Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-12-28
REVERSE ITS MOTION.
Astonishing Results if the Earth
Should Suddenly ReVolVe
Backward.

Suppose the earth should suddenly be
reversed on it's axis?"
"What?"
Suppose the revolution of the earth
on it's axis should suddenly be reversed
what would happen?"
Scenes worthy of the day of judg-
ment," responded the doctor, ''only it
isn't supposable. STILL he added, 1T
opens curious field for speculation.
Rather interesting"
The doctor, by the way, is not an NJ.
D., but q Phi. d., and his name is not
wholly unknown TO the public. am
not at liberty, however, to mention it.
"Of course, it is interesting" l assent
ed. Tell me all about it-from a sclen-
tifc point of view"
He eyed me suspiciously. you mustn't
quote me-" he said. 1T isn't scientific
proposition. There is no known force
that could bring about such a result, and
ed with such madcap theorizing. Yet
granting the impossible assumption, the
rest-the necessary results--can be fig
ured out with scientific accuracy.
must admit, such speculation appeals
strongly. to the imagination; and if you
hold rightly to the logic of your premises,
it is not wholly improbable"
Give me your ideas,'' I cried, "and
promise to respect your reputation. Tell
me just what would happen"
1--WE must first define the assumption
he said-''just what is reversed, if we
mean simply the solid earth and all that
is strictly coherent with it, the direct re-
suits would be instant and appalling.
'All objects near the equator are NOV
ing eastward at the rate of rather more
than sixteen miles a minute. II the
earth should suddenly, not merely stop,
but begin to rotate with equal speed in
the opposite direction, everything resting
upon its surface would be hurled from
It's position with incredible violence.
Every building in the world would be in
Stantly demolished, and it's fragments
scattered along splintery trail for
leagues to the eastward. A man riding
quietly across a broad prairie would be
dashed against the distant cliffs on it's
eastern border before he could utter a
single cry, and both horse and rider
would be smashed to atoms by the i'm
pact-as completely as if they had fallen
from the sky. For consider. it would be
ike the collision of two railway trains,
each moving at about thirty times the
usual speed; the mans inertia would fling
him eastward at the rate of fully ISL
miles per hour, and the hillside would
clap against him, rushing westward with
equal velocity. The great boulders lying
.OOSc on tie L1OuuIdlu tOpS WOuIu DC
projected like cannon balls to distant re-
yions, and would plow into the ground
like meteoric stones. A rife ball. how
ever. if discharged toward the west at
the instant of the reversal, would seem
to hover for some moments in about the
same place, and would finally drop near
its starting point
"And how about the trees?"
"'Unless they were included in the as
sumed reversal, so that the effects Of in
ertia would be obSiated, their trunks
would be snapped like pipestems and the
wreck of forests would sweep over the
land like giant broom, until gradually
checked by friction. But even if we as
sumo them, as being rooted in the earth,
to be included in its reversal Of motion,
they would not fare much better. For
the inertia of the atmosphere would give
rise TO a wind which would strip them
Of every leaf and branch-Or rather, a
hurricane which would tear them up BIZ
he roots and bear them bodily to re-
mote districts. Meanwhile, the setting
sun would back up through the sky,
giving for the once twenty -four consecu-
tive hours of daylight.
Moreover, the sea would be flung from
it's bed, and would surge III an over
whelming tidal wave across the CONT
nents. When the waters subsidized, the
wrecks of the japanese war fleet might
be found scattered amid the ruins of
San Francisco-only there would be no
one left to search for them; and the
debris of San Francisco would in all
robability be hopelessly mixed up with
the scant remnants of Chicago and New
York; for inertia and wind and wave
would all combine to sweep them east
ward"
And would the earth ever again be-
come habitable?"
E6YoC. in timp Put SiDcn On1v tho low
est forms of life could survive such a
cataclysm-and these would be chiefly
marine organisms of the simplest struc-
ture-eyolution would have to take a
fresh start almost from the primordial
germs. Countless ages must elapse be-
fore the world could be re-peopled.
Furthermore the world in which this
new and genuinely post-diluvian race
would find ITSELF would present some
stran~e contrasts with the world as we
know it. For instance, the sun would
rise in the west, and set in the east. The
action of the tides would be curiously
altered. The course Of all the periodic
winds and of the great ocean currents
would be changed; the ocean beds and
the very form Of the continents would
have suffered marked notifications
Even the procession of the equinoxes-
that slow Wabble of the poles would be
reversed.
but there IS still another factor to
consider-one which we have thus far
completely ignored. If we suppose the
reversal to be effected by any real force
electrical, for misunderstood as might
conceivably reverse the motion of re-
yolving wheeEif, in short, we assume
power not absolutely miraculous and
above all natural law, every atom of
matter in the earth would be subjected
to such a shock and tension that de-
gree of heat would be generated sufi-
tire mass. And obviously, if we admit
this, all the rest is either forestalled or
absorbed in the greater catastrophe
or on this hypothesis the earth would be
brought back to it's original condition as
a nebulous agglomeration Of super-heat-
ed vapors, like those which flame and