The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-08-03
Balloons and Comets.

AT meeting of the Balloon Society,
M. Wllfred de Fonvielle delivered In
interesting lecture on ''the Component
Parts of Comets The lecturer was an
nounced as editor of the French scien-
the periodical T. Etectricite, and author
OF several works on comets, including
a description of his midnight observa.
ton, from balloon, of the last comet
OF 1881. In the course of the evening
the first suggestion of Balloon Society
tor London was attributed to him. He
began by citing Mr.. Spottiswoode, the
President of the Royal Society, for the
statement that the only accurate method
OF studying the stars was by means of
balloons, which opinion the same hioh
authority backed by strongly recon-
mending their use for astronomical DUR
poses. The lecturer suggested that the
sudden discovery OF a great comet close
to the sun during the recent eclipse was
further reason for supplementing the
telescope. That was not the first in
stance, he added, of the kind, for / 800
years ago Seneca (Nat Quest. VII. 2O)
stated that Posidonius observed the
transit of a large comet across the solar
disc during an eclipse. Pingre identi-
hed the eclipse with that observed by An
axagoras in B. G. 462. Reflection
showed that in spite of the growing num-
Der OF our observatories, a vast number
OF like objects must escape notice. owing
especially toclouds often of quite incon-
siderable density. In these cases bal
looms were of the greatest use, as he him
self experienced in free ascent during
last winter. He was astonished at find-
ing that a cloud, which had been hover
ing over Paris for more than three weeks
and turning day into night, was but a
few hundred feet thick. The method of
observation from balloons was applica-
Bile not only to the discovery of comets
but also to the inferior planets, the zodi-
acal light and the Aurora Borealis AS
to comets, the most likely ancient the.
orY OF their nature was that of the Pyth-
agoreans, who imagined comet to be a
diaphanous body, which had often been
compared to the glass globe filled with
water, used by horologists to concentrate
the light OF lamp on their work, These
ancient astronomers regarded this trans
parent sphere as travelling in its orbit
through the celestial expanse and con-
centrating behind it the solar rays. 1t
had been objected that no such ball of
gas as M. de Fonvielle deemed almost
every comets nucleus to be could exist
in space without being absorbed, and
that the comets tail must be part of it's
substance, growing as the head dwindled
at perihelion, and conversely. These
objections the lecturer dealt with in de-
tail, arguing that there was nos more ne
cessity for the dissipation of the comets s
gaseous nucleus than for that of our own
planets atmosphere. In discussing the
second objection he spoke of the boards
OF comets as well as their tails; these
boards, projecting in a direction opposite
to that OF the tails, and darting toward
the sun instead of away from it, were
a puzzle, he said, to most of the parti-
sans of the materiality of the tail. But
on the. optical theory all was consistent.
No dIaphauous body would allow of the
whole OF the light being transmitted di-
rectly through it. There must be short
refraction as well as reflection, so that a
comet having tail by reflection must
also have generated a beard by refrac-
ton, and these two opposites must be
complimentary to each other. One Of
the principal objects of balloon explora-
ions would be to investigate this corre-
alton which generally escaped the no.
ice of land astronomers, because the
oeards, projecting in the direction of the
sun, must be more difficult to detect than
he tails, which receded from it, and
could not be examined except under the
most favorable circumstances. The most
'easonable explanation was that the |
comet lighted up the heavens just as our
eacoasts were lighted up by an electric |
amp whose rays were projected hv
evolving mirror.--London Times.