Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-02-28
Garrett P. SerViSS
Writes on
Woman'S
Imagination
How 1t Was Responsible for a
Marvellous Astronomical
Discovery.
BY GARRETT P. SERVISS.

BY GARRETT P. SERVISS.
TT Err name was Mrs. Pound,
and she was widow. She
was worth her we3Ent m
gold TO English science, almost two
hundred years ago, and all on ac-
count of a sweetness of temper
that was truly monumental.
Without a single murmur, with
out one cross look even, she per-
mitted her nephew a young man
named James Bradley, to take pos
session of her coal cellar and set
up his telescope there. Then, when
he proceeded to cut a hole through
the basement floor, and Mrs. Pound
saw the telescope thrusting it's
head up among the kitchen uten-
sis, she smiled blandly and moved
things out of its way.
Confidence Well Placed.
Next, Bradley cut a hole through
the parlor floor, and then one
finally one through the roof itself
The telescope stretched itself longer
as the holes were made for it, I'M
til at last its object end was on the
roof, and its eye end in the cellar;
and never during the whole course
of this devastation did the Widow
Pounds sweet temper show any
variation.
Although she was compelled to
attend to her household affairs, her
mind was capable of rising above
them, and of judging the relative
values of things. She saw that the
inconvenience to which she was
put was absolutely nothing in COM
parison with the satisfaction she
would derive from seeing her en-
thusiastic nephew make a great
discovery by getting a long tele-
scope securely pointed at those
stars above the roof, of which he
was perpetually talking.
Mrs. Pounds confidence was well
placed, and one day she felt amply
rewarded when all Europe rang
with the news that James Bradley
had made one of the most signal
discoveries that any man ever did
that of the alteration of light.
in explaining what alteration of
light is we shall see why Bradley
treated his aunt's house so uncere-
moniously.
II you stand in a rainstorm on
MINDLESS day, you see the rain de-
scending in vertical lines, and your
hat brim protects your face. Now,
if you start to walk or run in any
direction, the raindrops strike you
in the face, because you meet them
sideways as they are falling, and
your motion is compounded with
theirs so that they appear to come
in slanting lines. The ratio of your
motion to that of the falling rain
will determine the angle at which
the latter seems to slope.
The same thing, as Bradley found
out, happens with the light Of the
stars. 1t falls upon the earth with
a speed of 1S6,300 miles per Sec
ond, but at the same time the earth
is moving forward in its orbit
around the sun at the speed of
1912 miles per second. The con-
sequence is that we do not see the
stars exactly where they really are
in the sky, but at perceptible an
gular distance ahead of their actual
places. This arises from the same
phenomenon as that which causes
rain that is really falling vertically
to seem to come into the face Of a
runner, on slant, from the direc-
ton in which he is going.
The speed of light is about 10000
times as rapid as the earth's mo-
ton in it's orbit, so that the angle
of slope at which the starlight en-
ters the eye is very small. Brad
ley, however, succeeded in measur-
ing it,
But, in order to make his dis
covery-and, in reality, the discov-
cry he made was not the one he
was looking for-he had to have
very long telescope pointed almost
exactly overhead, and firmly sup
ported by some solid object, than
which nothing seemed better for
his purpose than his aunt's CHM