Press enter after choosing selection

The Transit Of Venus

The Transit Of Venus image
Parent Issue
Day
27
Month
November
Year
1874
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

From Harper's for December. The question may be asked wby so muoh pains should be taken to measure the distance of the sun, and whether it inakes any difference to mankind what orbit Venus describes. Scientifio investigators never inquire of what use knowledge is ; they leave its practical application to others. But a very little consideration will show thal astronomy has, in a mere utilitarian way, paid the world manifold for all tho labor spent in learning it. Did it never occur to the reader that it is to Kepler, Newton, and their successors that we owe the means of navigating the ocean in safetyr1 When a ship is out of sight of land there is no way of determining her position except by observation of the heavenly bodies But observations could not be used for this purpose unless the laws of motion of those bodies have been discovered and taught by mathematicians and astronomers. A striking example of this is fresh iu the memory of all. A year and a half ago the splendid steamer City of Washington sailed on her usual voyage across the ocean, but constant cloudy weather prevented observations to determine her position. In consequence, she was wrecked on the coast of Nova Scotia, and the loss of more property than would pay for all the expenses of observing the transit of Venus paid the forfeit for the failure to make the necessary observations. A large portion of the labors of astronotners is devoting to fixing the positions and motions of the stars and planets with continually increasing accuracy, and the observations we have been deicribing are one step in this work.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus