Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-07

turned TO crimson, gave enough light for
ordinary print to be read at midnight. An
other result was severe magnetic storm,
putting telegraph lines out of action shock
ing operators at the keys and setting fire
to the instruments. -.ar
If Comet Hits Us-WhatP
OF course comet may hit US. queried
several professional star-gazers on this
point. Suppose it should? II might knock
down a skyscraper or two. Nothing worse
would happen" was reply. "A comet
hitting the earth would produce about the
same relative shock as a feather hitting
base ball. cuoth another "A comet is
a gaseous body. We went through the tail
of one in 1883, when Hawaifs volcano went
into eruption. The only effect was hail
ness and red glare in the sky. There has
never been record of a comet sufficiently
large to knock the earth out of position
The largest would give US a red sky; moth
ing more serious "as
There are millions of comets in space. IN
deed, the great astronomer Kepler used to
say that there were more of these bodies
in the heavens than there are fishes in
the sea- The material of the head of a.
comet. or that part which glistens like a
star. may be solid. liquid or gaseous. AS
tronomic opinion varies. One view is that
the particles are separated like flakes Of
snow in winter storm. One authority
opined before we passed through the
of large body of this category would
greatly heat the earth. perhaps to disas-
trous degree.
Any sudden stopping of earth would be
fatal according to another wise doctor,
who says: TIE earth would be heated
more than 100000 by being stopped-that Is,
1t would at once become more than sixty
times as hot as melted IRON Hence. ac-
cording to this view, our collision with even
a cold body would generate enough heat
to roast US to powder, were the shock to
stop us on our path through space.
lava flow might engulf us all were
we to collide with some cold body impart-
ing an impact sufficiently great to liberate
| the interior heat of the earth but too small
to stop our motion through space.
Earth May Stop Revolving.
Earth, moreover may cease to revolve on
her axis and may hang in space with one
side toward the sun. This suggestion I
have from an astronomer who is studying
the polar weddings. This webbing, per-
haps, results from siackening of earth's
speed of revolution. If this were to con-
tinue to the point of cessation what would
be the state of affairs. Only one half Of
the world would be habitable. The entire
human race would have to crowd into it,
for freezing would be the fate of those re-
naming on the shady side. Were the sunny
side mostly sea a greater part of humanity
would have to live in boats. Those unable
to withstand the intense heat at the center
of the sunny hemisphere might find more
bracing climate by approaching the boun-
dairy between the light and dark halves of
the globe.
Our planet may slip around until the
present poles fall within the temperate
zones, or even the torrid." suggested an
other learned scientist. There is a theory,
based, like all of the above, on some logical
foundation. that mother earth has before
performed this antic and that what are now
her poles have not ever been such. In
Spitzzenbergen and Greenland now covered
with Arctic ice. fossils of plants such as
grow today only in the tropics and semi
tropics have been found Among these are
species of lime, magnolia and swamp cy-
press.
Man will have a grand moving time when
this somersault Is turned by mother earth.
This will he experience If any of his kind
survive the great freeze-out and flood which
would inevitably result. Should you wake
up some morning and suddenly discover
the north pole to have shifted into your
back yard over night, what would you set
about to do? Perhaps you would have to
wait six months for daylight to appear. for
polar night Is a half year long. from equi-
nox to equinox The railroads near You
would an be buried In snow, the rivers all
frozen. 1t would be sorry plight indeed
to have to grope your way out through the
prolonged hlaekness of things Even were
you to ultimately reach the warm zone be-
low you would find it flooded by the sud
den melting of polar ice.
All posterity must smother, say others,
for no less a light than Lord Kelvin, the
great British physicist, has lately pointed
out that there is only enough oxygen left
In the air to last us 800 more years II we
continue present extrayagant rate OF
consumption by furnaces and what not.
The nitrogen supply, too is becoming ex-
hausted, Others figure. If II continues 10
. dwindle all plant life must die. The ami
NAL life must eat itself UP.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.
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