Imperial Valley press., 1919-03-08
"HAPPY COMSTOCK"
L A M B ASTS T III E
QUAKE KNOCKERS


Editor Imperial Valley Press: Now
that the excitement has passed and
the peoples nerves have again found
their equilibrium, | beg to submit
through the volumns of your valued
publication (providing you can spare
the space) a short discourse on the
cause Of their fears as we'll as to re-
pudiate the popular belief regarding
the same, viz, earthquakes.
During the last three weeks since
we had the few quivers here I have
heard such expressions as this: 81
will not live in a country that has
quakes," 81 am going to Such and
Such place tonight" Nothing do
ing here for me in country below
sea level" etc. All these statements,
together with lot more Of the same
nature, heard from strangers. May
the good Lord pity them &c well as
forgive their ignorance. All people of
that class, through fear, which is
founded on ignorance, belong to the
"pussyfoot" gang. as T. r. used to
classify them. Like a local Chinese
laundryman said recently after mis-
sing shirt that was hung out to
dry, "They make me sick"
But | am drifting too far away
from the subject. All statements
from here on are by recognized au-
tholities, who, in turn, have the
benefit of other authorities and OBJ
servers back to the seventeenth CEN
tury. The information is available
| to anyone who will take the time to
visit our public libraries, and is more
interested in science than fiction and
love stories. BY the way, our local
library is navel of efficiency for
one Of its size. But to resume.
This plant which we live on is q
solid mass. This may look like q
startling statement, but do not get
excited, as we will give sufficient
proof, volcanoes, earthquakes, molter
lava, etc, to the contrary, notwith-
standing. The mean density of the
earth is known to be five and one
half times that of water The super
fieial density is only two or three
times that Of water. Presume the
globe to be a molten mass inside with
a crust q few dozen miles thick or
the outside. Then let the globe re-
volve on its axis at the rate of 1000
miles per hour. At the same time
| it revolves around the sun, making
a complete revolution in a year, at
| The rate of 1876 miles per second. Be
sides this, our whole solar system is
travelling at an enormous speed to-
ward the great sun Vega. Does ii
look reasonable to suppose that the
| globe would hold together if the in
terror were molten mass surround
ed by thin crust? At the great
| rate of speed with which the globC
moves {it moves in three directions
at one time, as explained above), il
It had liquid interior it would fly
to pieces and send the crust ant
| the inhabitants thereon darnet
| sight closer to st. Peter than the ma
iority of us are apt to get. If tht
globe were liquid mass inside Their
would be no tides. Do not be sur
prised at this statement either. TIL
attraction of the moon causes tides
If the globe were a LIQUID mass, th
whole globe would bulge out as wei
as the water on its surface, and Their
would be no tides. But since the glOb,
is sclid the best that the moon car
do is to cause the water to bulge ant
| then recede, causing tides As WI
penetrate below the surface of the
| earth, the temperature increases
| TIL rate of increase is different ir
different ATTITUDES and regions. The
general average is ! degree Fahren-
| heit in fifty or sixty feet. The first
G., IN, al h~
earth's center does this increase of
temperature extend? At the above
rate, the material OF the earth would
be redhot at depth of ten or fif-
teen miles. This suggested that our
globe is a molten mass covered by a
cool crust few miles thick, on which
we live. Earthquakes and volca-
noes gave additional weight to this
view ,as did oher geological evi-
dences,' showing changes in the
earths' surface which appeared to be
the result of a liquid interior. In re-
cent years, however, the astronom-
ers and physicists have collected ev-
idence, which is as conclusive as such
evidence can be, that the earth is
solid from center to surafec, and
even more rigid than a similar mass
of steel. Not only globe of which
the interior was soft, but even a
globe no more rigid than steel, could
not rotate as the earth does. The
matter of the interior of the earth
is kept solid by the enormous pres
sure. 1t is found experimentlly that
when masses of matter like the
rocks of the earth are raised to the
melting point, and then subjected to
heavy pressure, the effect of the
pressure is to make them solid again.
Thus as we increase the temperature
we have only to increase the pres
sure also to keep the material of
the earth solid. And thus it is that,
as we descend into the earth the