The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-03-01

ways 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 sup
piled with an abundance of 1t; 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
would be exposed
And on our world this kind of travel
would be comparatively easy, and
would take next to no time In TWEEN
ty-four hours the passenger could
travel 1, 40 miles, or considerably far
ther 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
go round the world. But, as regards
the journeys in space, Difficult ty IN
most cases insuperable would stand in
the way. In order to visit any but
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 would all die before
they had fairly begun their journey.
A voyage 10 the moon, to Venus or 70
Mars would, under the above condi-
tions, be possible; 10 any other body
in the system ii would be impossible.
The journey to the moon would be
comparatively short. Our companion
IS distant about 24O, 900 miles; or, in
round numbers, Its distance contains
ten times rs many miles rs are con
tanned in the earth's circumference
Travelling at the rate of sixty miles
an hour, and never stopping, it would
take between loo and 10y days to reach
the journeys end Compared with
other heavenly distances, this is
mere nothing; but compared with the
distances actually traversed by the
average man, it is very great indeed
Few ever travel at sixty miles an hour,
and then only for short periods, and
ut considerable intervals. Many,
probably the majority, Of those who
live to a good old age cover less than
100000 miles during their whole lives.
\ great traveller might do it in, say,
fifteen years For even a conductor
or engineer of an express train, il
" Aou44 ulEC St-NtCtL y cars
Venus. as already stated, is about
26, 100000 miles away; or, II sixty
miles an hour, without stopping, she
Is distant Journey not of three weeks,
or six months. but Of some fifty years.
Oa the imaginary railway. such n
Journey would be possible, for q great
many persons live longer than fifty
years. But in real life no one ever has
Travelled, and no one ever will travel,
any thing like so far. No human be
ing ever has Travelled 5000, 900 miles;
and il Is safe 20 say that no one ever
will. To complete this measure OF
iourneying would require an average
q 100, 600 miles a year for fifty years.
Some few. perhaps, in all their lives,
may have Travelled 1000, 600 miles,
but these are probably very rare ex-
ceptions.
Much the same statement may be
made of the trip to Mars, which
would take over ninety years. Even
under the impossible conditions above
| assumed, the smallest OF the remain
ing distances is too great to be
! travcrscd within the term of one
human life, even were it TO reach the
extreme limit of 100 years. Mercury
and the sun are comparatively quite
near US, yet to go to Mercury would
take more than 100 years, or rather
| more than the time that has elapsed
1 since the beginning of the French rev.
| olutiOn; while the journey to the sun
would last about l75 years, or as long
/ a time as has gone by since the reign
! of Queen Anne. The trip to Jupiter
| would take over $50 years; that TO the
! ringed planet, Saturn, no less than
1,475 years
All the preceding journeys. vast
though they are, could yet have been
| taken within n time less than the Chris
! tian era The one we shall have to
take next brings Us back TO an age far
more remote. Uranus is 5000 wears
| distant Three thousand years ago
King David life had not begun. and
Greece had yet 10 make for herself a
name in history. or even in fable.
We come at last to Neptune. the
outermost OF the planets. This planet
is distant more than five thousand
years Could we imagine Abraham
as living from his birth until now. and
that with the planet Neptune as his
destination he had Travelled continu-
Ously at sixty miles an hour all that
time, he would still be a long way from
his goal.
One more illustration and we will
leave the solar system. Neptune's
path about the sun measures about I6,-
100000, 600 miles. If bodies as large
as the world were placed side by side.
like beads on a necklace, so as to fill
the entire path, these great beads
would number over 1000, 900, l. C.,
there would be about three times as
many of them as there are words in the
Bible
But, compared with even that por
ton Of space which the naked eye can
survey, the solar system Is something
like small corner lot to a large city.
As Mr.. Proctor truly observed, tire
mendOus rs are the dimensions of the
solar system, the widest sweep of the
planetary orbits sinks into in
significance compared with the
distance which separates US from
even the nearest Of the fixed
stars" We have seen that an express
train, going at the rate OF sixty miles
an hour, would take five thousand
years TO get To the planet Neptune
But to reach Alpha Centauri, the
nearest of the fixed stars-a distance
Of some 20. 600. OOO. OOO, 900 miles-the
same train would take, not thousands
or hundreds Of thousands, but millions
OF years; in round numbers, 35, 900, 600.
No one, of course. can form the least
idea Of what such n time really is. No
one can conceive what IS really meant