The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

| suppose that railroad has been built to
| the sun. An express train, travelling at
the rate of 30 miles an hour, loaded with
excursionists, starts on the sunward
| journey. The train travels for 345 years
before 1t reaches its destination. Ten
| generations would be born aud die during
the trip the train crew would be changed
many times: the young men would be-
come old and die, and their great-grand
children, before the end of the excursion,
would have forgotten all about the be-
ginning of the wonderful ride. They
would read of it in history perhaps, but
the history would be as old to them as
the history of James the First of England
Is to us.
Should a person wound his foot the
pain would not be felt Immediately. The
sensation would single along the nerves
to the brain, and there report the damage
done. Then would follow the sense of
pain. Nervous sensation travels swifter
than lightning darts across the sky;
hence we think that the wound and the
pain are synchronous. But they are not.
Now. II one had an arm long enough to
touch the sun and should his hand be
burned by the touch, he would dfeNo of old
age before the nerves could report that
he had been hurt so far away from
the sensorium would be the injured hand.
Nevertheless, though it be impossible to
grasp the full meaning of sidereal and
planetary arithmetic, 1t is not without
| interest that we employ it for purposes
of comparison, translating it into familiar
| figures.
! How enormous is the sun. The diameter
of the earth is about 5000 miles, that of
| the sun is $50, COO miles. In volume the
sun is 1,245, eco greater than the earth; that
Is, it would require 1,245,0o0 earths to
make a star the size of the sun. Yet.
when we go beyond our solar system and
measure and weigh some of the mighty
stars that blaze in the far off depths of
blue, our sun sinks into comparative in
| significance.
Sirius is the most brilliant star in our
| heavens so far as we can see. 1t re-
quires many years for its light to reach
the earth, though that light travels at the
rate of over 1856, 900 miles per second, yet,
| | have seen Sirius when its light seemed
as bright as that of the planet Venus;
unlike Venus. however, 1t appeared to be
vast globe Of liquid silver tinged with
glIntings of gold and radiating great
waves Of living light Sirius Is about
| 10 ,000, 900, 600 90 trillions of miles,
from the earth. Take common
example of illustrating this distance: A
bah from a 100-pounder leaves the gun at
rate of 400 yards second. Suppose
one of our artillerymen should aim at
Sirius and fire, and then suppose 1t pos
sible that the ball could maintain its orig
inal speed of 400 yards second, how
long would it be before the ball would
reach its destination? Over ten millions
of years. OF course, at the end of that
period there would be no ball, for 1t
would have been worn away into moth
ngness by attrition? Now remember that
the diameter of the sun is $4,000 miles,
but that of Sirius is 100000 miles.
There are two stars which have hailed
for many a summer with special delight,
while sitting out in the open under the
sparkling sky. One Of them Is Vega,
beautiful Vega. clothed in her vestments
of blue. Her light is soft sapphire that