Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-10-17
ALL HOLLOW.

Who Demonstrates that this
Mundane Sphere is Like
the Hub of a Wagon
Wheel.
Special Correspondent of Pittsburgh Dispatch. ]
BALD RIDGE, October Yesterday
1 paid long contemplated visit to
VIM. Krunitz. This gentleman is a
descendant of Prince: Krunitz, Chancel-
lor of the Austrian Empire in the reign
of the Empress Maria Theresa. Emf
grating to this country in the year 1S48,
he has almost forgotten the royal sur
roundings of former years, in the pres
ence of German-American wife, sons
and daughters and happy home.
Here. among his German neighbors,
Mr. Krunitz has quite reputation for
vast knowledge, and for exploring
among scientific things which common
minds do not trouble themselves about.
Especially is he reputable for the
originality of his ideas-standing as he
does squarely against all accepted
philosophy on many subjects, and for
his knock-down arguments used in the
maintenance of his theories When |
came to his house found him with his
four strapping sons out in the field cut
ting corn. In few words made known
the object of my visit, and Twas warm
ly invited to the house, which was a
little distance away, and presented a
struggling appearance, surrounded as it
was, by trees, shrubbery and a massive
netting of vines. The whole made
rather pleasant home, and it was just
the spot to philosophize in without one
distur rbing element to break the current
of a thought.
FOOLISH IDEAS.
On the road to the house Mr..
Krunitz said. 81 suppose, sir, you
have heard my neighbors speak Of me
and my foolish ideas? Well, my
opinions are of my own flesh and blood,
created by the pleasure / derive from a
study of those conditions in nature
which do not admit of mathematical
demonstration. My habit of thought
has led me to accept everything l read
with q measure of distrust, and take
nothing for granted because it has come
from the pen of one whose prominence
gives his opinions weight, whether
they are right or wrong. My neigh
bors are different. Their advancement
is slow and frequently wrong They
get hold of exploded ideas years after
the explosion, and because of the prob
abilities of thing, it is accepted as a
fact. But neighbors are about alike in
every township in the land outside of
the very centres of civilization, where
the light of knowledge flashes from
mind to mind in the human conflict to
reach the highest round of the ladder.
1t is astonishing men will live and die
in this age and not know the earth is
round. School houses on almost every
farm books of all kinds within reach,
and yet doubt that the earth has mo-
tion. A day or two ago / talked to q
prominent attorney in Butler, and,
would you believe it, he actually argued
that the farther you go south the hotter
it got, exactly as the further north you
went the colder it got 1t is ridiculous!
During all of that mans busy life he
had not paused to make one application
of his knowledge, so he could practical
ly understand the relationship existing
between the North and South poles,
the equator and the SUM-"
We came to the house and was con-
Quoted into large room fitted up at
one end for library and at the
other for workshop, with sliding
curtain as a dividing partition. The
room was filled with an array of cur
ious things. Maps, books everywhere,
globes, large and small. The earth
represented in dozens of wonderful
shapes. Our solar system-Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, the
earth, moons, etc, attached to wire
arms and revolving around large GEN.
tral globe, illuminated in the interior
by lamp, to represent the sun, piled
up and strewn around in endless con-
fusion. Everything here led ones
mind into strange channels of thought,
and nothing could keep him from think
ing of the eternal machinery of the uni
verse;
Mr.. Krunitz walked at my elbow,
talking of things l had never heard of
before; describing conditions in matter,
in his quick, earnest way, which |
could not comprehend, but which to
him were the familiar results of a life
| of concentrated study.
THE FORM OF THE EARTH
Mr.. Krunitz moved into the center
of the room a machine having FIVE
double arms, which were connected to
hub similar to the spokes of a wheel.
Each pair of arms were used as slides
for square tin vessels, which were at
tached to the hub with spiral springs,
and were designed to move on the
slides, from the center OF the wheels
outward toward the extremities of the
arms, under the influence of the force
derived from the motion of the wheels
These buckets he filled with sand,
stones and water and started the heel.
Gradually, under the steadily .increas-
ing motion, the vessels moved away
from the centre, overcoming the ten
sion of the springs. until they reached
tho end of the slides, and now they
formed dark, continuous belt in the
air with no visible support from the
center or hub.
"Now, SIR" continued Mr. Krunitz
"you see my conception of the form
OF the earth. 1t is broad belt of mat
ter revolving around centre of space
which extends to the earth from pole to
pole. The tendency of matter in mo
tion is to leave the center around which
itrevolves, as you see demonstrated by
my machine, and as long as the atoms
adhere together, under the laws of grav
ity, to form belts in the direction of the
greatest velocity. If could move tn,
spokes and hub out of my machine, oil