The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-01-03
AJourney TO the Planet Venus.

Let us for moment suppose certain rail-
ways to be built-one around the world in
perfect circle, others to various points in the
solar system. And we will further suppose
that the trains on these railways could be
kept going at the rate of sixty miles an hour
for any required length of time; that their
passengers could do without food or could be
supplied with an abundance of it; that the
bodies of such passengers could be made
capable of enduring the various changes Of
air, temperature and other climatic conditions
to which they wonld be exposed.
And on our world this kind of travel would
be comparatively easy, and would take next
to no time. In twenty-four hours the pass
enger could travel 1440 miles, or considerably
farther than from New York to Chicago. In
forty-eight hours he could travel as far as
from Boston to Liverpool; and in less than
seventeen days he could 60 around the
world. But, as regards the journey in space,
difficulty in most cases insuperable would
stand in the way. In order to visit any but
a very few of the nearest bodies in space,
the travellers on our celestial railways would
need to have their lives very greatly prolonged.
Were they to set out for any distant part OF
the system, they all would die before they
had fairly begun their journey. A voyage to
the moon. to Venus or to Mars would, under
the above conditions, be possible; to any
other body in the system it would be I'M
possible.
The journey to the moon would be com
paratively short Our companion is distant
about 240, eco miles; or, in round numbers,
its distance contains ten times as many
miles as are contained in the earth's circum-
| ference.
Travelling at the rate of sixty miles an
| hour, and never stopping, it would take be.
tween 1e6 and 1877 days to reach the journeys
| end. Compared with other heavenly dis.
| tances, this is mere nothing; but compared
| with the distances actually traversed by the
l average man, it is very great indeed. Few
| ever travel at sixty miles an hour, and then
| only for short periods and at considerable
| intervals. Many, probably the majority Of
| than 240.0co miles during their whole lives
| great traveller might do it in, say, fifteen
| years. For even conductor or engineer of
an express train, 1t would require seyera
| years.
| Let us now take trip to the planet Venus
much more formidable undertaking. We
| have seen that succession of the longest
journeys over the earth would form but
short and passing episodes in lifetime. We
| railways, the traveller could circle the world
| In less than three weeks. We have seen
| not only that journey to the noon is quite
possible to the passengers by our celestial
| railway, but that equal and even greater dis.
tances are often travelled on earth. But Q
trip to Venus would be very different mat
ter Venus, as already stated, is about 26,
0Co,0OO miles away; or, at sixty miles ar
hour, without stopping, she is distant
journey, not Of three weeks, or six months
but OF some ffty gears. On the imaginary
railway, such journey would be possible
for great many persons live longer thar
fifty years. But in real life no one ever ha.
travelled. and no one ever will travel, any
thing like so far No human being ever has
travelled 100000 miles and it is safe to say
no one ever viii. To complete this measure
of jnurneying would require an average o.
100000 miles a year for fifty years Some few
perhaps, in all their lives, may have travelled
| 1,0C0C00 miles, but these are probably very
rare exceptions. So we see that no one ever
has lived who has travelled more than q
| small part of the distance to Venus. Yet
| compared with other bodies in the system
this star may be said to be almost a next
| door neighbor.