The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-11-09
Science Finds Previous Esti.
mates Have Been Low; Work
OF Star GazerS Told.

Washington.--"A Book of Wonders"
of the scientific world has just come
off the government printing presses.
1t is the annual report of the Smith
sonian institution, In which the new
est lore of the laboratories, the OBJ
servatories and the fields is compressed
between two covers for the non-tech-
nical reader.
Convinced that the common reader
misses much of the great achieve
ments of science, because II Is too
much hidden behind specialized
terminology, the institution, once a
year, puts out its report "in language
which can readily be understood by
the general reader"
The present volume covers astron-
Dmy, geology, evolution, zoology, bot
any, entomology and anthropology.
Work Of tho Star Gazer.
Among the more significant contri-
buttons Is an article from the pen
Of DR.. w. w. Campbell, director Of
the Lick observatory Of California, on
the "Daily Influence Of Astronomy"
What, IL anything, does the star
gazer do of everyday, practical I'm
portance? Is the question DR.. Camp
bell proposes and answers 1t thus:
He supplies all nations with ac-
curate time by daily observations of
the stars. {
He furnishes the astronomical de-
,tna 90 lott Ut-
tudes which permit accurate maps to
be made.
Tie permits ships to sail the bound
less oceans by means of observations
which determine position.
He fixes international boundary
lines by means of the stars.
He foretells the tides from the
rpoeslapd the stars.
S Measuring the Stars.
1.-The value to mankind of pure
astronomy is emphasized by Camp
bell, who declares: "The remarkable
advance in civilization in recent cen
turtles has been due more to the in
fuence Of the scientific spirit than to
any other element Those nations
which possess II are forging ahead by
leaps and bounds, and those which do
not are dropping out of the race"
Another astronomical paper de-
scribes the measurement of the diam
eters of stars in which American
astronomers have become pre-eminent,
notably through efforts Of Prof A. A.
Nicholson. of the University Of Chi
cago.
Nicholson invented the interferom-
eter, by which star diameters are
,easured by causing two bundles Of
light to interfere. the sharpness of the
fringes being observed, BY moving
two mirrors Of the apparatus, the
fringes are obliterated. The distance
apart of the mirrors when the fringes
disappear furnishes an index to the
diameter OF the star which Is calcu-
lated mathematically.
Earth Three Billion Years Old.
In an article by Lord Rayleigh and
others, the age of the earth Is dis
cussed. Lord Rayleigh, basing his
belief on study of the rate Of de-
composition of radio elements, boosts
all previous estimates to billions OF
years. The earth's crust, Rayleigh
observes, has been suitable fos human
habitation for from two to three bill
lion years.
Rayleigh's remarkable conclusions
are widely at variance with those of
geologists, whose outside limit of the
earths age has hitherto been 100000
600 years. Commenting on this. In
stltution authorities say. at has been
found that, for. various reasons, this
should be multiplied ten or twenty
times. so that from the geological
point OF View the age of two totthree
billion years is reasonable"
One OF the interesting studies made