MR. CLEMENT WRAGGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 256, 8 April 1915, Page 5

MR. CLEMENT WRAGGE.

AN INTERESTING LECTURE. The Good Templar Hall was filled last evening to hear Mr. Clement Wragge, the well-known scientist, lecture on "The Mighty Universe; the Coming Season, and Radium," and t'.ic addres-s.which was illustrated by lantern slides, proved veryi interesting.' Mr. Wragge, tin opening" dealt at some length with the wonderful qualities of radium, of which man at present knew so little. Among other things he mentioned that it had been discovered to be a cure for cancer, and also to have the power of prolonging human life. Radium played an important part in the universe, as would be acknowledged by any scientist. Proceeding, the speaker declared that no scientist could possibly be an atheist. They could not help realising the immortality of the skies and of the mig'-ity universe. For the benefit of those who knew nothing of astronomy he would jnentionl, that many of the so-called stars were* suns, with worlds around them inhabited by beings more or less advanced than ourselves, fitted to inhabit those worlds. He' described several astronomical observatories, and declared that they were the noblest cathedrals on this earth, which none need fear to enter, no matter to which sect they belonged. Science and religion were, ,he declared, one and the same thing. People generally called the great power which controlled the universe God, while scientists called it the "infinite dynamo." He screened a view of a powerful telescope at the Lick observatory, which was followed by photos of the Milky Way, taken on sensitive plates. This photo, he stated, showed them thousands of other worlds, suns and solar systems, which could not be seen with the eye 'on account of the slow vibration of everything conected with the earth. Astronomy was, he said, at the bottom of every'other science. Dealing with the solar systems, Mr. Wragge remarked that our sun was over 03 million miles away, but that distance was a mere nothing. Our next nearest sun was Alpha Uenlauri, the nearest of the two pointers to the Southern Cross There were other suns, he declared, the light of which had not yet reached us. lhpre were also red suns, which were cooling down, and dead suns, which gave no light at all, which was the ultimate fate of all The radium atom was in i itself a little universe, and every group of atoms and of suns, planet's, etc., was linked up by the all-pervading ether or electricity. Those atoms were always splitting'up, always moving, but movement As the very life of this universe. \othin.' was lost, there was onl.y|_con-. "timial change. To understand the suns influence on this world they must realise the magnitude of the disturbances winch took place in it and its pow:er, and tM fact that there was the all-pervading fc* of ether. » was acknow edged ttet the so-called sun spots affected the to c •mnmic cables and instruments The • 4,a tons produced by the positions the other planets, His forest for ' ZJ£ 1021 off; 1023^ - bought; W25-26, improving; 1027-30. : " 10 g " ' ns This applied to Australia. ' Sd to CZealand in a modified form"le people laughed at him and his ,rogno ticLtions, but they had proved .'iorrect in the past and would again do the future. After sliowmg armm; i v „f slide*- of the sun and its. spot* '"y L" a 'the speaker said that when - tut cor na' was big ****.™; t' vVm in the northern hemisphere and 9 Vv llit in the south, and gave mnnerrit I Sic. °<1»»» i*»»~"*