Gilpin observer., 1917-06-14
WHAT ONE BILLION MEANS

WHAT ONE BILLION MEANS
We understand readily that bill
lion is a thousand millions, and that
a millicn is in turn a Thousand thou
sands. But il 1t is applied to objects
1t seems to pass almost beyond imag-
inatdon. 1t is easy to think of bill
lion dollars belonging to Mr. ROcke-
Teller, but suppose it is matter of
time. remarks the writer. II we lcok
into the question carefully, we shall
see that since the birth Of Christ
there have been but a few mere than
a billion Of minutes. And along the
same train of thought he continues:
A minute is such trifling measure
OF time and dollar is such small
sum. Yet, since the beginning of the
Christian era shere have been but a
few more than billion minutes, and
the silver dollar would plate The sides
of every warship in our navy.
Ii Rockefeller, assuming that he
possessed billion dollars, had his
pile in silver dollars, they would make
a stack, piled as coins are ordinarily
piled, 24S miles high. Set edge to
edge these dollars would form gilt
tering ribbon from New York to Salt
Lake City To ccin the dollars would
require The use of 81 .250 tens of sill
YER and to haul them to The mint
would call for 2,0s3 freight cars,
drawn by lO4 locomotives. The com-
i.ined length of the trains carrying
this fortune would be In excess of
fourteen miles.
At an ordinary valuation of agricui-
tural lands In the best farming sec
tions of the country, billionaire
ccmld buy farm as large as the
combined area cf the cities of New
York, Massachusetts, and New Hamp-
shire. If he could purchase land at
81 an acre, he could buy all She ter
ritory of the United States east of
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and
New Mexico.
The speediest element with which
the human mind Is acquainted is light,
for as we are not, it is claimed, yet
certain Of the speed of electricity.
Light travels approximately at the
rate of 10000 miles a second, which,
SO far as earthly distances are con-
cerned, is practically instantaneous.
Yet, if a earChlight sufficiently pow
erful to cast its rays billion miles
into space was turned On from the
earth it would not light up Its OBJ
jective point for more than two
months afterward. If our sole illu-
miration We're sun a billion miles
away and the fire were suddenly ex-
tinguished We would see that sun for
sixty-two days afterward. that length
of time being required fer the rush
to the earth of the rays that were
sent forth before its death.
A striking point is made by the
statistician when he observes that we
all comprehend the speed of the or
dinary rifle bullet, that Is, about half
a mile a second. Now. he supposes.
if rifle billion miles away were
shot at man (granfing that the
bullet would carry that distance). the
intended man and all his descendants
for twenty-fcur generations, would
have plenty of time to pack up their
household goods and move to the 9TH
er side of the world to dodge the
bullet, fer it wcmld net arrive for
eight hundred years.
Assuming the question of railroad
train on a straight track. we are told
If railroad train. proceeding at
the rate of mile a minute, has been
at the town Of The Christian era,
starting around the earth on a
straight track. it's object being to run
a billion miles without stop. 1t would
have been necessary for that train
to circle the earth 10000 times and
1t would not have come to the end of
its journey until nearly New Years
eve, 1923 - sixteen centuries after
Christ was born. During its frantic
flight it would see the Saviour live
and die; Rome rise. flourish and de-
cay; Britain discovered and vanquish
ed by the Roman legions, and Lon
don and Paris built, 1t would have
proceeded ON It's journey throughout
the dark ages. II would have witness.
ed the birth of Columbus. the discov-
cry of America. and have a couple of
hundred years yet 60 continue.-Liter
airy Digest.