Evening star., 1925-09-13
Evolution of Earth With Its Treasures a Romantic Sto

by mustard seed on a. circle tits
orbit 164 feet in diameter, the sun
At its center Venus is a pea, 284 feet
from the sun; the earth, also a pea,
430 feet from the sun; Mars, a pin
head, 654 feet from the sun. Jupiter
and Saturn are oranges, Jupiter being
quarter of a mile and Saturn four
fifths of a mile from the center sun.
The nearest fixed star, on the same
scale, Is distant from our sun about
5000 miles-not feet. The star Is the
center of another universe and its
planets circle around it as their SUP.
All the phenomena OF Cooling of the
earth relate to a period some 20O0-
100000 years ago, and science deter
mines that 1000, ,000. 900 years with
great positiveness by measuring the
radiation of the original heat in the
solar gas retained in cur solid ball
and also measuring the Gsnera alton Of
new heat from radium, which 8 found
present in all rocks, which radium
heat tends to offset the loss of the
original solar heat in our earth's core,
so that even with its 1000 600 900
years Of radiation the center of the
earth has not reduced its temperature
one degree.
There is nothing burning in the iron
core. Volcanoes receive their fires from
flssures tapping the inner heat or
from chemical destruction in the sur
face layers of rocks, but not through
any hell fires within the solid iron
center of the earth
1t is a discovery made within the
last 10 years that all rocks within 10
or l5 miles from the surface contain
uranium, from which radium springs,
which is forever giving off heat. The
uranium changes into radium so slow
ly that in millions of years there is no
measurable decrease in weight or sub
stance. The earth's mass is a thermos
bottle, not furnace. But for the in
conceivable pressure upon every inch
within the depths of the earth iron
would melt and liquefy at the temper
ature OF the iron ball in the center of
the earth. Only 100 miles down the
heat Is over 5000 degrees Fahrenheit.
scarcely older than the knowledge
OF radium is recognition of the Won
ders of the atom. Formerly it was
thought that an atom was infinitely
small and indivisible Now it is known
that an atom is itself universe
true miniature of our solar system.
In It's center is the proton-a nucleus,
electrically positive. About the pro-
ton are several negative units called
eiectrons, revolving like planets about
their proton sun" The electrons are
even smaller in proportion to their
orbits, and TO their protons. than are
N4AC ocid4 DiollClS III pIOpOIIOn TO In6lr
paths about the sun. The distance OF
the earth from the sun is only 90
times as great as the suns diameter.
but the radius Of an electron is hun
dreds of times as great as its center
proton. 1t takes the combination of
proton and electrons to make one
atom.
Very recently 1t has been found that
| outside causes may knock the swift
| IlYlnR eleCtrOnS nIIf Of their nrbfrG---
| as gravitation pulled the planets away
| from the sun and the moon away
from the earth-and the result, if
| many atoms are thus broken, is that
| masses of protons alone, without cleo
| irons, may be compressed together
| Such condensed mass of protons
| without electrons revolving about
| them would be as much denser than
| any atomic mass as a diamond is
| denser than a sponge.
Science has weighed the gravitative
| 1orce or some stars and found them
so much more powerful in attraction
| than mass of any metal known that
the only explanation given is that the
| stars are largely composed, in their
| cores at least, of protons, unaccom-
| panied by their revolving electrons.
| When men learn how to part cleo
| irons from protons they will have
| found power enough in a pint of
water to carry the Leviathan around
| the world.
| How can science know that the
core of the earth is nickel-iron,
| since there has never been a hole
| bored deeper than a mile and a half?
! The deepest hole in the world is near
| Fairmont, w. Va. and the next deep
est is at Chelwan, W. Wa mile
| deem The OF rlo
| ton of the mile-anda-half hole. at
| Fairmont. is 167 degrees Fahrenheit
| almost hot enough to boil water. How
can science know anything about
| what is deeper? BY means of an in
strument which is used in recording
| earthquakes seismograph.
1t is Familiarity known that one may
measure the distance Of a stroke Of
lightning by noting the number of
seconds elapsing between the sight of
the distant flash and the arrival of
the sound of its thunder. Light trav-
els 1S6, 900 miles a second. Practically
it is seen instantly. Sound, under or
dinary conditions, travels through air
| 1,0SS feet per second. Seeing a flash,
and then waiting three seconds for the
| thunder. proves that the flash was
| three times LOSS feet away-about
| three-fifths of mile.
| When an earthquake strikes a To-
| cality there flow from 1t certain waves
| of vibration which are recorded upon
| seismographs in all parts of the world.
| One wave travels with speed over the
surface of the earth, and so arrives at
| the seismograph quickly; another wave
passes through the earth, upon the
chord of the geometric arc from the
earthquake to the seismograph, and IL
| is this interior wave which is valuable
TO the geophysicist investigating the
density and nature of the matter
through which it journeys. Its speed
varies from a mile to the second TO
mile 10 a quarter of a second. accord
ing to the material density and nature
through which it penetrates. The
denser the matter the more rapid the
wave.
A glance at a diagram of the world
illustrates the chords of the arcs, and
shows an arc from the earthquake to
a seismogra phi 5000 miles away, and a
seismograph 5000 miles from the
earthquake. A straight line from the
two eXtremities of an arc is called a
chord. 1t will be seen that the chord
, of the 6,O00-mile arc is almost, though
not quite, twice the length of the
chord of the arc 5000 miles long.
If the wave travelled along the
G, ,000-mile arcs chord at tdenticauy
the same speed as it did along the
shorter arcs chord, it would arrive
in approximately twice the time it
takes to reach the nearer SeiSmograph.
1t is found, however, that the in
terval is not twice that of the shorter
trip-it is considerably shorter than
| twice the time.
The wave over the longer chord
passes much deeper in the earth. So,