Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-02-26
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
latter overcoming its power of gravity.
The comet of the year 1852 provided
NewtOn's pupil, HALEY, with an oppor-
tunity to deal more thoroughly with
the question of gravity as affecting the
movements of comets, and, after con-
sidering it thoroughly, he predicted
that the comet would reappear in the
year 1929, date long after his death.
In the meantime other astronomical
mathematicians 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 reappearance, 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 indorsed HerscheTs
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 negative
shadow of the head of the comet, had
attracted great deal of attention,
though it had not been received by as
as correct. Considerable in
-erest attached to the recent discovery
that there is q connection between
comets and meteors-bodies so small
hat the astronomer Kepler was indig-
lant at the suggestion that they were
it subjects for astronomical scrutiny.
The textbook from which the lecturer
studied when boy disposed of the
question OF meteOrs in short order, but,
While the information it conveyed was
siven in confident manner, the only
comment to be made regarding it was
hat it was all wrong. The periodicity
II the showers of meteors was referred
o, the great displays recurring at an
interval OF from thirty-three to thirty
our years, thus showing that the me-
eors take about one-third of century
o 90 round the sun. Astronomers de-
lined to believe this at first, because
his period implied that the meteors
ad an orbit which carried them twenty
ines more distant from the sun than is
he earth, but the discovery that the
howers of meteors are coincident with
he tracks of the comets showed them
be the repelled particles of those
odies whose orbits they followed. The
,cturer stated a number of further in
9resting facts and discoveries connect
with what Humboldt described as
pocket planets,'' and in his conclu-
on again stated that, while large
uantity of work had been accom-
lished in this peculiar branch of astro-
omical research, the field of study was,
nd would probably remain, practically
Chicago Tribune.