in mid-ar. Filling in the area, lie
calculated that as much heat fell on square
mile as would suffice to melt 5000 tons of
zee. But then the earth presented a disc Of
ao,Ooo 0OO square miles in extent, and yet
only 22I-l00Oth part Of the suns heat was
captured on this earth; all the rest was APP
parently wasted. The heat given by the
earth would be effected by the burning of
l,OUo 900 tons Of coal, whereas to produce
the heat OF the sun il would require the
burning of ii 900 million of millions of tons
of coal