The Washington times., 1902-06-01

singularly manner every day in the year.
Its little brother, the Harlem River. be-
have In the same way. The East River
is not n river. 1t is an arm of the
sea. Its currents are the rise and the
fall of the tides, and the strange thing
about the East River is that 1t is helping
to bring on the end OF the world.
Take q sheet of note paper and meas
ure one inch from the top and put dot
on the paper exactly half way from each
side Fold the paper lengthwise to find
the middle. Then do the same at the
bottom. Then with a ruler draw from
dot to dot two parallel lines ons-eighth
inch apart. Cut these lines out with a
ponknife. leaving a long. narrow slit in
the paper. Paste the paper to the glass
of window facing south, resting the
lower edge on the sash bar. Then place
large fiat book on the window seat
behind the paper and on It lay sheet
OF white paper and keep It in place with
paperweights. Have all these things
ready by in the morning of a clear.
bright day.
BY O'Clock the paper en- the glass will
cast shadow and soon slender bar OF
sunlight. pointing to the right. will ap-
pear on the shadow. With a pen. mark
the position OF this bar OF light on the
paper resting on the book. Look at the
clock and mark the time at the end of
tho mark. Wait an hour and look at the
bar of light. 1t has moved to the left.
Mark Its position and the time and do
this once an hour till after o'clock BY
this time it will have swung far around
to the left. II not convenient to do this
every hour, do 1t between and 10 and
at noon and between 3 and 4. II done
once an hour the paper will be covered
with marks placed like the sticks of a
fan.
These ray-like marks appear to prove
that the sun changed it's position every
hour Of the day. Our eyes deceive US
The sun did not move. The paper. the
glass. the house itself moved. faving ore
way at 8 and turning quarter way round
by o'clock. Making such record
brings clearly before us the fact that 1t
Is the whole great star on which we
live that swings around day and night |
without stopping an instant. II the
white bar in our little experiment should |
stop we would know the earth had
stopped. We would perhaps never know
IL. for 1t would be the end of the world !!
and that would be the end of us and |
the whole business. One-half the earth |
would have an everlasting very hot day |
and the other half would freeze UP In |
everlasting night.
VIII 1t ever step? We now think 1t |
Will. because it is like ear wheel with |
a brake. and we know that the brake |
stops the wheel. The East River is q |
part OF the brake on the rolling world /
The furious tides that rush through TIE |
East River come in from the sea, and |
move west toward our coast. They can |
go no farther. and boil in eddying whirls
through furious He'll Gate. The world
Is rolling over toward the east and
meeting the tides. The westward NOV
ing tide pushes against the eastward
moving surface of the earth. and all this
fury of water in the East River is act
ing as brake on the world and holding
Il back. There's no hurry about 1t all.
Millions of years may pass before the
tide brake slows down the terrific sreed
II our world wheel. but some day. ages
rom now. he world will stop. and that
will be the end.