The Portland daily press., 1881-05-26
The Tomato Can.
A Terrible Theory Pronounced by Pro-
fessor Schweringen and Elaborated b
the New York Times.

Who would imagine that the trade in her,
metirally sealed provisions is steadily bringing
the earth nearer to the sun and fastening the
day of the final and fatal collision? And yet
study of the "tomato-can in its relation to the
solar system has led the distinguished Ger
man professor, Herr Schweringen to this very
conclusion.
Thoughtful peopla have often wondered
what becomes of the millions of tomato cans,
and other cans of the same general nature
which are daily thrown away after their con-
tents have been used. 1t is impossible that
they are all devoured by goats, for careful
calculation will show that this would require
each goat now living in this country to devour
63 cans daily, a feat OF which no goat can be
supposed to be capable. At least nine out of
ten empty cans lie on the surface of the earth,
where the thoughtess hand of the cook or
small boy has thrown them. Many of them
become covered with earth, while others slowly
disintegrate. In either case it is evident that
the earth is gradually growing larger by al
most precisely the quantity Of waste tomato
cans which are annually strewn on its surface.
Prof. Schweringen, having arrived at this
conclusion naturally extended his observations
from tomato cans to the iron and tin of which
they and a thousand other articles are made.
For ages mankind has been engaged in dig
ging iron and other metals out of the bowels of
the earth. An almost incalculable amount of
ore has thus been brought to the surface. Once
On the surface of the earth it remains there
forever. To small extent metals may be ap-
parently destroyed by oxidation, but under
whatever forms they may be concealed, they
never sink back into the mines from which
they were originally taken. The same is true
of the millions of tons of coal which are every
year brought up from coal mines The coal is
burned, but its component parts remain on the
earth's surface. Whether in the form of ashes
or of gases, the ton of coal is the same in guam
tity after it is burned as it was before it was
dug out of the mine. The ashes lie on the
surface of the ground, and the gases may be
absorbed by plants or may enter into chemical
combination with minerals. The fact remains,
however, that coal once brought to the surface
of the earth remains there, and never, by any
chance, finds its way back into the mine.
Now, nothing can be clearer than that this
steady process of bringing metals, coal, and
other minerals from the interior to the exterior
of the earth must increase the size Of the globe.
Let us suppose that enough coal and iron is
mined every year to cover the surface of the
globe one inch in depth. This is the estimate
made by Prof. Schweringen, and there is no
reason to doubt that he is right 1t so happens,
however, that the metal contained in tomato
cans is not evenly distributed, for each can oc-
cupies a space vastly larger than the metal of
which it is composed would occupy were it
converted into q solid mass. Taking this factor
into consideration, Prof. Schweringen affrms
that the real annual growth OF the earth is
four inches, or in other words. that its diame-
ter becomes eight inches longer every year.
Rut there iS still another fact a lp cOOgilqraA
The growth of the earth consequent upon the
bringing of metals and minerals to the surface
and the manufacture of cylindrical tomato
cans is confined chiefly to Europe and Ameri-
ca. Asia, Africa, and those parts of the earth
which are covered by water do not experience
any perceptble growth, and hence Europe
and America grow with rapdity far greater
than that of the rest of the world. The result
is that the earth is becoming lop-sided. Eu-
rope and America are bulging out, so to speak,
and the symmetry of the globe is being de-
stroyed.
Although the specific gravity of the globe
cannot be changed by any shifting of its ma
terials, it is obvious that the increase of its
size must have an effect upon its rotation upon
its axis, and its movement around the sun.
Since the existence of the ether has been gen.
orally conceded, the motion of the
earth must be attended with friction.
Any increase in the size of the globe
must retard the earth's motion. Prof. Schwer-
ingen maintains that the annual increase in
the diameter of the earth is constantly dimin-
ishing the speed of the earth in its orbit. As
the speed decreases the centrifugal force which
keeps the earth from yielding to the attraction
of the sun decreases. The necessary re-
suit is that the orbit of tho earth must grow
constantly smaller and smaller as the earth's
speed lessons, and in time the earth will have
lost so much Of its centrifugal force, and the
attraction of the sun will have become so much
greater in consequence of the contraction of
the earth's orbit, that collision between the
sun and the earth will be inevitable.
Such are the consequences of tomato cans.
We look upon them with contempt as the most
useless and unimportant things in creation,
but they are steadily and silently bringing
about the most awful catastrophe Of which we
can conceive. There is, perhaps. yet time to
save the earth by ceasing to work the mines
and to manufacture tomato cans, but il the
latter continue to be manufactured at the
present rate, the doom of this unfortunate
globe is sealed.