El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-14


today in its study of the ap-
preaching comet to pay mental
tribute to the man whose name II
bears, for it was on the 14th of Janu-
ary 1742, that HALEY died. After he
had >recognized the comet, and predicted
Its return IN 1853. he said that he
would not live to see it return. but
that he hoped an impartial posterity
would do him the justice to remember
that he had fOrecasted its temperance
For the third time since then it is now
coming toward us. and for the third
time the world will unite in honOring
HALEY for his astounding knowledge in
predicting its movements
Edmund HALEY was the son of an
English soap-boiler, and first saw the
light of day in 1856. He was a mathe-
matician from his cradle. The study
Of the universe of worlds was second
nature to him, and by the time he was
2O-when the most serious thing the
average boy thinks about is sweet
hearts-he published a paper on the or
bits of the principal planets, and had
studied sun-spot so intently that he
was able to deduce from his studies
the fact that the sun rotates around its
axis the same as the earth.
Began His Studies Early.
BY the time HALEY was % he had
he made a map of the southern half of
the heavens He was only "a years Of
age when he made his memorable tour
OF Europe, the result of which was his
prediction that the comet which bears
his name would return on schedule
time. He was the first man in astro-
nomical history who so far mastered
the movements of a comet as TO be able
to say whittier it went or whence it
led the astronomers to observe the
transits of Venus, in order to establish
the suns parallax- Upon the determin-
alton of the parallax of the sun has
depended more astronomical knowledge
than any other one thing.
HALEY became the royal astronomer
of England in 1920, and continued in
that office until his death. One of the
most interesting condolences in the
whole history of astronomy and mathe-
matics was the. fact that he and New
ton, working upon entirely independent
lines, had both. undertaken TO prove
that the centripedal force in the uni
verse was one varying inversely as the
square Of the distance. When he Wis
tied Newton for the purpose of enlist
ing his aid in finally determining the
truth of his conclusions, he found that
the discoverer of the law Of gravity had
mapped out the same conjecture and
had taken the same means to prove IL.
Poor Sailor; Good Mathematician.
There is abundant evidence that
Haley was a much better astronomer
and mathematician than he was a
sailor In 1892 he had perfected a
theory relative TO the variation of the
magnetic needle Later he was given a
ship and sent into the western seas to
make the observations necessary TO the
confirmation or refutation Of his
theory. His crew mutinied. and he had
to put back to England with his work
unfinished But he tried again and his
second trip was successful.
But while his life was an unhreken
record of things accomplished. his name
VIII be perpetuated more through the
periodic return of his comet than
through all the other things he did
Think Of 1t! a man still too young 10
be eligible to seat in the United
States senate, taking into his mental
grasp a wandering object in space
which goes more than three thousand
million miles away from the sun, lay
ing out its course as civil engineer
might lay out a mile race-track. and
foretelIing its return with almost as
much accuracy as one might forecast
the return of a friend who had gone
away on holiday vacation. To accom-
plish this he had TO approximate its
speed. its direction, the distance il had
to travel. the shape of its orbit, a dozen
things which even now are beyond the
grasp of the lay mind.
This Comet a Traveller.
The mind cannot conceive of how far
Halley's comet has Travelled insthe three
quarters of a century since it last
looked down upon the earth. During
all these years it has been Keeling off
distance at the rate of more than TO-
00O. 900 miles month, or 2,500. 900 miles
a day. with never stop for breath
1t left US so far behind in space that
the little distance of 100000 miles
which will separate it from US in May
seems no more than step across lots
20 see q nextdoor neighbor
Assuming that there is the same pro-
portion of people over so living today
as there was in 1900, and that every
person who was 5 years old when the
comet last appeared can remember it.
there will be about 100000 people in
the United States who will be able to
say that they have seen Halley's comet
twice. The last time it was visible An