Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-10-13
Balloons al!l Comets.

At meeting 1T tha Balloon Society.
VI. Wilfred d" FonNir.le delivered an
Interesting lecture Oh '.tlH Component
Parts OF Cumrts." The irrturrrWas an
nounced rs editor of the French Sci,'n-
titic periodical l. Elcctricjtr. AND author
Of several works on comets, Including
4 description of his midnight o5,crya-
ton, from balloon. of the last comet
of 1881. In the course of the evening
the first suggestion of 4 Balloon Society
for London was attributed 10 him. He
began by citing Mr.. SpotiiSwoole, the
President of the Royal Society. for the
statement that the only accurate method
Of studying the stars WAS ny means of
balloons. which opinion the same hi~h
authority backed by strongly recon-
mending their use for astronumical pur-
poses. The lecturer suggested that the
sudden discovery of Il ;srcaC comet clos.
10 the sun during the recent eclipse WAS
1 further reason for supplcmrning the
telescope. That was not the first in
stance, he added, of the kiAd for l.S00
years ago Seneca (Nat Quest. VII. 20)
stated that PoSidoniis observed the
transit ola large comet across the solar
iisc during an eclipse. Pin%rc idcnli-
fed the eclipse with that observed by An
axagoras in B. c. 462. Reflection
showed that in spite of the growing num-
Der OF our Observatories, vast number
of like objects must escape notice, owing
especially to clouds often of quite incon-
siderable density. In these cases bal
looms were of the greatest use. As he him
self experienced in a free ascent during
last winter. He was aStoniShcd At find
ing that a cloud. which had been hover
ing over Paris for more than three weeks
and turning day into night, was bat
few hundred feet thick. The method of
observation from balloons was applca-
bic not only to the discovery of comets
but also to the inferior planets. the zodi-
acal light and the Aurora BorelliS. As
TO comets. the most likely ancient the
Ory of their nature was that of the Pvth-
agoreans. who imagined q comet to be
diaphanous body, which had often been
compared to the glass globe filled with
water, used by horologiSts to concentrates
the light of Il lamp on their work, These
ancient astronomers regarded this trans
parent sphere rs travelling in its orb.
through the celestial cxpanSc and con
centrating behind it the solar RAYS. II
had been objected that no such ball OF
gas as M. de Fonviclle deemed almost
every comets nucleus to be could exist
in space without beag absorbed. and
that the comets tail must be part Of its
substance, growing as the head dwindled
at perihelion, and conversely These
objections the lecturer dealt with in de
tail, arguing that there was no more ne
cessity for the dissipation of the comets
gaseous nucleus than for that of Our own
planets atmosphere. In discussing the
second objection he spoke of the boards
CT comets as well rs their tails; these
boards, projecting in direction opposite
TO that of the tails. and darling toward
the sun instead of away from it, We're
a puzzle. he said, to most OF the parti-
sans of the mIteriality Of the tail But
on the optical theory all was consistent.
No diaphalous body wouid allow of the
whole of the light being transmitted Iii
rcctly through it. There must be short
refraction Is we'll aS reflection. 50 that a
comet having 4 tail by reflection must
also have generated Il beard By retra"-
ton, and these two oppoSitrs must br
complimentary to each other One of
the principal objects of balloon explora-
tons would be to investigate this CORE
lation which generally ESCAPED the no.
tee "a land astronomers. because the
boards. proicctingin the direction Of the
sun. must be more difficult to detect than
the tails, which recrlni from il. AMI
could not he examined cycppl underline
L.,
reasonable explanation was ;ha: the
comet lighted up the heavens ia; n our
S"acoaSts were lighted up ~ Al "lectri"
lamp whose rays We're projected By =
revolving mirror.-Lonl)a Times
AT Wilmington. n. c., revival