130 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
page 4 of the printed lecture we find the 
following : " I don't believe that he [the 
author of a certain passage in the Bible — 
Ed. Y. S.] knew that it [the earth] was 
turning on its axis at the rate of a thou- 
sand miles an hour, because if he did he 
would have understood the immensity of 
heat that would have been generated by 
stopping the world. It has been calcu- 
lated by one of the best mathematicians 
and astronomers that to stop the world 
would cause as much heat as it would 
take to burn a lump of solid coal three 
times as big as the globe." 
It would be very difficult for any ordin- 
ary writer to compress into the same 
space an equal amount of blundering. In 
the first place it does not "take" much 
heat to burn a lump of coal; after the 
coal gets tp burning it produces all the 
heat that is wanted. Secondly, the earth 
does not turn on its axis at the rate of a 
thousand miles an hour ; a narrow band 
round the equator has this velocity, but 
as we pass from the equator to the poles 
the velocity becomes less and less, until 
finally, at the poles, the velocity is slower 
than that of the hour hand of a watch. 
The mean velocity of the earth on its axis 
is that of the point which lies at the centre 
of gravity of a semicircle of which the 
earth's axis is the diameter.* This ve- 
locity is very nearly 438 miles per hour, or 
considerably less than one-half of that 
stated by Ingersoll. Thirdly, a velocity of 
one thousand miles per hour, if converted 
into heat, would not give anything like 
the temperature claimed for it by Inger- 
soll. He is confounding two entirely dis- 
tinct motions, and his general knowledge 
of natural philosophy is not sufficient to 
enable him to detect his error. 
That the mistake^ we have pointed out 
are really blunders, any '• mathematician 
and astronomer " can show. But as some 
of our readers may not be able to follow 
the calculations of the "mathematician 
and astronomer," we may cite the follow- 
ing simple illustrations: Eailroad cars 
have been propelled at the rate of over a 
hundred miles an hour, and stopped in a 
very few seconds; did anyone ever ob- 
*This point is readily found by the formula: 
Distance of c from axis = '424 r. 
serve that they became perceptibly hot to 
the touch when so stopped ? and yet this 
is nearly one-fourth of the mean velocity 
of the earth on its axis. 
Another illustration may be seen in fly 
wheels and circular saws. They have 
been made to rotate with a velocity nearly 
one-third that of the mean velocity of the 
earth on its axis. Did any one ever notice 
a dangerous rise of temperature when 
they were brought to rest? We have 
never observed any such thing, although 
we have had considerable experience in 
such matters. That motion can be con- 
verted into heat we know very well, but 
not to anything like the extent that Col. 
Ingersoll claims. Axles and bearings 
have been made hot by friction, but the 
extent to which they are warmed by 
changing from any ordinary velocity to a 
state of rest is scarcely perceptible to the 
keenest senses. 
These and other mistakes have not been 
pointed out by our scientific men, simply 
because scientific men do not read Inger- 
soll 's lucubrations. But as a teacher of 
the young in this department, the Young 
Scientist would fail in its duty if it neg- 
lected to point out the grossly erroneous 
character of the so-called "scientific" 
statements which have been so widely 
published by CoL Ingersoll. 
Ornamenting Punches. 
BY REV. J. L. ZABRISKIE. 
IT may be interesting to young amateur 
turners of wood to have a hint on or- 
namenting their work by means of home- 
made punches. 
One simple example is here given which 
may suggest an unlimited field for inven- 
tion. Fig. 1 is the top view of a box lid of 
wood, cut across the axis of the cylinder 
from which the box is made, and thus 
causing the ornamental pattern to be im- 
pressed on the end of the grain of the 
wood. This surface so shown is not one 
continuous plane, but is formed of three 
planes, slightly rising one above the 
other. The narrow outer ring is the top 
view of a beading, which has been turned 
around the lid. The second broader ring, 
ornamented with the grape-vine pattern. 
