Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-07-13
By DR.. w. II. BalIou.

n
that our earth is steadily shrinking
in size, whitening up and wrnkling
as It's interior heat Is slowly radiated into
the cold OF space, will be interested in
knowing that science now says this Is not
true. Far from It. our earth Is steadily
growing bigger!
Rushing through space with the sum-
whirling at the same time around our
luminary. it is constantly collecting dust
and fragments from dead and WORKOUT
other suns, worlds and moons, comets and
wisps OF nebulas-detrtus OF cosm!c fam.
lilies that have died out and the sweepings
OF other mansions in the skies" slowly
being built
The actual number OF agments-exclu.
sive of the planetary dust-that fall within
the attraction OF the earth each year has
oven been calculated. 1t reaches the stu.
pendous total according to Professor
Simon Newcomb, the eminent American
astronomer, OF 10000 100000 per annum!
He arrived at this conclusion, says NJ
Camille Flammarion. the distinguished
French astronomer, by enumerating the
number OF shooting stars which are seen
above given horizon during the different
nights of the year, calculating the number
OF similar horizons which would comprise
the whole surface OF the globe, and by TAX
Ing into account the directions OF shooting
stars, the monthly variations and so on.
This was truly prodigious census taking,
monumental feat Of mathematical geniu.
and scientific observation!
To the unscentifc, the question vii, at
once arise as to why, ii bombarded night
and day by such celestial battery, we are
not continually being squashed by meteors
on our way 70 and from work. on our farms
and in our chicken yards and gardens
indeed, why our homes and office build.
ings and factories are not rddled with
sky.shot daily!
The answer to this is that our atmos-
phere provides an mpenetrablo shield
against all except very small-in com.
parison to the total-numbcr The great
majority OF the fragments range in weight
from little more than pound to little
over hundred pounds. When these
strike the atmosphere it is usually at he
rate Of thirty.one miles a second. and this
terrific speed creates by friction with the
upper air heat which almost Immediately
consumes the meteor, leaving behind only
a little cloud Of dust. This dust falls slow.
ly down through the atmosphere, harm.
lessly, TO add itself to other accre,ions
from the same sources
Furthermore, the total surface q, tho
world Is 200,00000O square miles-a very
large target indeed, upon which man and
the habitations OF man are widely scat
tered
Enormous masses do reach the carth's
surface, however. without being changed
into dust The heaviest authentic acro,i,e
which any collection possesses il in RIO
de Janeiro. 1t weighs five and half tons
There ts another in China, near the sourco
OF the Yellow River, OF nine and a half
tons, and still larger one in the plain
OF Tucuman, South America, OF fifteen
tons. Enormous blocks OF netcoric iron
weighing from ten TO twenty tons cach
have been found in Greenland; ano,hor
that weighed thirty tons and which hroko
into fourteen blocks was discovered so,ro
pears ago on mountain in Brazil
1t is interesting to note that the Ars.
instruments Of iron forged by man were
made from meteors. and the ancicn, word
by which they designated this meta! Tho
%oro sloerus' slsnlhed star as we'll as
iron. "''' as
But besides these showers there arc vac,
clouds OF dust drifting through the aothnr
dust clouds that may sometime ,nin