The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-04-08
SOME BIG FIGURES.
A Thing OF Two showing What a Dil-
lion ~,

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many of your readers have brought fully
home TO their inner consciousness the
real significance of that little word
"billion which we have seen of late
so 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. Its arithmetical symbol
is simple and without much pretension
there are no large fgures-just a modest
followed by dozen ciphers, and that
is all.
Let us briefly take a glance at it rs a
measure of time, distance and weight.
As a measure 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,
remembering that in all those years we
have 1865 days, and in every day just
6,400 seconds of time. Hence, in re-
turning in thought back again to this
year of grace 1880, one might have sup
posed that 100000, COO, coo 81 seconds
had long since elapsed; but this is not
so. We have not passed the one-six-
teenth of that number in all these long
eventful years, for i: takes just 81 ,657
years, II days, 22hours, As minutes and
s seconds to constitute 100000, 900, 600
of seconds cf time.
1t is no easy matter to bring under
the cognizance of the human eye l,OOO,-
OOO,OOO,OOO objects of any kind. Let us
try in imagination to arrange this num-
Der for inspection, and for this purpose
l would select a sovereign as 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 similar columns in close
contact, forming a straight line, and
making sort of wall twenty feet high,
showing only the thin edges of tie coin.
Imagine two such walls running parallel
to each other and forming, as it were, a
long street. We must then keep on ex.
tending these walls for miles-nay,
hundreds of miles, and still we shall be
far short of the required numDer. And
it is not until we have extended our
imaginary street to a distance of 2,3564
miles that we shall have presented for
inspection our 100000, ,0OO,O 900 of
coins.
Or in lieu Of this arrangement we may
place them flat upon the ground, form
ing one continuous line like a 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 re-
turning around the southern hemisphere
through the trackless ocean, retrace our
way again across the equator, then still
on and on, until we again arrive at our
starting point; and when we have thus
passed a golden chain around the hugh
bulk of the earth we shall be but at the
beginning of our task. We must drag
this imaginary chain no less than 1853
times round the globe. If we can fur
ther imagine these rows of links laid
closely side by side and every one in
contact with its neighbor, we shall
have formed a golden band around the
globe just SO feet inches wide, and this
will represent our 1000, 900, 200, 900 Of
coin. Such chain, if laid in a straight
line, would reach fraction over 49,
32s, s,445 miles, the weight of which, if
estimated at 4 OF. each sovereign, would
be 6,975, ,447 tons, and would require for
their transport no less than 1895 ships,
each with a full cargo of 5000 tons.
Even then there would be residue of
447 tons, representing 64,O8l, ,92O SOY
ereigns.
For q measure of height let US take
much smaller unit as our measuring
rod. The thin sheets of paper on which
these lines are printed, il laid out flat
and firmly pressed together as in well
bound book. would represent a measure
Of about 1888 of an inch in thickness.
Let us see how high dense pile formed
by billion of these very thin paper
leaves would reach. We must in mag
nation, pile them vertically upward,
by degrees reaching to the height of our
tallest spires; and passing these, the
pile must still go 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 attenu-
atcd atmosphere 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 Of thin
leaves, for we are only beginning to rear
the mighty mass. Add millions on
millions of sheets and thousands of miles
on these, and still the number will lack
its due amount. Let us pause to look at
the neat plowed edges of the book be-
fore 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 upward to our
mighty column of accumulated sheets,
1t now contains its appointed number,
and our 1000, 600, 0OO 900 sheets of the
11D,eS, supermposed upon eacn other
and pressed into compact mass has
reached an altitude of AZ, 3iS miles.
Those who have taken the trouble to
follow me thus Eur will, | think, agree
with me that l,c00, 600, 100000 is n fear
ful thing, and that few can appreciate
its real value. As for quadrillions and
trillions, they are simply words, mere
words, wholly incapable Of adequately
impressing themselves on the human in
tellcct. Henry BCSSense,, tn London
Times