The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-08-25
ISN'T MOTHER EARTH THE COY OLD LADY?
WON'T TELL HER AGE; KEEPS EN- BUSY GUESSING
But She's Old Enough,
Goodness Knows-Maybe
30, 900, 900, Maybe 70,700,-
900, According to the Lat
ct Guess.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25.-This old
earth of ours is as coy and deceitful
rs any maiden lady when it comes
to the matter of telling her age. She
simply won't tell in plain figures,
80 that any common mortal can un-
derstand, SO for generations scient-
lists with exceedingly wise noodles
have been having a guessing game
with Mother Earths age.
The latest guess comes from the
Smithsonian institution. Frank Wig
glesmith Clarke and George F.
Becker of the U. S. geological sur
: vey have worked out the guess be-
tween them, entitled "A Prelimin-
airy Study of Chemical Denudation"
whatever that is-and Mr.. Becker
under the plain caption, The Age
of the Earth"
And the guess is:
Not under 100000 years.
Not over 100000 years.
Oh, my, oh, my, what an old LADY,
According to this guess the theo-
logical chronologist who once fig
ured out that the world was created
near the autumnal equinox" some
thing over 5000 years ago, was a
trifle astray in his reckoning.
This scientific prying into the age
of the earth has been going on for
a long time now. Nearly 200 years
ago one Edmund HALEY. alleged to
have been a great astronomer, fig
ured out a way to find out how old
the world was by finding out how
old the ocean was. He concluded
that If he could find out how much
saltier the ocean got each year he
could easily figure out how long it
has been since the aceon was per-
fectly fresh ocean, right off the Gre
alive reel. But he found he couldn't
find out how much saltier the ocean
got every year. so he had to give it
up. Just as we'll. The guess of the
man who would make fuss over
such pale apology for a comet as
the late lamented luminosity that
gum shoed across our corner Of
space wouldn't be much of a guess
anyhow.
About so years ago Lord Kelvin
undertook to make the guess. He
figured on the earth as a cooling
star and concluded that she must
be about 9S,000,000 years old. But
he played very safe by modifying
his guess with the statement that
she might be as young as 10000, 900
years, and then again might be as
much as 100000, 900 years old.
In 1893 Clarence King and Carl
Barus, figuring on tidal stability"
concluded that Mother Earth was
24,000,000 years old, going on
25,0O0,000. This so impressed Lord
Kelvin that he cut his maximum
guess down from 400,000,000 to
40,000,00
About this time also Secretary
Walcutt fthe Smithsonian institu-
ton got busy in the guessing game.
He based his guess on the average.
rate of alluvial deposit He decided
that something like 27,S40,000 years
have elapsed since the Cambrian
rock foundations were laid. and
guessed that the earth must be I'M
der 100000.
Not to be outdone In guessing by
the Americans, j. Jolly, an English
man. in 1899 guessed that the world
must be between S0,000,000 and
s0,000.000 years old, and last year
w. J. 9. Sollas, another Englishman,
figured out the age of the ocean as
being between 100000 and 150,-
100000 years. This raises the in
teresting question as to whether
the earth could possibly be older
than the ocean, or the ocean older
than the earth This, too, might
make good guessing.
The only fact that seems to be
established by all this guessing is
this:
The world Is old.