The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-03-03
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF 4 BILLToN.
Horny Bessimer In tho London Timss.

1t would be curious to know how many
of your readers have brought fully home
nificance of that little word "billion," which
We have seen of late 30 glibly used in your
columns. There are, indeed, few intellects
| that can fairly grasp it and digest it as.
whole; and there are, doubtless, many
| thousands who cannot appreciate it's true
work, even when reduced to fragments for
more easy assimilation. Its arithmetical
symbol is simple and without much pre-.
tention there are no large fgures-just q
modest ! followed by dozen ciphers, and
that is all.
The French system makes q thousand
millions equal to a billion; according to
the English q million of millions is billion.
In this article the latter system is followed
Let us briefly take glance at it as q
measure of time, distance and weight. As
a measure of time wonld take one second
as the unit, and carry myself in thought
through the lapse of ages back to the first
day of the year l of our era, remembering
that in all of those years we have 365 days,
and in every day just 400 seconds of
time. Hence, in returning in thought back
again to this year of grace, 1873, one might
have supposed that a billion of seconds
had long since elapsed but this is not so.
We have not even passed one sixteenth
of that number in all these long eventful
years, for it takes just 81 ,6s7 years, IL
days, % hours, as minutes, and seconds
to constitute a billion of seconds of time.
1t is no easy matter to bring under the
coRnizRnce of the human eye bllIiOn
objects of any kind. Let US try in imag-
| ipation to arrange this number for in
spection, and for this purpose l would Sc
lect sovereign as a familiar object. Let
us put one on the ground and pile upon
it as many as will reach twenty feet in
height then let US place numbers Of SIM
| liar columns in close contact, forming
straight line, and making sort OF wall
twenty feet high, showing only the thin
edges of the coin. Imagine two such walls
running parallel to each other and forming
as it were s. long street. We must then
keep on extending these walls for miles
nav. hundreds of miles-and still we shall
! be far short of the required number. And
| it is not until we have extended our 1mag-
| mary street to a distance of 1861 miles
| that we shall have presented for inspection
our one billion of coins.
Or in lieu of this arrangement we may
place them fat upon the ground, forming
one continuous line like golden chain,
with every link in close contact. But to
mountain and valley, desert and plain
crossing the equator, and returning around
| the southern hemisphere through the track
| less ocean, retr8ce our way again across
! the equator, then still on and on, until We
again arrive at our starting point; and when
the huge bulk of the earth. we shall be
| but at the beginning of our tack. We must
| drag this imaginary chain no less than
763 times around the globe. If We can
further imagine all these rows of links laid
closely side by side, and every one in
contact with it's neighbor, we shall have
formed a golden band around the globe
| iust fifty-two feet inches wide; and this
| will represent our one billion of coins.
Such, a chain, if laid in a straight line
would reach fraction over 49, zS,44
miles, the weight of which, if estimated at
one quarter ounce each sovereign, would
| be 975 ,446 tons, and would require for
| their transport no loss than 2 325 chips,
Zach with a full cargo of 5000 tons. Even
| then there would be residue of 447 tons
| representing "a Oe1 ,92O sovereigns.
For measura of height let us take q
much smaller unit as our measuring rod.
| The thin sheets of paper on which these
| lines are printed, if laid ont fiat and firmly
pressed together as in a well-bound book,
would represent measure of about 1854.
of an inch in thickness. Let US zee how
high dense pile formed by billion ot
these thin papers would reach. We must,
in imagination, pile them virtically up
ward, by degrees reaching to the height OF
our talest spires; and, passing these, the
pile must still grow higher, topping the
Alps and the Andes and the highest peaks
of the Himalayas, and shooting up from
thence through the fleecy clouds, pass
beyond the confines of our attenuated at
moephere, and leap up into the blue ether
with which the universe is filled, standing
proudly up far beyond the reach of terree-
trial things; still pile on your thousanda
and millions of thin leaves, for We are enly
beginning to rear the mighty macs. Add
millions on millions of sheets, and thou
sands of miles on these, and still the mum
!, Der will lack its due amount. Let US pause
to look at the neat ploughed edges of th'
book before US. See how closely lie thos
, thin fakes of paper, how many there ar
. in the mere width of a span, and then turI
our eyes in Imagination upward to on
mighty column of accumulated sheets. L
8 now contains it's appointed number, ant
our one billion sheets of the Times super
. imposed upon each other, and pressed INT
compact mass, has reached an altitude
: AZ 34S miles
Look not mournfully into the past,
retnrps no more; wisely improve tn