San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-02-22

NEW YORK, Feb. 22.-Mr. Gar
rett p. Serviss, in an interview,
discussed the report that the Per-
rinez comet is travelling toward
the earth at the rate of 100000
miles day, and that a collision
was probable. He said:
81 judge the comet is small
one, perhaps as large as the earth.
That would not be very large for a
comet. 1t probaly is not coming
toward us as the dispatches say.
If it is, then there is no possibility
of its hitting us. We are travel
ing 10 miles a second, and by
March IA, the date they talk about
its arriving, we shall be millions
of miles from where we are now.
To hit us it must be travelling to-
ward the spot, about 1000, 900
miles from here, where we shall be
on March IA. Whether or not the
calculations that have been made
about the present position of the
comet, its velocity and course, are
exact, depends on whether the OBJ
servations have been good. 1t is
not likely that they are ex-
act, for a comet is a hazy body
and it is difficult to get
good observations. If it was a
point like star 1t could be told
with enthusiastical certainty,
just where it would be at a certain
minute or hour, but being hazy
thing it is difficult to see where is
the head, the greatest point of
condensation and to tell exactly
what the comet Is doing. You re-
mem Der in 1892 it was thought for
some days that a comet was going
to hit US and then it was discov-
cred the comet was going away
from US instead OF coming toward
us. A comet is not a solid body
like the earth. 1t is made up Of
minute bodies. We might COM
pare it with adust cloud. While in
size it is as large as the earth there
is no comparison in the solidity Of
the two. So far as we have been
able to learn there are no large
particles of material in a comet.
They are made up Of atoms Of dust,
iron, nickel or some other metals.
Our atmosphere Is practically i'm
pervious to such body. Seventy
or eighty miles above the earth
where the atmosphere is so rare
that the vacuum is almost as good
as that of a Crooks tube there is
still enough resistance to disin-
tegrate and destroy body like a
comet. Travelling with the swiftness
with which comet travels, the
particles would become infinitely
fine. no larger than the ultimate
atoms OF matter that would
ultimately reach the earth.
While in bulk and space the comet
may occupy the room Of the
earth and in density is as big as it,
it is not packed solid like the earth.
Take an ordinary dust cloud, for
1t may cover a mile
square Of space, but IL all the par
ticles were compressed into the
smallest possible space they would
occupy very little room. So a
comet as large as the earth might |
not contain more than enough |
matter to make layer of one |
ten-thousandeth OF millimetre
deep, IL spread over the earth. II a
comet was made OF solid chunks of |
material the result would be differ |
emit. The heat generated in its |
m ovement would be sufficient to |
melt things. For instance, one |
ton piece OF iron might |
burn hole as big as the state OF
New York. The intense heat |
would cause the iron and stone in
the immediate neighborhood to
Immediately. But there
are no solid chunks of matter in
the comet nearing the earth. There
is just one possibility Of unpleas-
in comet hitting the
earth: that is the subsequent effects
on the atmosphere. 1t would seem
likely that the atmosphere would
be filed with gaseous matter, and
II the comet was a very big one,
made up in part of gases as they
are, IL might introduce material
into the atmosphere that would be
deleterious TO health. 1t might