Milford chronicle., 1889-02-15
A TRIP THROUGH SPACE.
It wOnld Take Us Fifty Years to Make a
Visit to a Next Door Neighbor.

It Would Take Us Fifty Years to Make q
Visit to a Next Door Neighbor.
Let us for moment suppose certain rail-
ways to be built; one round the world in a
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 con-
ditions 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 twenty-four hours the passen-
/ ger could travel l, 40 miles, or considerably
farther than from New York to Chicago In
forty weight 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,
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 baVe their lives very greatly prolonged.
We're they to set out for any distant part
had fairly begun their journey A voyage
to the moon, to Venus or to Mars would, un-
der the above conditions be possible; to any
other body in the system it would be impos-
sible
The journey to the moon would be com
paratively short Our companion is distant
about 10000 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 between 1866 and 1877 days to reach the
journeys end. Compared with other heav-
enly distances this is a mere nothing; but
compared with the distances actually trav-
ersed by the average man, it is very great
indeed.
Few ever travel at sixty miles an hour. and
then only for short periods, and at consider
able intervals Many, probably the major
ity, OF those who live to good old age cover
less than 100000 miles during their whole
lives. A great traveller might do it in, say,
fifteen years. For even a conductor or engi- !
neer Of an express train it would require
several years
Let us now take trip to the planet We
aus, our next nearest neighbor. This viii
be a much more formidable undertaking.
We have seen that a succession Of the long
est journeys over this earth would form but
short and passing episodes In a lifetime. We
have seen that, on one of our imaginary rail-
ways, the traveller could circle the world in
less than three weeks. We have seen, not
only that journey to the moon is quite pos
sible to the passengers by our celestial rail- |
way, but that equal and even greater dis |
tances are often Travelled on earth.
But trip to Venus would be very diff |
ferent matter. Venus, as you may know, is |
about 26,OO0,G00 miles away, or, at sixty 4
miles an hour, without stopping, she is dis 1
tant journey not Of three weeks or six |
months, but of some fifty years On the i'm /
aginary railway such a journey would be |
possible, for a great many persons live /
longer than fifty years But in real life no
one ever has Travelled, and no one ever will |
travel, anything like so far No human
being ever has Travelled 100000 miles, and
IL Is safe to say that no one ever viii.
To complete this measure Of journeying
would require an average Of 100000 miles
a year for fifty years. Some few, perhaps,
In all their lives may have Travelled 1000 600
miles, but these are probably rare exceptions
So we see that no one ever has lived who has
Travelled more than small part Of the dis
tance to Venus. Yet, compared with other
bodies In the system, this star may be said
70 be almost a next door neighbor. st.
Nicholas