The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-11-18
bureau of Standards .tsn neett

O'CLOCK The Work of the Elec-
trical Division" by r. c. Crltten-
den Standardization Of Electri-
cal Batteries" by @. w. vInal
THE sun JUST ONE OF
THOUSAND MILLION STARS.
The sun is just one OF perhsp.
a. thousand million stars in our
stellar unit erse. and II is only an
average star at that This is on.
of the vista opening statements
made by DR.. II. ID. Curtis Of tn.
Allegheny Observatory Of the Uni
versity OF Pittsburgh in an address.
before the Washington Academy OF
Sciences at the Cosmos Club last
night when he told about the sun,
our nearest star. In an astronou-
ical talk he presented only two
equations:
Our sun equals a altar.
Any star equals a sun.
separated from one another by
trillions and quadrillions OF miles.
we see in the Milky Way a pro-
fusion Of suns so rich and 50 enor-
nous that we are impressed with
the inslgnificance OF our little sun
and its microbic attendant. our
earth" he said. Our sun is but a
unit in a collection OF perhaps a
thousand million closely similar
suns forming our own stellar uni
verse. Many Of us believe that
there are perhaps a million otaar
stellar universes as large rs oar
own, and each with a billion u- -
suns, within the ken OF our great
telescopes.
Move our sun OF 10 the drv..,rre
OF these star clouds Of the NfTy
Way and we would see simply a.
other faint point OF light ADDED 20
the rich complex. Apparently uur
universe could get along very well
without this star we call the sun.
and would scarcely notice its omls-
sion or addition to the stellar hosts.
For our sun IS a relatively insic-
niflcant star. II lie only an average
star. as stars go. In fact. IL we
were going TO select a representa-
tive sample Of the stars as a whole.
we should not go very far wrong
in picking out our sun. There are
many stars brighter and larger:
also many which are much fainter
and presumably smaller. Even
though we are certain OF these
facts, still we find some difficulty
in conceiving a body $4,000 miles
in diameter. a ball 1900. 900 times
the volume Of our earth. as a mere
Insignificant average unit
Our sun is a member OF the rrf-
ing stellar political party: an aver
age member Of the group with ap-
parently nothing TO render b. i'm
portant or conspicuous in the
stellar commonwealth except the
fact that we belong to IL and il is
only $4,000. 600 miles from us"
DR.. Curtis also declared that the
sun was an almost Infinitely old
and wonderfully perfect heat en-
CINE. Here are a few facts about
the suns heat that he presented:
"Rsdisting heat at a tempera-
ture somewhere between 5000 de-
grees and 5000 degrees c. every
square yard OF the suns surface Is
emitting energy TO the amount 81
about $4,000 horsepower. there are
few terrestrial power plants which
produce as many horse-pOwers as
does a space three feet square on
the surface Of the sun. To produce
IL would require the burning Of a
layer Of coal twenty feet thick
every hour. The sun is continually
emitting about half trilliou
horsepower: T. e. to use a less
familiar unit. about a half a sex
tllion horsepower. Most OF this
seems to be wasted in space: our
earth intercepts about one two
, billionth OF IT, amounting to about
one horsepower per square ward. b.
we could use II. Could we utilize
all the solar engery falling on an
average-sized roof. Il would 60 far
toward lighting modern city.
when the day comes ~ the dis
covery OF some method 10 extract the
greater part OF this solar energy.
we shall move out Of the age or
steel and the age OF electricity into
an age Of energy.
Now this tremendous heat en-
ergy can not be caused by me q
combustion. Were the sun made -
solid coal. burning in oNy rsr I'
would be black in less thau soon
years. Emden. with true Tsut"uir
preciseness. puts It at 2.6SJ years.
months, days and hours omitted"
The work Of DR.. c. C. Abbot. g
the Smithsonian Institution Woo is
making a continued stIdy o. tho
minor variations Of the suns ennis
sion, will eventually prove TO he
that point OF contact between as
tronomy and the practical world
which will outweigh all others n
Importance, DR.. Curtis predicted.