Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1884 — The Velocity of the Moon. [ARTICLE]

The Velocity of the Moon.

From the article on “The Surroundings of the Sun,” by Professor Langley, in the Centur\i, we quote the following: “We can faintly picture, perhaps, how it would seem, from a station near the lunar orbit, to see the moon—a moving world - rush by with a velocity greater than that of the cannonball in its swiftest flight; Imt with equal speed its shadow actually travels along the earth; and now, if we return from our imaginary station to a real one here below, we are better prepared to see why this flying shadow is such a unique spectacle; for, small as it may be when seen in relation to the whole globe, it is immense to the observer, whose entire horizon is filled with it, and who sees the actual velocity of one of the heavenly bodies, as it were, brought down to him. “The reader who has ever ascended todhe- Super ga,—at Tur in, w ill recal 1 the magnificent view, and be able to understand the good fortune of am observer (Forbes) who once had the opportunity to witness thence this phenomenon, and under a nearly cloudless sky. ‘I preceived’ he says, ‘in the a black shadow like that of a storm about to break, which obscured the Alps. It was the lunar shadow coming toward us.’ And he speaks of the ‘stupefaction’—it is his word—caused by the spectacle. ‘I confess,’ he continues, ‘it was the most terrifying sight I ever saw. As always happens in the cases of sudden, silent, unexpected movements, the spectator confounds real and relative motion. I felt almost giddy" for a moment, as though tho massive building under me bowed on the side of the coming eclipse.’ Another witness, who had been looking at some bright clouds just before, says: ‘The bright cloud I saw distinctly put out like a candle. The rapidity of the shadow, and the intensity, produced a fee ing that something material was sweeping over the earth at a speed perfectly frightful. I involuntarily listened for the rushing noise bt a mighty wind.’ ” • Few, even of those who are devotees of the “silent wheel," are aware of the number and variety of kinds of veloci pedes that have been patented in" this country. The number of patents for velocipedes of all sorts, including saddles, is about nine hundred. Of these tricycles constitute the great majority, of nearly two-thirds of the whole. Four hundred sugar estates in Cuba have been either destroyed or abandoned daring the last decade. Recollection is the only paradise from which we cannot be turned out.— Richter.