Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1891-08-22
SCIENCE AND PROGRESS.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE
SCIENTIFIC WORLD.
Photographic Chart ofthe Heavens
--Boiler inJector--The Autcmat-
lie Library--lt Picks up Paper
Sheets--lnventedf for
GraVeyards.
4 Photographic Chart of the
Heavens

\ Photographic Cnart OF the
Heavens
In many respects the most wonder
full OF all human achievements are
those OF astronomie science. No
other facts so profoundly impress the
mind OF the learned as well as the I'M
learned as those which have been as
eertained by astronomic investigation.
That the inhabitants OF our planet
mere atom in the unreasonable
universe OF matter-have reached
millions upon millions OF miles into
space, weighed and measured other
planets and systems and accurately
defined their orbits is the highest tri.
butte that can be paid to the intellect
OF man. In all astronomic progress
since time began the inventor and
scientist have worked together.
Scarcely step was possible without
the aid OF invention. In TACT there is
no other department OF human study
III which science and invention are so
separately blended, in which the scien-
fist is so much the inventor and the
INV EtlAoL 81 llAtANA tAAG EAANlLAHNt
as in astronomy. The leading
obseryatories in Europe and America
propose TO construct great photo
| graphic chart OF the heavens. Prepar-
| atiOns for this gigantic work are now
going on and satisfactory results are
reported. Specimen plates from nu-
merous ooservatorles were recently ex-
amined in Paris as an assistance in
the arrangement of final details OF the
undertaking. A gratifying approach
| to uniformity was observed in the pre-
liminaIy and experimental efforts. II
| is stated, however, that at late
meeting OF the Royal Astronomical
Society in London Mr.. Isaac Roberts,
whose wonderful photographs OF the
| Andromeda nebula and other celestial
phenomena have within the past two
or three years given him world wide
| fame, rather startled some of the as
tronomers by his report of expert
ments that he had been trying. 1t APP
pears that Mr.. Roberts found sur
prising difference in the number OF
stars that he was able to photograph
on different nights. On one night he
got eighty stars on plate represent.
| ing particular spot in the sky, on
another night two hundred, and on
another night four hundred stars. all
| within the same small expanse of tile
heavens. He got tie photographs OF
more stars when q bright moon was
\ shining than in clear dark night
when to the eye the heavens appear
richer with stars. Should similar
difference affect photographs taken
for the proposed chart, the value OF
the picture would be materially inn
paired. Mr. Roberts himself remark
ed that his apparatus was different
| in many respects from that which
would be employed in the charting,
and some of the members OF the
Royal Astronomical Society who
listened TO his statements appeared
not to attach great Importance to the
source OF error which he had pointed
out. The New York Sun, in an
excellent editorial treatise on this
subject, concludes that with all its
imperfections, this great photograph
OF the universe will be one OF the most
wonderfully interesting achievements
OF human genius. 1t may be said with
out exaggeration that future ages will
refer back to it as one OF the great
strategetic points won by science. a
photograph representation of the
heavens as they appear at the close
OF the nineteenth century may in the
twenty-fifth or the fortieth century
prove to be the means OF solving some
OF the great problems relating to the
constitution OF the universe: The inn
portance of the proposed chart stands
out clearly the moment attention is
drawn to the fact that the so-called
fixed stars are actually flying in every
conceivable direction-towards us,
away from us, to the right, to the left,
northward and southwark, from east
to west, and from west to east There
is no observable centre OF their mo-
ton, and they appear to stand still to
ordinary observation simply because
their distance is so immense and the
span of human life is SO brief that a
single observer attempting to perceive
their change Of place gets some such
sense OF motion as comes from a mo-
mentary glance at an express train
crawling along river bank miles
away. Inventive Age.