Structure of the Universe 387 



have had no engineers. And coming down to modern times, were it 

 not for Faraday and Maxwell who discovered the principles of electric 

 induction and electromagnetic waves there colud be no Edison or Mar- 

 coni to apply them. 



The Vast Apparently Empty Space of the Universe Compared to the 

 Small Space Occupied "by Matter. 



When we look into the sky on a clear dark night through a power- 

 ful telescope the stars and planets appear to be set in a vast vault-like 

 space showing the perspective of distance to a certain extent. They 

 seem to lose the appearance which they present to the unaided eye 

 of being set simply on a plane background. As we look into the vast 

 abysses of space we realize that notwithstanding the great number of 

 stars the actual space they occupy in the universe is as nothing com- 

 pared to the vast spaces all round them which appear to be absolutely 

 void. We may say that the room taken up or occupied by what we 

 call "matter" in the universe is exceedingly small compared with the 

 space which seems to be empty. Professor Newcomb has stated that 

 probably there are about 100 million suns in the universe, averaging 

 five times larger than our sun. This would give a total amount of 

 matter of 500 million suns equal to our sun, and he supposes these 

 suns to be equally distributed throughout a sphere 30,000 light years 

 in diameter. In other words, light, which travels, as you know, at a 

 velocity of 186,000 miles per second would take 30,000 years to pass 

 from one side of such a universe or sphere to the other side. This 

 would mean a- sphere billons of billions of miles in diameter; whereas, 

 our sun, which is something like 800,000 miles in diameter, even if 

 enlarged 500 million times would still be but an infinitesimally small 

 speck of matter in such a vast universe of otherwise empty space. 



What is This Apparently Empty Space? 



The question occurs, What is the nature of this apparently e&pty 

 space? Is it a complete void or vacuum, of does it contain a medium 

 of some kind? Now, on this point there have been many specula- 

 tions. To all appearances the planets, moons, stars, comets and 

 meteors which move through this space with great velocities meet with 

 no resistance from this medium, if there be a medium. The earth 

 moves through it at a speed of 19 miles per second in its journey 

 round the sun, and recent experiments of Professor Michelson seem to 

 prove conclusively thr.t if there be a medium in this space none of it is 

 entangled with the earth or carried along with the earth in its mo- 

 tion through space. 



Another question arises. Is the powerful force of gravity which 

 binds the different bodies of the solar system together, and in fact 

 the whole m-aterial universe, conveyed through absolutely empty space? 

 In other words, can momentum be transmitted across an absolute void, 

 or is there such a thing as "action at a distance?" We know that 

 the gravitative pull of the sun on the earth is equal to a force more 

 than- a million million steel rods, each seventeen feet in diameter could 

 stand. The earth is 92,000,000 miles from the sun. Is this immense 

 force transmitted across an absolute void? While the eye sees noth- 



