If, as we have said, the sun were a ball nine feet across, our earth would, in proportion, be the size of a one-inch ball, and at a distance of 323 yards from the sun. The moon would be a speck the size of a small pea, thirty inches from the earth. Nearer to the sun than the earth would be two other very similar specks, the planets Mercury and Venus, at a distance of 125 and 250 yards respectively. Beyond the earth would come the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, at distances of 500, 1806, 3000, 6000, and 9500 yards respectively.
1920, H. G. Wells, “The Earth in Space and Time”, in The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind, New York: The Macmillan company; republished Salt Lake City, UT: Project Gutenberg, 2014 April 12