The evening world., 1908-02-08
ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL
USED FOR THE SHOW.
Young Colleeians Seemed
More Interested in the Pretty
Girls. and Some Small Boys
Were Disappointed Because
the Cannon Ball Didn't Ex-
p!ode.

II YOU are not quite satisfied that the
world is revolving properly on its axis
az was drummed into you when your
Young life was tortured with geography.
physics and other non-thriiling sub
iects-Columbia University Is prepared
to prove II to YOU with a n!nety-foot
pendulum. The pendulum was working
yesterday in ct. Paul's Chapel midst
the M~orn'ngside Park walls of learn
Ing. and the pendulum will be working
again next Wednesday.
A large and GREATNESS audience
watched the first public demonstration
Yesterday. and listened TO the lucid ex-
position Of DR.. Charles Forbes. the
Young man who set the pendulum in
motion and proved that our stingy little
planet was still! Waiting in its orbit,
mere must have been fully 5N persons
III the chanel when DR.. Forbes burned
me string that held the pendulum. II
was necessary TO burn the string so as
NOT TO Jar the Compound cannon ball
mar composed the business end of the
instrument.
Inc small bows in the audience seemed
greatly disappointed that the shell did
not explode. 1t was such a ble
looking lump OF metal that Il seemed n
Shame for II not 10 do any damage. II
was suspended from the dome OF tbe
chapel by a ninety-foot piece OF piano
wire. Quite a snowy piece of clock
work.
Inc ball or the pendulum was hung
over a piece OF board on which there
was a smear Of indigo ink and a circii-
AR. graduated measure. Attached tn
the pendulum was a tiny brush. and
"h"h THIS brush moved over the ink Il,
Sot ihkN' and when the inky brush
moved over the graduated measure #,
made a mark.
Undereraes Study the Girls.
We are getting pretty close 10 the @.
~ u. now. but pause to take another
n!'ch IN our mental galfuses.
me pendulum was scheduled to swing
Ion" t"St 10 west and west to ems,
~ s"e!! mad been tied back several
'eeV taS| or centre over night. This
was done In order 10 s~tra!ghten out any
Ninks IN the piano wire and give old
ho'hsr Earth a fair show 10 prove that
|he WAS sun in the maiden class of renI.
Ing planets.
NJ forhes e~xpounded at some length
"S''' ne burned the cord that held
pax the pendulum. He was h.nmed
j" pretty lightly by the jam o. snec-
'"tofs. E'ards waved all about hin,
ana spectacles gIlstened from every
sac In the galleries sat the unra-
generate undergraduates. VINO were mar
50 p0nd'Tously Interested in The ~
pef!;nent a. they were in the n-.,,v
girls. The atmosphere was pregnant
win culture. aud you could not, holm
but realize you were among peoDle
who wear their thoughts pompadour. So
much for the setting.
The young physicist pronounced like
a squirt OF vichyJ had to wave his
arms scNora. times TO still the bsz:
OF voice.. Then he said that he was
ut about 20 reveal any st..;'insly l. .
sCien;.c discovery. He paid his au-
d.tors the compliment OF believing they
had heard that the world rotated on
its axis. There are some savants in
New Jersey who still swear that the
world Is nat and lat the sun simply
patrols the heavens in twelve-hour
shifts. but DR.. ] oes did not give
them any Advertising.
Where Calico Got or.
He referred back to Copernicus (Kop-
pernigk. German spelling: he was born
in Thorn. Prussia, 1879, whose an
nouncement that the world revolved
caused more than a mild sensation. In
fact, 1t was a rather risky thing in
Copernicus's day to try and palm on
any new theories. The puolic wasn't
ripe for higher T. ucat!on and there
was an unpleasant custom in vogue OF
boiling hiShbrows in oil or looping OFF
their legs and arms, Now and then
the authorities would pluck an earnes,
thinker from under his student lamp
and haul him off TO n dungeon to per-
suade him 10 think like the rest OF
the community. After he had beer
slowly taken apart he generally CANT
around to the current idea OF things.
So 1t happened With Calico, who
rigged up a fairly capable pendulum
Ave OF six generations after Professor
Copernicus got his unpopular deduc.
lions on record. He W a martyr tc
learning as long as he could stanc
It and his forn-chart didn't differ ma
,%eriaiiy from the rd p y yas,ar eGxpounS dee
4 the ptgheaded high priests OF learning OF
us day informed Calico that his dis
covery was an %oftense against religion
as they mapped it out. He was finally
persuaded to recant under torture
though an ingenious historian OF tn,
psrIod wrote that he whispered Ia
himself at the time he admitted hi
severisS ~wanderings that lie still be.
Ieyed in them Just the same.
Having recalled these interesting bit,
OF history Dr.. Forbes stepped dow
from his platform and burned the strlnl
that held the pendulum. 1t swung bacj
and It swung forth: 1t swung forth anC
il swung back. The little brush stucl
in the bottom OF the shell that haC
been loaned by the Brooklyn Navy Var,
made q mark on the graduated measure
Prove This to Yourself.
As this mark widened 1t became mani
fest that the pendulum was not mark
!. Ing In exactly q straight line, as II woult
do II the, world stood still. However, |