Curiosities of Science, Past and Present / A Book for Old and Young

by John Timbs

ELECTRO-TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGE TO THE STARS.

The electric fluid travels at the mean rate of 20,000 miles in a second under ordinary circumstances; therefore, if it were possible to establish a telegraphic communication with the star 61 Cygni, it would require ninety years to send a message there.

Professor Henderson and Mr. Maclear have fully confirmed the annual parallax of α Centauri to amount to a second of arc, which gives about twenty billions of miles as its distance from our system; a ray of light would arrive from α Centauri to us in little more than three years, and a telegraphic despatch would arrive there in thirty years.