Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-12-31

A seventyfve years is very much like waiting O. a train. We
w know the track OF which the train will speed toward u.s.; but
- whether the train ain. will will be o. aaa time &c, o not ntt we We cannot aamnt ,a know,
|lS&A.Ay when it will swing around tn sun A Photographic plate at
telegram for u.s. inasmuch as it will tell US how late the comet may be and
thHaao it WILL amns glide i'm, into I full VIEW r. Ev sayen might 3"r a d naxy t dsk present of 1snt ysa a1
S Sepr t nslen ens th nsi hono y Of i na~Dg is ID detected ct r te e %ne %" Sept e' H. i7 lses.
As a tribute to modern mathematical attla astronomy 1onIn it tn may ta be e, stated that he
~, The The return ne"rnnt Of , laneys s. comet ON w Will ra be al at a1 hm m il event We f OF w muc
Sns that time table,, and because because it will enable thu astronomer for the
photographs to be taken by unborn astronomers in 1885 o 1887.
various times scientists ave spent months in calculating the exact period
o. or three three a yea: ear, WEI know nc &c only I,t that it it may anu 0e exp sah to b., become ta , a stsla.
lions and retardatons suffered by every comet a it sweeps asst the planets
o. u $ solar "aaa system ste 4u that ao as9 ute less n Of prediction dM+ s Us w vanaan impossible assslae
with the result that we may lose sight OF it forever. Jupiter is responsible
course, derailed it, as it were, and reduced its period of revolution 70
"a him thai it was ever seen again All told, Jupiter a captured a
ton. Saturn Va similarly acquired two comets, Uranus three and Neptune
six. Obviously a comets course nay be both devious n uncertain.
Great Age of Ealey's Comet.
Or IL one n have ever been discovered, HALEY is he most i'm
Egypt E1 was @ young = me VIII when n Greece ss" was a wilderness viii lnss hinDa ts bS by sav ages
ts esn sartn i" is "e ent tesnsn hat to- 1a t't trast xn stag ~e o n ns en ks sn ND %n sne f will n pa
s seientiao to bh a aodi 1e aana' ritn' tbe noad: xD 1s, n ancient 1T 1 nsa the &c x,t is sits 5s
ing that famous manuscript in which h laws of gravitaton are laid down;
was sordy reduced ~g i ch ra ms prensn and 0 it, was Ms Han " w peA 90 d hanuugn nS
drove home the truth Of Newton,s immutabe laws sA an hecame utn a nronha
in 1881. 1907 So, and ID, 1852 sssM and f9 ss1dns its return in 175s: He "a indeed the
poyed in describing his relation to Newton. A nan of 40 when he boldly
prediction could be verified; and sc he left behind him a touching plea that
reads:
Wherefore. it, according to what We have already said, it should return
again about the year 1858, candid posterity will not efuse o acknowledge
that this as first discovered by n Engishman."
No Longer a n Omen of Evil.
When the comet blazed forth on Christmas day., 1853, it was forever
shorn Oft the dreadful divinity with which for ages it had been hedged, and
oecame ar object OF dSpassonate scientific study. Newtons conclusion
that IN ccordan with the law of gravtation,. comets must describe ell
hpses,p arabolas or hyperboas, was brilliantly verified.
A comet is more than a neat mathematical problem. Although 10 longer
a n men of evil, it is still wrapped in a veil of mystery which has not been
wholly torn away by the physicist and the chemist. Indeed, 1T is only within
the last few years that really plausible theories to account for comaaryp e
|nomena ave beer advanced. To understand just what these theories are we
must frstp pick a comet apart, a. it were, and regard it as W e would a dis.
menbered watch.
In a general way, 1t may be said that every comet comprises a nucleus.
ian envelope Called the conan surrounding the nucleus and measuring
IRON 7oo00 to 100000 miles in diameter, and a long tail which streams
peh1nd the nucleus for sixty to a hundred million miles Dr. more From III
las beeng gathered, astronomers have decided that the nucleus is prob.
ably a heap o meteorihs varying in size from a grain to masses weighing
distributed gradually along the orbit. It follows that every comet must
eventually perish unlessi it restores its nucleus by collecting stray meteors
That dislntegraton does occurh s been observed time and time again. For