The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1921-01-13

Some of the things revealed at the
Chicago meeting of the American Asso-
citation for the Advancement of Science
show that the universe is not small
affair, but is carrying on a large business.
Once it seemed tremendous to be living
on a planet 1918 miles in diameter, and to
have as our source of heat and light a
sun more than 100 times as big and 90
million miles away. With one of it's
planets nearly three billion miles distant
from US, the solar system itself gave the
impression of pretty large parish. But
there is star twinkling in the constella-
ton of Orion which the astronomer S
measuring line does not reach until it has
stretched out through space for GOO. 000,-
600, 00O, 600 miles, and Prof. A. A. Michel
son has Just found that far-off sun to be
260, 900, 900 miles in diameter. Another
surprise has also come to us in the case
of speeds. Our own sun seemed to be
"going some" when it's rate was esti-
mated at few miles second, yet some
suns, called "runaways," are now known
to be moving at from 200 to 700 miles a
second. The number of the stars used to
be summed up by what we could see OF
them on a clear night; as estimated by
the observatorIes they now run into the
billions How long do they last, and with
all of them in motion how long time
may elapse before one of them crashes
into our own group of worlds, or before
the cooling down of our own sun, as pic
tured by Flammarion and H G. Wells,
leaves the 'last man" awaiting his las,
hour in sight of the last sunset2
Prof. F. X Moulton scouts the idea OF
any collision taking place between the
earth and another planet or sun; he
puts off such a catastrophe as "highly
improbable for several thousands of mil
lions of years." And as to our own sun
he is reasonably sure, taking the facts OF
star duration into account, tlat it will
continue to give us heat and light for a
period of years also running into thou
sands of millions. That adds leeway oil
| time to leeway of space and gives US an
outlook ahead that makes the past his
tory OF the world mere moment in the
immensities. We are asked, in fact, to
envisage future vast beyond the posi-
bility of realization by any human mind.
What is the race going to put into or get
out of it? The prediction is hsZarded that
long before the earth's time has run out
civilization will be transformed. Fol
Prof. Moulton such things as the perfect
ing OF the airplane are mere bagatelles,
the matters of tomorrow; people now liv-
ing, perhaps a few years hence, will
enter airships as they now enter street
cars, and progress through the air will be
as safe as travel on the ground. The
real revolution will come with the max
ing of discoveries and the founding OF
new sciences of which no conception
can now be formed. Steam will be a
back number; electricity and radium will
be looked back to as mere advance
scouts, and all three will ''pale thei. in
effectual fires" when man has won from
nature the forces yet to be pressed into
his service. And if these forecasts are
ever realized the time may well come
when the archaeologist of the future will
feel the same sense of superiority in dig
glng out relics of Goth century civiliza-
ton as we feel in unearthing the civil
cations of the past.-Boston Herald.