SUNS LARGER THAN OURS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2089, 25 May 1907, Page 4

SUNS LARGER THAN OURS.

EARTH’S GREAT LUMINARY A CELESTIAL INFANT.

In the course of a lecture on “Tho Stars” which Sir Robert Ball, the distinguished astronomer, delivered at the Royal Institution in London, the lecturer, as reported by the London Daily Telegraph, said that those orbs which appear so small to us because of their immense distance are in reality, of course, great and shining suns. If, he said, we were to escape from the earth into space, the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and eventually the sun, would becoime invisible but, far as we are from the stars, they would still shine brightly upon us.

Many of these stars are heavier than oiir sun. For example, Mizar, the middle star in the tail of the Great Bear, is 40 itifmes as heavy as the sun. To the naked eye there are five or six thousand of these heavenly bodies visible. In all probability there are planets—perhaps habitable worlds like ours—revolving ' around them.

Sixty-ono Cygni is tho noarost star (o us in tho Nortlion [Hfoinisphoro,. Alpha Centauri, in the constellation Centaur, in tho Southorn Hemisphere, is tho nourest of all the stars. Tho sun is a long way off —9£), miles. Now, multiply this by 200,000, and tlio result is, roughly speaking, 20,000,000,000,000, and this is our distanco from Alpha Centauri. Tako tho speed of an oloctric current, which is noarly tho same as that of light—lßo,ooo miles per socond. Suppose a message to bo sent at this speed from a' point on tho oarth’s surface, it would, go seven timos round;tho earth in ono second. Again, lot - ; it •be supposed that messages wore sont off to tlio different heavenly bodios, To roach tho moon at this rate, it,, would tako about ono second. In eight minutes a message would get to the sun, and, allowing for a couple of minutes’ delay, one could send, a message to .the sun and got an answer ajjl wit|hiii 20 minutes. But to roach Alpha Centauri it would take three years, and as this is tlio nearest of iPie fc/tars, what time must it tako to get to the others?

If when Wellington won the battlo of Waterloo in. 1815, ,thc‘( Jnews , had boon telegraphed off immediately, tlioro are some stars so remote that it would not yet have reached them. To go a stop further, if in 1060 the rosult of the conquest had boen wired to some of these stars, the message would still bo on its way. If the tidings of the first Christmastido in Bethlehem had been sont to tlio stars there are some orbs, situated in tho furthermost depths of space, yet not beyond tho roach of our great toloscopos, which could not receive tho message for a long time yet.

NIGHT-HAWKS OF PARIS,

THE CRIMES OF THE APACHES

It was decided some time ago to employ Municipal Guards on bicycles, in Paris, instead of on horseback on police duty at night, and the first experiment was made on a recent Sunday night with success. Judging from the results obtained, Paris is oven more infested by criminal characters at night than one could have imagined. Tho now guards on their wheels assisted the police in capturing 150 old gaol-birds, hooligans, robbers, and, to cap the climax, two murderers. Their appearance on tho scene is not a bit too soon. While they were thus rendering great service to public safety in three sirrondissements, a police post, usually guarded by only one man, in a neighbouring arrondissement, was actually besieged by a band of fifteen Apaches, who threatened to kill the solitary policeman. Fortunately for him, reinforcements arrived in time, and a few of the miscreants were arrested at the point of the sword. The reports of tho dangers of Paris at night from Apaches do not appear to be exaggerated. Three men were found in deserted streets seriously wounded, one of them having been stabbed seven times. In the Faubourg Saint Antoine a man was killed within a few yards of a police station. He was an ex-convict who in his day had given the police a good deal to do. Having got into a quarrel with a woman, he beat her, and when the latter told some of her friends of what had happened, they decided to make him pay for it. They lay in wait for him at the doors of a public-house, and when he came out seized him and cut his throat.

Trained dogs are again strongly advocated as one of the best safeguards at night. • The success of this system in Ghent is highly praised, and it is suggested that every policeman should bo accompanied on his rounds at night by an intelligent mastiff. One dog, it is said, is, when well trained, as useful as three men in i deserted street at night. As it is at present, it is evident that the police force is not able to cope with all the ruffians that infest the capital, and especially the quarters remote from the centre. Two or three murders every second or third night, assault and robbery in the public thoroughfare, are not likely to give the peaceful inhabitants and strangers a feeling of security, and the authorities have themselves seen the need of greater protection.

CONTAGION TRACED TO JAPAN ESE RUGS.

THE LATEST OUTCRY BY MEDICAL MEN.

That there is contagion in Oriental carpets and rugs is the latest cry of the medical men.

Dr. Fernand Urdal has reported to the French Medical Academy that ho has traced two cases which proved fatal directly to contact ‘with Japanese tapestries. He says he has made strict inquiries and has found that this is onfy one case in many, but that the owners of the carpets had not known where they had come in contact with contagion. The academy asked Dr. Remlinger, director of the Pasteur Institute at Constantinople, what was his opinion on the matter, and'to send a report. Dr. Remlinger, in reply, said that no one would doubt thati Oriental carpets carried contagion and disease in. them if they could see fjho conditions under which the trade is carried on in the East. The carpets are used as beds, as bed covers-, and as carpets in the Hovels or tents (of the traders, and it is therefore unavoidable that they should become contaminated.

The best way, he reported, in which to safeguard against danger of infection ivas to have the carpets, hangings, etc., washed. As most of the dyes of the Orient are fast this! could not injure the colors, but another and a better way was to place the fabrics in an oven, where they could be exposed to 120 yijP.’grcfos pontigrade, which would have the double effect of killing the germs and heightening the colors.