The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-04-04
THE END. OF THE WORLD
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BY Prof. Edgar L. Larkin.

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s'What has science to say regarding the full
fllment of prophecy that the earth Will come to
an end?"
ah sHIf the earth is to be destroyed by fervent
heat, where will this heat come from?'' IL.
A. The earth can be hit bya comet, and if
the comet is large enough and the nucleus SUI
fciently rigid the earth could be smashed into
chunks. s. sat up two nights, one on N low. 13,
1866, and the other on Nov. is, 1901, to be shot
through comet (or call it a stream of meteors
Hyou wlsh). 1t was once a comet but now dis
lntegrated into the Leonds. [ saw a few met
eors in 1865, and 661 in 1901 here on the noun
tain. ~ rr
II A comet passing the orbit Of the earth on
it's way around the sun always has a velocity of
26a miles per second. Is If it overtakes the earth
and hits 1T the velocity of impact will be eight
milesper second; but If the comet meets the
earth head on, the speed when it strikes will
be IS miles velocity beyond the power Of the
brain to think about indeed. we cannot think
OF one mile per second. Let solid cometary
nucleus collide with the earth and imagination
cannot conceive the results. The twenty-two-
ton comet at the worlds fair in Portland, Ore,
was SO hard that it was almost impossible to
scratch 1T with steel; tried to the discontinue
of the knife. The earth moves over -181 miles
every second, and this added to or subtracted
from 26a makes or As If the comet should
strike at right angles to the direction of the
earth's motion the speed Of collision would be
263 miles. But 8, 26a or As would hurl destruc-
ton, If large enough.
A. 2, The only prophecy known to
science is based on sure mathematics and con
sists of prophesying eclipses, transts the re-
turn of comets and such.
A. B. The earth can be destroyed by
slight changes in the sun, at least all life can
be annihiated.
Thus let the earth grow little hotter or
cooler then must all die. Thus we are sim
ply mere creatures of temperature and are in a
precarious condition; any slight change in the
sun will wipe us out if it occurs s 24
Such change as that now taking place in
the giant sun Betelguest, closely observed here,
would soon put an end to all human being and
animals And many other suns are in such tur-
buence that the earth could not 90 near one of
them and support life.
Acolossal outburst in the constellation
Perseus occurred on Feb 20, 1901. One sun ex-
ploded, or two made a collision with appalling
force.
Iwatchedit minute by minute in the tele-
scope, and it could be seen with the unaided
eye in full daylight Both suns were destroyed
as suns-that is, they were turned into thin gas
and vanished from sight Of the largest telescope
within less than year History records six
teen similar outbursts.
Suppose each sun to be the center of a sys-
TEN Of eight worlds like our sun; and imagine
each world, sixteen in all, to be inhabited with
human beings; then they all died in short time
after collision and died of ''fervent head.''
Our sun, with it's entire family of world
moons and comets, is moving toward another
called Vega. and moves forteen miles per sec
ond Suppose Vega to be moving away with
the same speed; then we would never get to it.
Imagine it to be at rest; then sun would ar
rive in 800, 600 years.
Neither Vega nor any other sun is at rest
for an instant, SO cannot tell whether the
two suns will ever strike together. It is known
that the quantity Of matter that is visible is SO
much greater than the visible that the visible
may be ignored. There may be hundreds of
millions of dark bodies far larger than our sun
One of thaCn could oh