Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-13
A Billion Dissected.
Am Interesting Mental Excursion To wards lnffnfty.
 From the London Times.l

An Interesting Mental Excursion To
 wards Infinfty.
 From the London Times.]
 To the Editor of the Times,-Sir,-It would be curious to know how many of your readers have brought fully home to their in ner consciousness the real significance of that little word ''billion" which we have seen of late go glibly used in your columns. There are, doubtless, many thousands who cannot appreciate its true worth even when reduced to fragments for more easy assimilation. It's arithmetical symbol is simple and without much pretension there are no large figures justa modest followed by dozen ciphers, and that is all.
 Let us briefly take glance at it as meas ure of time, distance and weight. As 6 meas ure of time, would take one second as the unit, and carry myself in thought through the lapse of ages back to the first day of the year of our era, membering that in all those years we have 365 days, and in every day just SC, 400 seconds of time. Hence, in returning in thought back again to this year of grace 1880, one might have supposed that billion of seconds had long since elapsed; but this is not 50. We have not even passed one-sixteenth of that number in all these long eventful years, for it takes just 31, ,687 years, IT days, 22 hours, 45 minutes and 5 seconds to constitute billion of seconds of time.
 It is no easy matter to bring under the cog nizance of the human eye a billion objects of any kind. Let us try in imagination to arrange this number for inspection, and for this purpose would select sovereign as a familiar object. Let us put one on the ground and pile upon it as many as will reach 90 feet in height; then let us place numbers of similar columns in close contact, form ing straight line, and making a sort of wall 20 feet high, showing only the thin edges of the coin. Imagine two such walls running parallel to each other and forming, as it were, long street. We must then keep on extend ing these walls for miles-nay, hundreds of miles, and still we shall be far short of the required number. And it is not until we tance of 23S64 miles that we shall have pre- sented for inspection our one billion of coins.
 Or in lieu of this arrangement we may place them fiat upon the ground, forming one continuous line like golden chain, with every link in close contact. But to do this we must pass over land and sea, mountain and valley, desert and plain, crossing the equator, and returning around the southern hemisphere through the trackIess ocean, re- trace our way again across the equator, then still on and on, until we again arrive at our starting point and when we have thus pas sed golden chain around the huge bulkE of the earth, we shall be but at the beginning of our task. We must drag this imaginary chain no less than 763 times round the globe. If we can further imagine these rows of links laid closely side by side and every one in con- tact with its neighbor, we shall have formed golden band around the globe just 52 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 19, BPS, 445 miles, the weight of which is estima- ted at oz. each sovereign would be (, ,975, 447 tons and would require for their transport no less than Z, 1925 ships, each with a full cargo of 5000 tons. Even then there would be residu of 447 tons representing GA, ,O81, ,92O sovereigns.
 For measure of height let us take much smaller unit as our measuring rod. The thin sheets of paper on which these lines are print ed, if laid out flat and firmly pressed together as in well-bound book, would represent measure of about l 333d. of an inch in thick ness. Les us see how high dense pile form ed by billion of these thin paper leaves would reach. We must, in imagination, pile them vertically upward by degrees reaching to the height of our tallest spires and pass- ing these, the pile must still grow higher, top ping the Alps and Andes and the highest peaks of the Himalayas, and shooting up from thence through the feecy clouds pass beyond the confines of our attenuatsd atmos- phere, and leap up into the blue ether with which the universe is filled, standing proudly up far beyond the reach of all terrestrial things; still pile on your thousands and millions or thin leaves, for we are only begin ming to rear the mighty mass. Add millions on millions of sheets, and thousands of miles on these, and still the number will lack it's due amount Let us pause to look at the neat ploughed edges of the book before US. See how closely lie those thin flakes of paper, how many there are in the mere width of span, and then turn our eyes in imagination up. wards to our mighty column of accumulated sheets. It now contains it's appointed num- Der, and our one billion of sheets of the Times superimposed upon each other, and pressed into compact mass, has reached an altitude of AZ, 348 miles!
 Those who have taken the trouble to follow me thus far will I think, agree with me that a billion is fearful thing and that few can appreciate it's real value. As for quad rillions and trillions, they are simply words. mere words wholly incapable of adequately imprsssing themselves on the human intellect.
 Iremain, your obedient servant,
 HENRY BEssEMER.
 Denmark Hill, January 3d.
 Note: The reader should bear In mind