El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-05-28

w ? THIN few weeks past have
w been asked to address two diff
ferent aerOnauticaI societies
on the curious subject Of the posi-
bTIities Of a trip to the moon.
AS far as I am aware this does not
indicate an intention on the part Of
any aviator to essay voyage to our
satellite, but at least, it shows that
the flying instinct Is growing by what
it feeds upon, and that. having navi-
gated the air. practical men are Civ
ing a little extra rein to their i'm
aglnauOns, and wondering whether
the empire of birds marks the ulti-
mate frontier of human conquest
In fact, the dream Of going to the
moon, which, in every age, has oc-
cUpied daring minds, is hardly more
impractica bic at the present time
than would have been a project,
springing up in the mind Of Balboa,
Of making ships sail across from the
Atlantic TO the great western ocean
which he saw from his peak IN Darlen-
Suppose We look at the subject Of
visiting the moon in the light Of pres
ent knowledge. The distance in itself
is nOthing-240 0OOl Many a sea cap
tain has sailed much farther than
that. 1t is less than ten times the cir
cult of the earth.
If the atmosphere extended from the
earth TO the moon, We could go there
now by modifying our present ap-
paratus- At a hundred miles an hour
we could be there in a hundred days
But at a. height of five or six miles the
atmosphere becomes so rare that we
could not live in IL without an artifl-
cial supply. Yet unnamed balloons
have gone ten miles high and me
teOrs take fire from friction at an ele-
walton Of a hundred miles or more
Still the atmosphere does practically
cease to exist at no very great eleva-
ton, and cuts short off the road Of the
balloon and the aerOplane.
suppose an aerOplane could mount
straight up until il passed the limits
of the atmosphere, then having moth
ing more to impede its motion, 1t
would 90 on with whatever velocity
it had when it left the air.
In fact. this could only occur in case
the velocity of the aerOplane amounted
to nearly seven miles per second, for
that velocity would be required to com
pletely overcome the pull Of the earth's
attraction Otherwise it would fan
back to earth.
This is the reason why Jules Verne,
in his amusing story Of "A voyage to
the Moon had 8his adventures shOt
out of an enormous cannon Only IN
that way, he thought, could the re-
Quisite initial velocity be obtained.
A Bold Plan.
But a bold mind might, in view Of
recent discoveries, speculate on the
iuimitable power that may be OBJ
tanned from unlocking the energies OF
the atoms of matter Professor TnOm-
son has calculated that a single gram
of hydrogen has within it sufficient
energy to lift a million tons a hundred
yards high! Does anybody imagine
that that unlimited store of energy
is going forever to remain uncOn-
troled by human genius? We have
discovered its existence; the next
thing is to take IT and use It,
Suppose We had it under control, as
we shall have ii some time Then re-
fleet upon the close relation between
atomic phenomena and electricity and
recall the familiar experiment of max
ing bits of pith fly away from an
electrically charged ball. If we could
construct some kind Of a car that
could be powerfully charged with cleo
trio energy We might be able TO make
it fly away from the earth as the pith
balls fly from the charged conductor
of the electric machine.
The Problem Solved.
Then it would be necessary to estah-
lish a system of control by which the
speed and direction could be regu-
lated by varying the charge-and the
problem Of navigating space would be
solved have developed this (Of course
purely hypOtheticaD idea somewhat
farther in story called "A Columbus
of Space"
such a. method would avoid all the
difficulties. really insuperable. that
hampered Jules Verne's plan of a pro-
jectile starting at a velocity Of al
most seven miles per second.
However, when we get the atomic
energies under control our first efforts
viii be directed to making more
money out of them. and trips toc the
have got tired Of purely earthly Things