Rock Island Argus., 1899-12-13
FAMOUS BIELA COMET.
Fragments OF 1t Are Soon to Bonn
bard the Earth.

Fragments OF 1t Are Soon to Bonn
bard the Earth.
Seventy-three years ago, when the
Bohemian astronomer Biela discovered
the great comet that has been named
after him, he and the other astron-
omers of the world agreed, after max
ing long and careful calculations, that
the course of the heavenly body was
such that some time it would strike the
earth. The exact date set for this
catastrophe then was November, 1899,
says the New York Press. And it would
have happened according to schedule
had there not been another vast ca
tastrophe in the heavens before then.
In 1S45 the astronomers who were
watching for the reappearance of the
Biela comet saw a tremendous thing
in space. The comet appeared and
burst in two before their eyes. What
a mighty explosion this was-an ex-
plosiOn which human minds really can
not grasp-may be just vaguely guess
ed from the fact that within Il few
months after the smash up the two
parts of the comet We're 10000 miles
apart from each other and were still
being hurried madly through the uni
verse, impelled by the force of the ter
comet apart. That was so years ago.
more than one-haIf n century. and still
the fragments have not ceased flying.
In 1852 the two parts. now appearing
as two separate comets. were 100000
miles apart. They were due again in
1850 and again in 1866. but not one of
the tens of thousands of Instruments
that were pointed anxiotusly toward
flnsar
two bodies should appear sighted even
a spark from them.
Astronomers were puzzled. They
could not explain it. and all that they
could even guess was that the separat-
ed parts had struck something and
been disintegrated. This guess was
correct. The two comets had struck
something-what no one knows to
this day. But it must have been such
a disaster as wiped out whole worlds
somewhere in the universe, fO1 in 1872
the earth passed into the course of
what was left of at least one of the
parts of the comet.
1t was on the night of Nov. % that
the question of what had become of at
least part OF the Biela comet was an
swered- On that night there suddenly
began raining from the constellation of
Andromeda thousands and thousands
of meteors, some exploding near the
earth. others flying in huge trails os
fire far over it. The first astronomer
to arrive at the correct conclusion was
Klinkerfues. He telegraphed to the
observatory in Madrid: "Biela's comet
has touched the earth. Search for it in
the constellation of the Centaur." Un-
fortunately the weather was bad. and
the Madrid astronomer could not fol-
low instructions until Dec. .. Then he
did find n small comet near the con-
stellation named. but it is not certain
that it had anything TO do with the
Biela comet.
The next time that the earth passed
through this path OF fire was on Nov
81. 1885; but. though the display was
even more wonderful than that of 1872
had been, no trace of a comet could be
discovered. In 1890. though the path
of the fragments could not be seen, it
was known that il. lay close to the
course of the planet Jupiter. and it
was calculated that this would hasten
the disintegration-' On Nov. %. 1892.
fire again. In this year, 1899. the
CdA III VII OC dN punt -NON-
where her course and that of the comet
parts cross.
Had that unknown and tremendous
catastrophe not occurred long ago we
would he looking toward this meeting
with decidedly more serious apprehen-
sions than is the case now, for. while
81 is almost certain that the poor rem
nauts OF Biela's comet will be the only
things TO su6er, the case would be
vastly dinereur were the huge comet
still intact ,