The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-23

NEW YORK, Feb. 22.-Mr. Garrett P.
Serviss, IL an interview, discussed the
report that Perrine's comet is travelling
towards The earth at a rate Of 100000
miles a day and that a collision was
probable He said:
Il judge the comet is a small one. per-
haps as large as the earth. That would
not be very large for a comet 1t prob
ably is not coming toward US, as the
dispatches say. If it is. then there is no
possibility of its hitting us. We are
travelling nineteen miles a second and by
March Il, the date they talk about its
arriving, we shall be millions of miles
from where we are now. To hit us 1t
must be travelling toward the spot about
100000 miles from here, where we shall
be on March IL Whether or not the cal
culatious that have been made about the
present position Of the comet, its velo-
bends upon whether the observations
have been good. 1t is not likely that
they are exact, for q comet is a hazy
body, an~. 1t is difficult TO get good obser-
Tations.
IF It was a point like a star it could
ne told with mathematical certainty just
where IL would be at a certain minute
or hour, but being a hazy thing, IL is
difficult to see where is the head, the
greatest point of condensation, and to
tel eAGClIy what the comet Is QOlUS.
You remember, in 1892, ii was thought
for some days that a. comet was going
TO hit Us, and then it was discovered that
the comet was going away from us, in
stead of coming toward US.
"A comet is not q solid body like the
earth it is made up of minute bodies.
We might compare it with dust cloud.
While in size it compares with the
earth, there is no comparison in the
Solldlty of the two. So fan as We have
been able to learn there are no large
particles OF matter in the comet. They
are made up of atoms of dust, or iron,
nickel or some other metal. Our atmos-
phere is practically impervious to such
q 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 CTookes tube, there is still
enough resistance to distintegrate and
destroy a body like a comet travelling
travels, The particles would become in
hnttely fine, no larger than the ultimate
atoms of matter. They would ultimately
reach the earth
IN SPAC.
while In bulk on space the comet may
occupy the room Of the earth, and in that
sense il is as big as the earth, 1t is not
packed solid like the earth. Take an or
binary dust cloud for example it may
cover a mile square of space but Il all
the particles were compressed into the
smallest possible space they would occupy
the earth might not contain more than
enough matter to make a layer one ten
thousandth Of millimeter deep if spread
over the earth. If the comet was made
of solid chunks of matter the result would
be different
1.-The heat generated by the contact
with the atmosphere would be sufficient to
melt things For instance, a lotion piece
of iron might burn a hole as big as the
state OF New York. Under the tremend-
Gus heat the earth and stone in the imme-
date neighborhood would be vdporized
Immediately. But there are no large parti-
cles IL the makeup of a comet. There is
Just one possibility of unpleaSantness in
comets hitting the earth. That is the
subsequent effects on the atmosphere. 1t
would seem likely that the atmosphere
would be filled with gaseous matter, and
IL the comet was very big one, made up
IN part of gases, as they are, it might in
duce matter into the atmosphere injuri-
Gus to health. Il might give us the grip
or predispose US to an attack OF other dis
eases"