The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-04-20

"a hundred years ago inventors and III
yestigators were rare, scattered men, ana
now invention and inquiry Is the work of an
organized army. All this world Is
heavy with the promise of greater things
and a dav will come-one day in the unend-
ing succession OF d~ays-when beings. beings
who are now latent in our thoughts ana hid
6an in our loins, shall stand upon this earth
as one stands upon n fOOtstool and shaii
lTugh and reach out their hands amidst the
stars."-"The Discovery of the Future
New hooks on Astronomy.
..rba stars" BY simon Newcomb Murray.
Illustrated. Gives an excellent and careful sum
mary of the present knowledge Of the stars. anu
| contains a beautiful photogravure frontsspiece OF
the trihd nebula. reproduced by half-tone me'nod
below.
.Plaasures Of the Telescope" BY Garrett +.
serviss. London: Hirschfeld Bros. Contains a
very clearly printed series Of twenty-six star
maps. and gives much Information suitable 10
observatioHal work with n small telescope. HF.
Serviss is an American, and writes with great
! Iucidity. The structure OF a telescope is also IL
Illustrated.
THE Earth's beginning. By Sir Robert Ball.
CCassell 6 COY With four plates and many IL
Illustrations. IN interesting account Of the nebu-
lar theory. brought UP 10 date with a wealth or
illustrations of great interest at the present time
owing to appearance Of the striking 1eJu!nsity
rorad the new star in the coTstcllRtlan TcFccus-
There have been happenings in the
heavens during recent days which deserve
recording. Modern refinements of the te!e-
scope and spectroscope have shown that
the whole of the heavens, including the
fixed stars. is in movement: but beyond
this one of these happenings touches man
very nearly, although it has not had any
apparent effect upon his earth. The
changes which the new star in the constel-
lation Perseus has undergone, and IS still
undergoing. are throwing light upon that
problem OF the structure and duration OF
the universe which Mr.. Newcomb IN his
new work on the stars describes as the
most far-reaching with which the mind has
to deal: Its solution may be regarded as
the ultimate object Of stellar astronomy.
the possibility of reaching which has oc-
cupied the minds of thinkers since the be-
ginning. of civilization"
1t will be remembered that the astound-
ing star known as Nova Persei burst forth
on or q few hours before the night Of Feb
ruary p, when Doctor Anderson at Edin-
burgh was the first to observe a great
flaming star in PerseuS in a space which
was familiar to him as 4 rather blank part
of the heavens. L is known that the star
was certainly not there on February 10,
two days previous. for reasons which VIII
be shown.
New Star In Heavens.
The Harvard Observatory in America have
for the last ten years kept a s~leepless eye
Upon the heavens by means of the camera.
and their series of photographs of the star
strewn sky forms an unimpeachable record
of heavenly affairs. The latest plates of
Perseus were taken on February 10. 1901,
and on examination they showed that
the blazing star now shone was a
vacant spot showing not the smallest speck
of light.
The cause for this sudden confagration
of a mass probably hugely exceeding our
own sun has been set down to the existence
OF a dark meteor swarm or a nebulous mass !
through which some dark body (Which are
known to exist in thousands) had torn its
Now energy arrested by collision pro-
duces heat. and there was evidently heat
in the district Of Perseus on the night OF
February q. 1901.
The first tremendous brilliancy ceased. as