a rope out of the bedclothes and let yourself down with it. But, how far is it to the ground? How long should the rope be? Are there sheets enough on your bed to furnish it? The little formula about falling bodies will answer the question for you in five minutes. First, you let some small solid object drop from the window, and note by your watch, or by counting seconds, which everybody ought to teach himself to do, how long it takes to reach the ground. You repeat the experiment two or three times to make sure. Say the time comes out three seconds. Very well, now apply the rule: The square of 3 is 9, and 9 multiplied by 32 gives 288, and dividing by 2 you have 144 feet for the height! It is to be feared that your bedclothes rope would not be long enough; you had better send to the office for something to supplement it. But if the time of fall should be only 2 seconds, which is more likely, except in skyscraper hotels, then the calculation would give you 64 feet for the height, which you might manage with the aid of the bedclothes. [Illustration: MODELS OF GUTENBERG'S PRINTING PRESSES The models show three stages of development, the first of them at the right] [Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S PRINTING PRESS The original is now in the National Museum at Washington] This is only a single example among many that could be given to show the usefulness and interest of many of the formulas of science which the ordinary reader looks upon as beyond the reach of any person whose occupation leads him another way. But cases of equal simplicity could be found in connection with the subjects of electricity and magnetism, chemistry, medicine, physiology, etc. Sometimes it happens that a technical word contains its own definition and explanation in a nutshell. A striking instance of this will be found in astronomy, in the word "light-year." The meaning of this word stands forth on its face--it evidently expresses the distance that light travels in the course of one year. Now, since it is known by means of direct measurement that light goes at the rate of 186,300 miles per second, manifestly a light-year must be equivalent to an enormous number of miles. In fact that number, roundly stated, is no less than 5,860,000,000,000. But to what marvelous regions of thought such a term opens the way! Yonder star is 2,000 light-years distant from the earth; then its light-waves now entering your eyes left it when Julius Cæsar was conquering Gaul, and have been speeding on their way to the earth ever since! Another star is found to be 5,000 light-years distant; then the light by which you now see it started from the star when Abraham set out from Ur of the Chaldees to settle in the Holy Land, and has not found a resting place anywhere in boundless space until just now when its tiny waves break and expire on the retina of your eye! Such treasures of knowledge and tonics to thought are scattered all through