The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-09-04


grandeur shown in the authentic
statements of the astronomer. The
feet is, the figures are beyond compre-
hension of the ordinary intellect when
set down in rows that bewilder. We
are told that the first three figures are
units, tens and hundreds, the next
three thousands, the next millions and
the next billions. The figures look in
nocent enough and we can smile at
hundreds of dollars and think with
| pleasurable feelings of thousands,
which melt into millions, but the brow
clouds with care when we endeavOr
to get a comprehensive idea of that
wonderfully overwhelming quantity
set down as a billion. Now, what is
| instantaneous action? The mind is
incapable of cOmprehending the al
most infinitesimal divisions of time
that are recorded upon some of the
wonderful machines used by scientific
searchers after the truth. Light trav-
els ut the rate of two hundred thousand
miles second, and is, therefore, in
stantaneous. The astronomers tell us
that when flash of lightning occurs
upon our earth it is not visible on the
moon until second and a quarter af-
forwards, nor on the suns surface un-
til eight minutes, or on Uranus for
two hours, and upon Neptune until
four and a quarter hours after its
passage through the ether. Nov
away far, far away, beyond Neptune,
there are such stars as Vega, of the
first magnitude, and on them the i'm
aginary light of the flash would not
fall, although travelling at the amazing
rate of twelve million miles a minute
till forty-tlVe years had passed, but
further, much further on in the never
ending space above us, there are still
more distant worlds, sparkling like
diamonds on blue velvet, and those Of
the eighth magnitude would require
one hundred and eighty years, and
those of the twelfth magnitude four
thousand years, for the same flash to
reach them, rushing through space
nearly two hundred thousand miles
each time that watch makes a single
tick.
A shadowy sense of eternity and in
finite distance can be formed from a
contemplation of the distances of the
stars from the earth. The moon is two
hundred and forty thousand miles dis
tant, but the sun is ninety-three mil
lion two hundred and fifty thousand
miles from our planet The immen-
sity of the sun seems almost too much
for the human mind to comprehend,
for it is more than a million and a
quarter times larger than this great
earth on which we live. Sir John Her.
schel remarks that if the whole of the
earth were laid upon the surface of the
sun it would not cover more than one
thirteenth-thousandth part of it's sur
face, and so great is its heat that from
every square yard of it's surface there
is eXhaled temperature equal to that
which the burning of sixteen tons of
coal every hour would produce-suffi-
cient to keep a steam engine Of sixty
three thousand horsepower at work
Still, the sun is but a star of the fourth
magnitude. Everybody is familiar
with 1.-The dog star" Sirius. the nearest
fixed star to earth, a sun of suns. This
star is upwards of thirteen millions of
miles from this earth. So much great
err is it than our mighty sun that if
broken to pieces it would provide ma
terial for about two hundred and fifty
Suns as large az our own. although our
| sun, if broken into pieces, would pro-
| vide material for one million. four
hundred thousand globes Of the size of
the earth. We hear the astronomers
talk of billions of miles and years and
| other things, but few people can form
a conception of the quantity comprised
in billion. The mind is incapable of
cCnceiving such an enormous number.
In order to comprehend this fact, it
| may be stated that, in order that a
| person may count a billion. he would
require nineteen thousand. three hun
dred and twenty-five years and three
hundred and nineteen days. The arith-
metical symbol of a billion is simple
and without great pretention. Let us
consider a billion as a measure of time
| and distance.
1t is no easy matter to bring under
the cognizance of the human eye a
billion of any kind of objects. Take
a ten-dollar gold piece as once famil-
| lar object. Put one in the ground and
stand upon it as many of its kind as
will reach twenty feet in height, then
place the numbers Of similar columns