The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1913-08-01
PERFECT SPHERES
With All His Scientific Skill Man
Cannot Produce Them.
THE CURVING or A BASEBALL.


son With It's Size Much Rousher
Than the Surface of the Earth.
The real reason why a baseball can
be thrown so that 1t 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 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 it curve. The
very best pitchers baseball has ever
known or probably ever will know
could not make the ball devate hairs
breadth in its flight.
And so while 1t is partly in the art
or knack the professional pitcher has
In holding and releasing the baseball
as he throws 1t, it is also due to the
fact that a baseball has a wonderfully
rough surface against which the air
catches ard turns it that gives it the
curve.
1t you pass your hand over a plate
glass it moves smoothly with nothing
to retard 1t. If you pass your hand
over an unplaned board you can feel
the roughness-splinters we call them.
You cannot move your hand as 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 one side about or
retards that side This has but one
result-to make the baseball leave its
straight course, and In doing this it de-
/ scribes a curve.
This does not detract in the least
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 1t is the roughness of the
baseball that makes all bis pitching
cleyerness possible.
Take brand new league ball In
your hand 1t looks to be perfect
sphere-that Is, absolutely even and
uniformly round and as smooth as
glass" And 1t may be as smooth as
glass, for glass also has a rough sur
face,
Put a baseball under the most pow
erful microscope, enlarge 1t microscope
caIly 10000 diameters, and what do
you seer The very thing mentioned in
the first paragraph of this article. The
surface Is rough 1t looks like the
landscape in the Alps or 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 If the
earth could be made as small as q
baseball ii would be practically 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 il
either the earth were reduced to The
size OF a baseball or a baseball enlarg
ed to the size Of the earth.
If this were not true the earth would
not revolve so regularly upon its axis
1t would perform an in shoot ol
"out shoot" and curve off through
space.
Even the billiard ball has surface
much rougher in comparison to its size
than the surface of the earth, and W.
refer to billiard ball as about tn,
smoothest thing known. LAS smootl
as billiard bah" Is well know
smile. For the same reason that I
perfectly smooth baseball could not b
curved, perfectly smooth and per
fectly round billiard ball could not b.
made to curve on the table. 1t woult
not take English" as billiard player
call 1t when they make ball go for
ward and then roll backward or in an,
direction just by the manner in whic
they strike 1t with a chalked cue.
This fact of roughness causing 1t t
spin becomes all too evident when
player forgets TO chalk his cue ant
plays several shots thereafter II til
: leather tip of the cue becomes shin.
1t will slip on the ball. There is n
purchase with which it can take hold
But chalk is sticky stuff, and the gran
| ules are large, so that well chalke
: cue has a very rough surface, and tht
rough surface of the tip of the cue fit
into the rough projections on the bal
and thereby ball can be given 10
of twist. In order to accomplish thi
successfully. moreover. the billiar
cloth nap must be new and therefor
rough
During recent experimentation wit
regard to the kinetic theory OF case
) | a Belgian scientist desired to find OF
how perfect sphere could be made
order that by the clashing of these t.
: gether an idea might be secured OF th
! effect OF the collisions OF the spherict
] atoms that make up gas, The pro
] ect had 70 be abandoned at last b.
D cause no machinery could be construc
: ed that would turn out q perfeC
sphere artificially. and nature has n
perfect sphere Of large size in all ne
many forms Of matter. Perfect disk
/. could be made, but a round ball ws
!, beyond the limits of human accon
i plishment-New York American.
The greatest pleasure Ia the power
sivsit