Something to think over.

Manawatu Herald, 21 March 1893, Page 3

Something to think over.

In his last lecture to juveniles at the Royal Institution on Saturday, Sir Robert Ball said : — A telegraphic message would go seven time 9 round the earth in a second, and if a telegraphic message could be sent to the moon it would reach its destination in a little more than ai second. It would take something like eight minutes to arrive at the sun ; but hoY long did they think it would ta^e.to.get to Alpha Centauri travelling 'thither at 180,000. mileg a .second? Seconds, minutes, hours, da^sj "weeks; months would not Hbe long enough ; it -would take not less than three years travelling all the time at thattremendous pace before it woujd^acli its destination. If that wtf^thje case with respect to the nearest of the stars, what must be Baid of tKd&e^wßich were farther off ? There so remote that if tnfff; nehps l\ot/ the victory of WelUng^o)iS^|Waterldo had been flashed t^|b^mi^m^ 1815 on that celestial^.telegra^iystem, it would not- Mmj^ejched . them . yejk, ey_en ffMfcMirtvilitrg*lli ifEf^&el Tl^re.weVe : !starßs6- remote thaf if when .UjiWilliaim i^ the- '• ;Goiiqueror , landed here in 1086 the news of his conquest had been despatched to them, and if the signals flew over the wire at a pace which would carry them seven times round the earth in a single second of time, that news wouldjnot have reached them yet. Nay, more, if ' 'the • glad tidings of that first Christmas in Bethlehem nineteen oenturies ago had thus been disseminated through the universe, there were yet stars of which astronomers could tell them, plunged into space in depths so appalling that even the 1892 years that had elapsed '«nee that v event would not have' been long 1 - enough ' for ; the news to ' reach them, though it travelled at 180,000 Kriiles in every second. '