The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-03-25
Oouids Comets 1t a Temperance
OF the Wonderful Comet of 1S432

Ihe following extract in the Boston
| Advertiser from Prof Pierce's lecture on
comets and meteors contains descrip-
tlon OF the wonderful comet>of IS43. of
which Gould's comet is supposed to he
a temperance:
About noon on the 2Sth of February.
lo45, groups OF people in many of the
towns OF New England, especially in
Portland, Me-, collected at the corners
OF the streets gazing up toward the sun.
protecting their eyes in the shadows of
the houses, they saw brilliant object
close to the sun. Such marvellous
spectacle had never before been seen.
A thoughtful sea Captain, Mr.. Clarke.
brought out his sextant and repeatedly
measured the distance of the strange
object from the limb of the sun. These
unique observations are on record and
submitted to rigid criticism attest the
accuracy of the observer.
In about week from this time a
wonderfully brilliant tail of comet was
seen skirting the horizon soon after
sunset, and reaching more than one
third of the way round the sky. It was
now tail without head, as it was at
first a head without a tail but they were
members of the same comet. The best
determination of its path was accom-
pished by the distinguished astrono-
mer, Sears 0. Walker At it's perihe-
lion it passed nearer the sun than
any known comet, with the single ex-
ception of that of 1880, computed by Sir
Isaac Newton, and in the discussion of
which in the Principia he broached the
first approximation to the true theory of
the cometary tail. These two comets
approached so close to the sun that it
would seem quite possible that it touch
ed its surface, or, at least, swept in
nearer than the solar corona. 1t would
not have been an absurd hypothesis that
they were elected from the sun at the
time of penetration, had it not been for
the fact that the comet of 1880 was seen
on its way down to the sun, and for the
remarkable phenomenon which we are
about to describe concerning the comet
of 1S43. 1t may be claimed as not i'm
possible hypothesis that each of these
comets was at some former time the
product of solar eruption in accord
ance with Buffon's theory of the origin
of comets. 1t would only involve
force which would double the greatest
velocity given to the solar field of hy-
drogen. But a juster Interpretation of
the phenomenon, and the one which
avoids the necessity of an extravagant
volcanic action, is to be found in the re-
lation between the comets and the me-
teors. 1t is simply the splash of the
falling meteOrs. In about an hour and
hoI hn of1 III <hn< <of1
went round the sun from one side to the
other. What would have become of the
tail, which was reaching out about one
hundred millions of miles from the sun
to the earth's orbitP There have been
those who have actually adopted the in
credible, may say the impossible, hv-
pothesis that the tail rotated through
this immense circuit, developing Gen.
trifugal force which all the united pow
ers of the universe could not have sus-
tanned No! The comet practically
left its tail behind it, and began to grow
a new tail as it receded from the
sun. There were thus two tails nearly
side by side. The new tail was distin-
guished because it commenced at the
head of the comet, whereas the old de-
serted tail began without any head at
some distance from the nucleus, and ex-
tended further from the sun than the
new tail. That such should be the phe-
of this comet was suggested by
a geometer, without knowing that it had
been actually observed. 1t was as veri-
table and honest prediction as if it had
been made previous to the observation. |
A double tail was observed on the four
first nights after the comets appearance
at MONDAY. The visible separation of
the two tails only lasted for few days, |
because the earth passed almost at once
into the plane of the comit's orbit, so
that one tail eclipsed the other. |