Michael Dailey Barrett, circa 1870
p11-84 {Z}
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From a tintype taken
about 1870. Michael Dailey Barrett was the elder brother of Jack Barrtt's
father, who lived in South Boston.He was the eldest of four surviving
children of Robert Barrett from Cork, who came to Boston l841 and his wife
Catherine daly. There are indication in records that another boy may have
been born and died around l850. When the parents died, Michael went to the
Middle West and worked a `s a butcher. In a l9ll letter his first cousin
Robert Joseph Mehegan senior, printer at Boston Herald states Michael
visited Boston "when the Grand Army were having their Convention in boston
in l89l and then was for a time in Somerville New Jersey." Records indicate
the convention was August l890, and there is no evidence Michael was a
veteran - he was probably too young -soRobert may simply be using the
Convention to estimate the date of Michael-s visit, whcih was when Robert's
mother Ellen Barrett Mehegan was still alive in Cambridge - before l895.The
only later information on Michael was a letter in l9l5fropm Michaels younger
sister Kate - at 2043 Polk Street San Francisco. She was replying to a
letter frpomjack Barrett, who had hear Michael might be in Lewes Delaware -
she said, "It's news to me" This letter also commented on President Woodrow
Wilson' s itish press secretary Joseph Tumulty, on women;s sufferage and the
violent labor agitation of the I.W.W. International Workers of the World "I
hope they go to Katchatka or Patagonia- I don;t care which!.When the
immigrants died in l859 and Feb. l863, the Barrett Girls Mary and Kate born
about l852 and l856 wnet to tloive with their father's sister Ellen Barrett
and her husband john Mehegan at 530 East Fourth Street South Boston near
present Gate of Heaven Church- then after completion of transcontinental
railroad l869 they rtraveled l871 to San Francisc0 where Mary born l852
became a Presenation teaching nun in Sonoma and Berkeley ,and Kate lived
with her aunts from Cork on Polk Street San Francisco.Jack Barrett's father
went to live withbaker MichaelThompson at 640 East Seventh Street - after
l870 spent some tiome with his bnrother Michael ion middle west, then
returned to Boston before l875 and learned plumbing trade remaining in
boston and Melrose. Michael is not known to have had any family.---June 22
text;I have been researching whether someday it will be possible to remove
mass from the sun. to keep the earth habitable many millions of years
longer, and energy sources for long term human survival. Do you know of
anyone interested in the problem, at NASA or universities or privately?
Names, addresses, and E mails of interested persons will be appreciated. In
1992 I read the Caldeira-Kasting NATURE article estimating that the sun
becomes about ten per cent warmer every billion years, and about 1995 I
attended a talk by James Kasting at Harvard, which was hosted by Professor
Heinrich Holland, the paleosol specialist. [ Professors John Imbrie and
Warren Prell of Brown University participated in discussion. I have been
interested in the problem whether life on earth can be prolonged by removing
mass from sun. It appeared extremely difficult for space ships to penetrate
close to sun's surface, but April 7 I realized that heating the surface of
the sun would increase loss of mass in solar wind. It will take a great deal
of energy to achieve optimum effect, but the time frame would be very long.
Fusion powered lasers, reflectors or greenhouse gases to reflect sun's own
energy, magnetically contained anti-matter, disruption of sun's surface to
expose hotter interior gas would be strategies, or beaming energy from hot
objects in deep space or using nearby brown dwarfs as hydrogen source for
fusion all come to mind. Since 1996 I have been at 113 West. Third St., Port
Angeles WA98362-2824. I have written a series of essays on future of sun and
life on earth- In the essay below please note nine NUMBERED Energy sources -
1. Fusion Powered Lasers orbiting sun 2. Reflectors around sun 3. A
greenhouse gas around sun to warm its surface - this probably would need to
be contained by a strong magnetic field to keep it in place 4. Antimatter -
magnetically contained - probably manufactured in deep space as a means to
bring energy here in 'storage' 5. Disrupt relatively cool sun surface 5500
degrees Celsius and expose hotter layers beneath deeper 6. Develop
technology to beam high energy long distances from far away hot objects -
periphery of black holes and neutron stars - possibly bend the intense beams
of pulsars 7. Find nearby sub-star "Brown dwarfs" that probably exist within
two or three light years from earth and utilize their hydrogen or hydrogen
clouds in space for fusion. 8. Oort cloud comets within half a light year
from sun as hydrogen source. 9. Design heat resistant space ships. Three
other points - In this essay you will see discussion whether helium
concentrations occur in sunspots. It would be desirable to remove a portion
of helium as well as the lighter hydrogen. Second, success in reducing mass
of sun would change orbits of earth and planets - they would move outerward,
which might be helpfuul in long run but would need to be calculated very
carefully. - About seventy per cent of the sun's 433,000 miles radius, heat
from fusion comes out by radiation through very hot dense, plasma. In the
outer thirty per cent of the sun's radius - which must be 129,000 miles -
more than five times circumference of earth, plasma convection is the main
way the heat comes to surface. I want to learn more about this convection
process. One important technique is helioseismology. Whether there is any
way future engineers could affect this convection process I don't know at
present. I have seen estimates it takes a million years for energy to get to
the surface after it is generated by fusion at the core. - - John Barrett
Remainder is April 22 essay: SUN MASS Removal STAGES- Blaise Pascal -= Alpha
Centauri - LEAH - RACHEL :- Astronomy Professor David Latham has suggested
that it will take a great deal of energy to achieve the ideal maximum amount
of mass removal from the sun to keep the earth habitable as long as
possible. However the time frame is very long. The basic equation is mv
squared or m DELTA v squared, where m is the desired amount of mass removed,
and Delta V is the difference between starting velocity and escape velocity.
I believe that "m" the ideal amount of mass to remove over four or five
billion years is not precisely known at present. The optimum rate of removal
is likely to be a curve rather than a straight line. Too rapid a beginning
might trigger an ice age or orbital instability of earth and planets. The
longest-lived stars have 7.5 to eight per cent of the mass of the sun and
are estimated to remain on Main Sequence with stable heat output about five
thousand trillion years [5 x 10 to twelfth power]. In atlas of the Universe
1998 I see an estimate that sun equals 333,000 earth masses. Suppose that in
four billion years, it was desired to remove eighty per cent of present
solar mass - this is very likely more than enough, but illustrates the
nature of the calculation. This would mean if one proceeded in a linear
fashion, that one per cent of solar mass should be eliminated in the first
fifty million years, dividing four billion by eighty. So 3,330 earth masses
would be removed in fifty million years, or 66.6 earth masses per one
million years - around one earth mass every fifteen thousand years. The
acceleration would be complex. I have heard the escape velocity at the
surface of the sun estimated between 384 miles per second and 500 kilometers
per second. However, the heat of the solar surface 5500 C and the much
higher heat and convective motion just below the surface may contribute
significantly to the starting energy as we come to understand how the
existing solar wind forms and the stellar winds of other stars,including
those hotter than the sun. For seven years I have been studying whether it
would be possible to remove ANY mass from the sun. I call this stage "Leah"
after the older first wife of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Before we get to
phase Leah, where we might experimentally try to remove a small amount of
mass from the sun to observe technology, there would be phase "Blaise
Pascal" where we would do thought experiments and test ideas theroetically.
If the technology appeared risky, there might be a phase Alpha where we
might test procedures on the star Alpha Centauri before working on the sun.
As a target, perhaps an experimental small operation to remove a little mass
from the sun might be targeted for the year 2099, within the lifetime of
persons now living. Since April 7, 2000 a number of possible technologies
have come to mind, but they will require huge amounts of energy.Most of the
technologies involve heating the solar surface to increase the amount of
mass that escapes in the solar wind. At present it has been estimated about
one hundred trillionth of solar mass escapes each year in naturally
occurring solar wind. Hopefully, the sun's own energy can be utilized in one
way or another.It is conceivable that over thousands and millions of years
ways can be found to store energy from giant objects deep in space,and then
beam or transport it Most technologies involve application of some form of
heat to the solar surface. There may also be the possibilty of disrupting
the surface chromosphere and exposing slightly deeper layers which are much
hotter. In the order I have thought of them, these are techniques for
warming the solar surface- locally or around the entire surface. [1] Lasers
- possibly utilizing hydrogen from the sun itself for fusion power. [2]
Reflectors or mirrors to aim the sun's own heat back at the surface. [3} A
greenhouse gas - if one can be maintained stably in the lower corona, this
would be the ultimate mirror or reflector. Extremely high million-degree C.
temperatures occur in portions of the lower corona, and the forces that
cause them are not completely known- very likely magnetism is involved. This
strategy would take mass relatively uniformly from all areas of the surface.
It would be desirable to remove mass from the polar regions of the sun, so
that it would travel away from the orbit of the earth and other planets. [4]
Disruption of the cooler chromosphere to expose hotter interior gas or
plasma. [5] ANTI-MATTER- would be extremely effective annihiliating some of
the sun's mass and generating astonishing heat if ANTIMATTER can be found,
manufactured and handled and contained, as by very strong magnetic fields.
There might be advantages in concentrating ther ANTIMATTER at very low
temperatures near absolute zero possibly utilizing superconductivity to
assist handling, which is far in the future .[6] collect energy from hot
distant sources such as black holes, neutron stars,supernovas, giant stars
and beam it to solar system[7] find nearby BROWN dwarfs believed to exist
within a few light years of earth and utilize their hydrogen or
intragalactic clouds for FUSION. [8] Utilize Oort Cloud comets
gravitationally bound to solar system as hydrogren source. [9] Design
heat-resistant space ships that can withstand tmperatures above 3000 degrees
C. These might use refractory materials such as tantalum carbide which melts
above 3800 C - various forms of carbon perhaps fullerene or nanotube -
tungsten, thorium oxide. Albert Brown of Joyce suggests solar heat might be
turned to electricity, at the same time cooling outer surface and powering
space craft and lasers. He also suggests comet ice might contribute - a
space ship could even operate for a time placed inside comet ice. The sun is
presently about seventy-one per cent hydrogen, twenty-seven per cent helium,
and two per cent heavier elements. The removal of helium probably would
favor stability, but the helium tends to be concentrated near the core, as
David Latham pointed out in 1995. Recently Sean Root of Port Angeles heard a
broadcast on a TV history channel in which something was said about "helium
bubbles" observed in sunspots. If this is true and if they can be targeted,
a substantial amount of helium over a long time can be removed from the
convective outer zone of the sun,which constitutes thirty per cent of solar
radius and sixty-five per cent of volume. Doug Wadsworth of Port Angeles and
Western Washington University at Bellinghan points out that if it is
possible to reduce solar mass significantly, orbits of planets will be
affected by reduced gravitational pull, and planets will move further from
the sun. This will help delay or prevent over-heating the earth and may be
of great long run importance. Effects on earth and future colonies on
satellites of outer planets need careful calculation. It appears likely a
time will come when much of the world's population will move to satellites
of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Mars is very small. Colonies can be
sent to distant space, but moving all persons and animals and plants is much
more difficult, but relevant to democratic planning and popular will.
Someday it will be possible, but it is important to gain time by keeping
earth habitable as long as possible. Huge amounts of energy will be required
either for survival on earth, where overheating of sun will become a
problem- or on the outer planets, where fusion energy will eventually be the
main fuel- how much hydrogen would be needed for 2-3 billion year survival
on outer planets? It comes to mind that the outer planets are mostly
hydrogen - it is sugggested their cores may be largely metallic hydrogen,
which conducts electricity under pressure. A recent issue of Astronomy
magazine suggests that brown drawfs are likely to turn up within a few light
years' distance from the earth. They might be excellent fuel sources,
whether for my project of reducing mass of sun, or for heating life on the
rocky outer satellites. I still hope the best source of energy will be the
sun itself. If advanced civilizations already exist in Milky Way galaxy,
might we detect them diverting pulsar beams to places where they need
energy? I see much progress on non-baryonic matter and other topics. I found
article on June 1999 observation of sun's galactic rotation relative to
galactic center - but I am still looking for more on its motion relative to
neighboring stars and galactic plane. |