In order to estimate the space which the whole Bible would occupy if written on the same scale as this chapter, I have made the following calculation which, I think, will be more easily followed and checked by my readers, than that of Mr. Farrants.
The text of the old version of the Bible, as published in minion by the American Bible Society, contains 1272 pages, exclusive of title pages and blanks. Each page contains two columns of 58 lines each, making 116 lines to the page. This includes the headings of the chapters and the synopses of their contents, which are, therefore, thrown in to make good measure. We have, therefore, 1272 pages of 116 lines each, making a total of 147,552 lines.
The second chapter of St. John has 25 verses containing 95 lines, and is written on the 1-2025th of an inch, or, in other words, it would go 2025 times on a square inch. A square inch would, therefore, contain 95 × 2025 or 192,375 lines. This number (192,375), divided by the number of lines in the Bible (147,552), gives 1.307, which is the number of times the Bible might be written on a square inch in letters of the same size. In other words, the whole Bible might be written on .77 inch, or very little more than three-quarters of a square inch.
Perhaps the following gives a more impressive illustration: The United States silver quarter of a dollar is .95 inch in diameter, so that the surface of each side is .707 of a square inch. The whole Bible would, therefore, very nearly go on one side of a quarter of a dollar. If the blank spaces at the heads of the chapters and the synopses of contents were left out, it would easily go on one side.
The second specimen, which I have of Mr. Webb's writing, is a copy of the Lord's Prayer written on a scale of eight Bibles to the square inch. According to a statement kindly sent me by the superintendent of the United States Mint at Philadelphia, the diameter of the last issued gold dollar, and also of the silver half-dime, is six-tenths of an inch. This gives .2827+ of a square inch as the area of the surface of one side, and, therefore, the whole Bible might be written more than two and a quarter times on one side of either the gold dollar or the silver half dime.
Such numerical and space relations are far beyond the power of any ordinary mind to grasp. With the aid of a microscope we can see the object and compare with other magnifications the rate at which it is enlarged, and a person of even the most ordinary education can follow the calculation and understand why the statements are true, but the final result, like the duration of eternity or the immensity of space, conveys no definite idea to our minds.
But at the same time we must carefully distinguish between our want of power to grasp these ideas and our inability to form a conception of some inconceivable subject, such as a fourth dimension or the mode of action of a new sense.
Wonderful as these achievements are, there is another branch of the microscopic art which, from the practical applications that have been made of it, is even more interesting. This is the art of microphotography.
About the middle of the last century Mr. J. B. Dancer, of Manchester, England, produced certain minute photographs of well-known pictures and statues which commanded the universal attention of the microscopists of that day, and for a time formed the center of attraction at all microscopical exhibitions. They have now, however, become so common that they receive no special notice. Mr. Dancer and other artists also produced copies of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Declaration of Independence, etc., on such a scale that the Lord's Prayer might be covered with the head of a common pin, and yet, when viewed under a very moderate magnifying power, every letter was clear and distinct. I have now before me a slip of glass, three inches long and one inch wide, in the center of which is an oval photograph which occupies less than the 1-200th of a square inch. This photograph contains the Declaration of Independence with the signatures of all the signers, surrounded by portraits of the Presidents and the seals of the original thirteen States. Under a moderate power every line is clear and distinct. In the same way copies of such famous pictures as Landseer's "Stag at Bay," although almost invisible to the naked eye, come out beautifully clear and distinct under the microscope, so that it has been suggested that one might have an extensive picture gallery in a small box, or pack away copies of all the books in the Congressional Library in a small hand-bag. With such means at our command, it would be a simple matter to condense a bulky dispatch into a few little films, which might be carried in a quill or concealed in ways which would have been impossible with the original. If Major André had been able to avail himself of this mode of reducing the bulk of the original papers, he might have carried, without danger of discovery, those reports which caused his capture and led to his death. And hereafter the ordinary methods of searching suspected spies will have to be exchanged for one that is more efficient.
The most interesting application of microphotography, of which we have any record, occurred during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71.