The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-07

spVnng It's particles to form the tail IS
s.ea.eI IMAM the solar attraction. and at q
aveiy slight distance from the comets
Sentef the attraction of the nucleus can no
longer retain the nebular substance, which
theh disseminated into space. Every
th ue = comet passes It's perihelion it must,
;:.u:Ieiore, lose part of its substance, and
TVS TACT that all comets with short peri
GUS are small and can be seen only through
Telescope. According to the description
!Haiiy's comet was much larger, more bril-
. .iLans ana striking at its first appearance
man IN 1909 and 1886, the last time it was
seen. indeed. 1t is quite certain that COM
ets olmlnlsh IN size every time they pass
near the sum-
we may, then, conclude that comets,
ouu snooting-stars formed by the disinte-
grafton of comets. come from Infinite space,
ana, when they describe closed orbits. that
.uey nave been incorporated with our sys-
zen lem through the influence of planet.
mus lie Verrier calculated that the shoot
ihg-stars OF November IA penetrated our
system for the first time in the year 126
a ", at point near which the planet
Uranus was at the time, and that this
planet changed their orbit from parabola
INTO an ellipse. If the planet had not
oeen at the given point they would have
continued their original course. Since the
year lz6 the continued influence of IRA
nus mas still further changed their orbit.
Inc perpetual tall of these tiny shooting
Stars Is not without consequence to our
planet. If each falling star has a volume
OF one cubic millimeter, the annual num-
Der descending to the earth represents
volume OF LAC cubic meters and a weight Of
Sb,OoO Kilograms q, 1927 200 pounds.) In n
hundred centuries this increase in volume
would equal !, AGO. 600 cubic meters and the
weight of the earth would increase S.760
lov -. ,dSN
II we suppose this cosmic powder uni
iormiy spread over $40 million kilometers,
or the earth's superficial area, We see that
in about 81 800 years the globe Is in
creased by layer of one centimeter In
thickness. or that its diameter is
increased two centimeters. This accretion
IS doubtless of an infiniteslmal order, but
It Is precisely this order that acts most eff
ncaciously throughout all nature. The
weight OF the terrestrial globe is estimated
at $3.50 sextillion kilos U2,9 25 sextillion
poundsl, and the increase of its mass In
10000 years is only fifteen-quintillionth
parts OF the whole earth's mass. That Is
little. of course, but the planet has been
in existence many hundreds of thousands
OF years. Thus the earth travels through
q space filled with cOsmic materials and
increases gradually in weight and volume.
FerruginOus powder is found all over
the earth from myriads of meteoric cor
puscles which take fire in our atmosphere,
melt. vaporize and slowly fall to the
ground. My hard-working friend Silber-
man, who for SO MANY years has watched
shooting stars from the top of the College
de France. and seen in one of the most
important forces of celestial mechanism,
has often remarked the undulating and
recoiling movements of the continuous
trains of luminous powder. October 5,
1879 a magnificent shooting star left be-
hind it spiral cloud that remained WISH
BILE for more than half an hour. More
than half century ago William Ehren-
berg made a drawing of some meteoric
powder that fell on the bridge of ship
crossing the Indian ocean and discovered
that under the microscope the fragments
presented inflated forms, very much like
residuum from the combustion of steel
wire. On isolated mountains, probably
never before trod by the foot of man. the
chemist, Reichenbach discovered traces
of iron. cobalt and nickel, which must have
fallen from the skies. Monsieur G. Liss-
andier gathered ferruginous corpuscles
among the SHOWS of Mont Blanc, on the
towers of Notre Dame, and in rain water
Two striking results must slowly follow
the increase in the volume and weight Of
our planet. The earth's rotary motion
must grow slower and the length of the
day increase. while the moons revolution
must accelerate. CAMILLE PLANTATION.