646 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 621. 



from our sun, and while we receive only 

 about one twenty-two hundred millionth of 

 that which is sent out from our great 

 luminary, we know that it has conserved, 

 and this old earth has stored up untold 

 billions of 'units of energy' that we are 

 now utilizing to do the work of the world. 

 Some day this storage battery will run 

 down and we must either renew it or go to 

 the original source for our energy. The 

 university man has been on the alert and 

 already he has tapped the wires of the 

 great solar dynamo by harnessing old 

 Niagara's waters as they tumble over the 

 mighty rocks— lifted there by the sun's 

 potent forces. 



We have also learned that the earth's 

 atmosphere is so constituted that it eon- 

 serves the long waves of energy coming 

 from the sun, which if it did not do, or- 

 ganic life, as we know it, would be impos- 

 sible on our globe. 



Our medieval astronomers taught us the 

 stars M^ere all fixed, immovable in the 

 heavens. The doubting student came along 

 in later years, and with his instruments of 

 precision soon discovered there were no 

 fixed stars. He could readily measure 

 their movements across the line of sight, 

 but when moving away from or toward us, 

 his instrumental equipment utterly failed 

 him. Then came the university man Dop- 

 pler to his help, with the principle of 

 variable wave motion now known as Dop- 

 pler's principle; then came the telespectro- 

 scope, by the use of which this principle 

 could be applied ; and novt^ our astronomers 

 are rapidly gaining a knowledge of the 

 motion of all the more important stars in 

 the heavens. With this knowledge has 

 come to us the interesting fact that our 

 own solar system, our sun, our earth and 

 our sister planets are all moving through 

 the universe at the rate of about one mil- 

 lion and eighty thousand miles in twenty-' 



four hours, or twelve and one half miles a 

 second, in the direction of the constellation 

 of Hercules. 



But the end is not yet. Your university 

 men could not reconcile certain minute dis- 

 placements of the stars that were of a 

 rhythmic character and they began to sus- 

 pect that this old globe was not stable, 

 that it had a wobble, if you please, like a 

 top after it had passed its 'sleep.' Here 

 you will pardon me when I tell you that 

 one of your best men, with a big brain, 

 but rather inadequate equipment, was one 

 of the pioneers who undertook to soli** this 

 abstruse and difficult problem, and be it 

 said to the honor of Lehigh, the continua- 

 tion of this work by this man has settled 

 the question to a degree of precision never 

 dreamed of when he commenced his work. 

 Another difficult problem has been attacked 

 by your astronomers at Lehigh, namely, the 

 constant of aberration, the solution of 

 which speaks for itself. I should like to 

 tell you more about it; indeed, I should 

 like to mention the names of some of your 

 men who have made epochs in the world's 

 work, but I dare not, lest I overlook some 

 who should be on the roll of honor. Suffice 

 it to say that the published results of these 

 long, difficult and patient researches have 

 already become classic in the annals of 

 astronomical literature. 



Patience, patience is the watchword of a sage, 

 Not to-day, nor yet to-morrow, can complete a 

 perfect age. 



Other volumes on double and binary 

 stars have recently been given to the as- 

 tronomical world by one of your alumni 

 and have found immediate recognition as 

 works of the highest value. I am informed 

 by your president that still another volume 

 is ready for publication, the results of ob- 

 servations made at your observatory, the 

 gift of one of your oldest and most honored 

 trustees. Surely you have a right to be 



