The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1913-08-08
PERFECT SPHERES
With AN His Scientific Skill Man
Cannot Produce Them.
THE cuRWNG OF A BASEBALL.

THE cuRWNG OF A BASEBALL.
Il 10 Possible Only Because the Ball 10
an Imperfect Globe and In Compare
son With lts Size Much Roushsr
Than the Surface Of the Earth.
The real reason why a baseball can
be thrown SO that It will describe won
derful curves during its progress
through the air is that every such ball
has a surface made up Of mountains.
valleys, craters, canyons. gorges. plains
and other irregularities Of the surface
that. when the difference in size is
taken into consideration, makes the
surface Of the earth seem like plate
glass.
II it were possible to make a perfect
sphere-if it were possible to make a
baseball with an absolutely smooth sur
face and an exact sphere-no pitcher
in the world could make 1t curve. The
very best pitchers baseball has ever
known or probably ever will know
could not make the ball deviate q hairs
breadth in its flight.
And 30 while it is partly In the art
or knack the professional pitcher has
in holding and releasing the baseball
as he throws It. 1t is also due to the
fact that a baseball has a wonderfully
rough surface against which the air
catches and turns 1t that gives 1t the
curve.
It you pass your hand over a plate
glass it moves smoothly with nothing
to retard 1t. If you pass your hand
lover an unplaned board you car feel
the neutrality-suspicious. we call them.
You cannot move your hand AZ easily
over the board. This is the same prin-
ciple with the baseball. There is a
roughness in its surface that catches
in the air and forces n side about or
retards that side. This has but one
result-to make the baseball leave its
straight course and in doing this 1t de-
scribes q curve.
4u1S uVC0 UVt OOIA0SI III u sN0oS
from the cleverness Of the pitcher who
can SO accurately Judge his muscular
control as to make a baseball curve up
or down. right or left. But the fact
remains that it is the roughness of the
baseball that makes all bis pitching
c%leverness possible.
Take a brand new league ball in
your hand. 1t looks to be a perfect
s%phere-that Is. absolutely even and
uniformly round and as smooth as
glass" And it may be as smooth as
glass. for glass also has a rough u r
face.
Put a baseball under the most pow
erful microscope, enlarge 1t microscope
cally 10000 diameters. and what do
you see? The very thing mentioned in
the first paragraph Of this article. The
surface is rough. It looks like the
landscape in the Alps orr Yellowstone
park or any other rough section of the
earth. 1t has peaks. ranges. ridges.
valleys. plains and holes. gulches and
all sorts Of uneven places. and II the
earth could be made as small as q
baseball it would be practically a per-
feet sphere and absolutely smooth.
This is because the highest mountains
Of the earth and the deepest valleys
would be millions upon millions of
times smaller In comparison with the
rough uneven places on a baseball II
either the earth reduced to the
size of a baseball or a baseball enlarg-
ed to the size of the earth.
II this were not true the earth would
not revolve SO regularly upon its axis.
It would perform an I'm shoot or
tout Shoot and curve OF through
space.
Even the billiard bali has q surface
much rougher in comparison to its size
than the surface Of the earth. and we
refer to a billiard ball as about the
smoothest thing known. '.As smooth
as q billiard ball. Is a well known
simile. For the same reason that a
perfectly smooth baseball could not be
curved. a perfectly smooth and per-
fectly round billiard ball could not be
made to curve on the table. It would
not take English" as billiard players
call 1t when they make a ball go for
ward and then roll backward or In any
direction just by the manner In which
they strike II with a chalked cue.
This fact Of %roughness causing It to
spin becomes all too evident when q
player forgets to chalk his q and
plays several shots thereafter. Il the
leather tip Of the cue becoHes shiny
II viii slip on the ball. M L. no
purchase with which It can take hold.
But chalk is sticky stun. and the gran.
ules are large. 80 that a well chalked
cue has a very rough surface. and. this
rough surface Of the tip Of the q dts
into the rough projections on the ball.
and thereby a ball can be given a lot
Of twist. In order to accomplish this
successfully. moreover. the billiard
cloth nap must be new and therefore