The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-01-09
PERFECT SPHERES
With All His Scientific Skill Man
Cannot Produce Them.
THE CURvING OF A BASEBALL

II 10 Possible Only Because the Ball u
an Imperfect Globe and In Compare
son With Its Size Much Roughsr
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.
IL 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 deviate hairs
breadth In its fight.
ANU 81 NuliC IL IL thC Ut I
or knack the professional pitcher has
I'm holding and releasing the baseball
as he throws 1t. it Is also due to the
fact that n baseball has wonderfully
rough surface against which the air
catches and turns 1t that gives 1t the
curve.
1t you pass your hand over a plate
glass 1t 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 1t de-
scribes 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 baseball curve up
uON liSut VI iChts iput thV AoNt
remains that it Is the roughness Of the
baseball that makes all his pitching
cleverness 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 ii may be as smooth as
glass, for glass also has a rough sur
face.
Put baseball under the most pow
erful microscope. enlarge it microscope
cally 10000 dinmeters. and what do
you see? The very thing mentioned in
the first paragraph of this article. The
surface is rough. Ii looks like the
landscape in the Alps or Yellowstone
park or any other rough section of the
earth. IL 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 a
baseball 1t 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 baseball If
either the earth We're reduced to the
size of baseball or II 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 lin shoot or
tout 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 we
refer to billiard ball as about the
smoothest thing known. "As smooth
as billiard, ball' Is a well known
smile. For the same reason that a
perfectly smooth baseball coeld not. be
curved, perfectly smooth and per
fectly round billiard ball could not be
made TO curvc ON the table, II would
not take "EngliSh." as billiard players
call II when they make a ball go for
wnrd ana then roll backward or In any
direction Just by the manner in which
they strike II with II thalked cue.
This fact of roughness causing'it TO
spin becomes all too evident when n
player foreets Ia chalk his cue and
plays several shots thereafter. IL the
leather tio of the cue becomes shiny