The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-03-06
Comets and MeteOrs.

Prof. Proctor delivered a lecture in
Hershey Music Hall yesterday after
noon upon "Comets and Meteors''-a
subject which, he remarked in opening,
was one of very great difficulty, not less
to the astronomic students of to-day
than to those of ancient times 1t was
true that science had discovered many
interesting facts regarding these bodies,
but this had increased the difficulties
connected with their study as it had
added to the mysteries which surround
them.
The lecturer, whose remarks were IL
lustrated by a number of large paint
ings, opened his illusions TO cometary
peculiarities by describing the success
full efforts made by Herschel to define
the course OF the comet of 1880 as that
which Newton had laid down for it.
Newton predicted that this comet on
its temperance would pass very near
the sun. and the result showed him to
be very correct, the body passing within
one hundred and sixty thousand miles
OF the sun, the repulsive power of the
later overcoming its power of gravity.
1hs comet of the year 1852 provided
Nevton's pupil, HALEY, with al oppor-
tunfy to deal more thoroughly with
the question of gravity as affecting the
movements of comets, and, after con-
slderng it thoroughly, he predicted
that he comet would reappear in the
year 1929, date long after his death.
In the meantime other astronomical
mathenaticians had to deal with the
subject, and they, realizing that the
force OF the distributing influences of
the planets Jupiter and Saturn would
delay the comets temperance, placed
the date of its return in 1885. Three
separate calculations were made, and
the comet reappeared within the time
covered by them. The question of
what formed the tail of the comet was
treated at considerable length by the
lecturer, who Endorsed Herschel's
theory that it consisted of clouds of va
porous matter which the power of the
sun drove from the head of the comet.
Other theories have been formed, and
one by Professor Tyndall, which the
lecturer explained fully with familiar
illustrations, that the tail was a negative
shadow of the head of the comet, had
attracted a great deal of attention,
though it had not been received by as
tronomers as correct. Considerable in
terest attached to the recent discovery
that there is a connection between
comets and meteors-bodies so small
that the astronomer Kepler was indig-
nant at the suggestion That they were
fit subjects for astronomical scrutiny.
The textbook from which the lecturer
studied when a boy disposed of the
question of meteors in short order, but.
while the information it conveyed was
given IN a confident manner. the only
comment to be made regarding it was
that it was all wrong. The periodicity
of the showers of meteors was referred
to, the great displays recurring at an
interval of from thirty-three to thirty
four years, thus showing that the me-
teors take about third of century
to go round the sun. Astronomers de-
clined to believe this at first, because
this period implied that the meteors
had an orbit which carried them twenty
times more distant from the sun than is
the earth, but the discovery that the
showers of meteors are coincident with
the tracks of the comets showed them
to be the repealed particles of those
bodies whose orbits they followed. The
lecturer stated number of further in
teresting facts and discoveries connect
ed with what Humboldt described as
"pocket planets" and in his conclu-
sion again stated that, while large
quantity of work had been accom-
plished in this peculiar branch of astro-
nomical research, the field of study was,
and would probably remain, practically
inexhaustible. Chicago Tribune.