The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1879-12-03
THE COMING METORs.
Professor Proetor's Idea Of Their
Origin Debris Left Behind BY
Vanished Comets

The subject of Professor Richard A.
ProctOr's lecture at Chiekering Hall last
evening was sThe immensely of space
as Revealed by Astronomy Almost
every chair i'm the hall was occupied,
and about half the audience were ladies.
Professor Proctor began with the solar
system. He could suggest a way, he
said, by which his hearers would be able
to form some comprehension Of distan-
ces so long as he spoke Of that compar-
tiavely insignificant part of the universe
or universes which was comprised with
in the orbit of Neptune, but when he
came to dive into the unfathOmable
depths of the stellar system he must bid
good-by to them and leave each one to
his own poor imagination, for no human
mind could begin to grapple with these
appalling magnitudes.
First, then, he asked them to imagine
the earth as a globe only an inch i'm
diameter. Reduced to such proportions
the greatest objects on the earth's sur
face, such as the Himalaya Mountains,
for instance, would have to be searched
for with a microscope. The sun, repre-
sented on such a scale would BE- globe
about three yards in diameter, and its
distance from the little ballrepresenting
the earth would be about two hundred
and twenty-fOur yards equal to an or
binary shOrt-distance rifle range. To
reduce the proportions To a much smaller
scale he would represent the sun As a
globe one inch in diameter. The earth
would then become a ball about one
hundredth of an inch in diameter, and
its distance from the sun about three
yards, and another ball representing the
sun. The real distance of the sun from
the earth had never been ascertained,
although astronomers had worked a.
siduously at the problem not only for
years bat for centuries. Five years ago
nearly all the civilized nations made a
united effort to get the problem solved,
the occasion being the transit Of Venus
across the suns disk \ good deal Of
help was expected from the art of pho
Biography, which had reached such per-
fiction during the decade prior to 1874.
The astronomers We're doomed to disap-
pointment, however. He had not seen
the full official reports of the American
expeditions but he had little or no hope
that the results would help the scientific
world out of this difficulty. Professor
Proctor explained some of the most i'm
pOrtant plans that had been devised for
ascertaining the suns distance, and
showed why il was that photography
was unable to render help. If Venus
had no atmosphere the problem could
be solved quite easily; but the fact that
our sister planet was surrounded BY AN
atmosphere produced retractiOn of the
suns rays when the two globes came
into conjunction, quite to the ehagrin
and disappointment of the Observers.
II x.-a.s fnunI that about no Tina that
the planet passed over the edge of the
sun an are Of light suddenly appeared,
extending nearly all round the planet,
and when the planet passed off il ap-
peared to hang for a short time ON the
edge and then dart away suddenly, leav-
ing a wide band between itself and the
suns limb. Tins phenomenon was due
to refraction through the planets at
mOsphere. There was no. doubt that
the calculations of Professor NewcOmbe,
of Yale College, had come the nearest
to determining the distance of the sun
from the earth. Professor Neweombe
had estimated il to be 90, 1888 1881 miles.
IL had been demonstrated almost to n
certainty that the true distance would
not vary more than 20O, COO miles above
or below that calculation. The distance
of the sun from the earth, although -
Insignificant as compared with the dis
lance of the stars, was yet 50 great that
taking the whole diameter of the earth
as the base of a triangle, with the Apex
in the centre of the sun, the angle Pie
scented by that apex was only about the
ls0th part of degree s
The hall having been darkened Pro-
fessor Proctor proceeded to give a large
number of Illustrations by means Of the
electric lantern, beginning with n pie
ture of the Egyptian Pyramids which,
he said, were probably the first astrono-
mical ohservatOries ever constructed,
the amount Of astronomical knowledge
displayed in their construction being re-
markable. He exhibited diagrams OF
the interior, showing the long tubes ex-
tending from the exterior down to the
spot in the base Of the pyramid where
the pioneer astronomers used TO sit and
make their observations The Egyp-
tians, he said, obtained a greater aeeu-
racy than the Greeks who succeeded
them, and in fact, if the telescope were
annihilated to-day no better observatory
could be devised than these ancient
pyramids afforded,
After finishing with the planets and
central orb OF the solar system Professor
Proctor took up the comets, show
ing on the screen how some of their
orbits extended far out of the solar sys-
tenn into other systems This, he said,
was the proper place for him to begin
the discussion Of the stellar universe.
but he first explained how it was that
the earth, from the fact that il passed
through the tracks of some of these
comets, was subjected, at regular times
during the year, to meteoric showers.
most of the meteors being without doubt
masses left behind by the comet. In
fact, at the very moment while he Wa
speaking about it the earth was enter
ing the track of one of those comets.
and doubtless during the early hours Of
the morning some meteors would he
seen. On November 9th the earth
would cross the track of another comet,
and he thought there would he quite a
fine display of meteoFs ON that OCCASION.
He thought that some Of the comets
which visit the solar system, sweep
round the sun and disappear forever,
had orbits of about u, 900 years; that
they flew off after leaving the solarsys-
tenn and passed. from sun To sun through
out the universe. n theory with REGARD
to meteorites which was coming to IL.
generally accepted was that Those which
do not come from the tails Of comets are
masses that have been thrown off nom
the earth i'm the fiery activity Of her
youth. The theory was strengthened
by the analogy now To be seen in the
case of the sun, which presents a per
petual sense of tremendous explosions,
sending up masses of matter n distance
of .<,nr..u. of fhoarsansl. of miles Npfu