Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-04-22


On Nay Is many of us earth beings
wffi witness a sight the like of which
has never before been seen Of men, at
least since men have kept a written
history Of events. On that day for
over three hours we shall be viewing
the sun through the great blazing. nead
or a comet. 49,. ..5 ~. .....@
OF a, sudden our earth, swinging
through space at st, 900 miles per hour,
will punge INTO The e. of Halley's COM
ct, close to the neck of it. The tail will
have been whipped =gainst US at It's
own speed Of 10000 miles an hour.
Thus this globe will dive through the
luminous haze at a total speed of 170,-
600 miles per hour. AZ miles per second,
the earth entirely immersing herself in
the celestial ,mist in less than three
minutes, yet so thick is the tail at the
point of perforatfon-600,0 900 mf1es-that
we shall be nearly three hours and a
agree In detail. They are, however,
half passing through
What Will happen? No two scientists
practically certain there will be no
harm done to any creature of the earth.
save the harm which fear does. But
the superstitious are almost certain to
be stricken with mortal terror during
that three hours.
For those three hours will show &c
men the most sublime, awe-inspiring
display of heavenly fireworks this earth
has witnessed since space roared with
the primordial flames of creation, the
astronomers say.
But the chances are it will be nothing
but light-terrific, but harmless. For
our Sunlight during those 200 minutes
will be filtered through the comets
head or nucleus (the head Will be
ecIipsing the SUM and that head Will
have just come from a UaIn In the very
flames OF the sun. This gaseous head,
81 times as big as our earth and only
14.UUO, 900 mile. away Ca mere step com
pared even with the distance TO the
SUM, will be boiling, Tuning, exploding,
blasting, in titanic commissions of. heat
! after its recent experience. 7
And il is through such lens our sun
light must come filtered for three hours
and a half May Is.
We did indeed, have one slight pre-
vious experience with the tail of a comet.
On June 30. 1861, we shipped through part
OF. the tail of Tebbet's comets But cit
was mere wisp of tail-just thread at
the extreme end of the tails 24OOO,OOO
miles of length-a hair scant 5000 miles
thick 49,. 49,
Yet, for the experience of seeing that
hair severed the French astronomer Liais
journeyed to Rio de Janiero and set up
his instruments.
The moment came Suddenly Liais
saw the sky turn like blood at midday. 1
Then" there was a rapid plunge into
lurid. phosphorescent yellow and almost
instantly the. sky darkened to "a coppery 4
green, as II a: tornado were approaching. I
AM ipSt 40
could realize it, the sun shone serenely
again, the earth's minute for passing
through the 3,0OO-mile -thick hair was up,
and Liais packed his instruments and
went home.
Wen be in HaHey's comets tail over
three hours. Will the effect be proper
tionately awful?
Scientists all over the earth are warn
ing people to be prepared for strange
sights, but not to be frightened. For.
as the saying goes, the whole 62,O0O;06O
miles OF it's tail condensed might be
packed in trunk So 90 =" /
Says Andre. director of the Lyons OBJ
servatory:- You must not be 'astOn%hed
II It shows an aspect as strange and
stranger than anything ever seen be-
fore" ''. - .i-
What effect the adventure viii have
upon the earth is disputed. Comets are
llllle UNDERSTOOD. mere are instruments
which can detect their weight and in
struments which partially show their
composition, but beyond those known
facts each scientist has a different ex-
PLANTATION.
A recent theory is that the comet
nucleus or head is simply an enormous
gas lens, and what appears to be a tail
is, in reality. only the pencil of concen-
trated sunlight such as proceeds from an
| ordinary searchight. Outside of this pen
3 ell we can see its length But once in
7it. we would observe only an increase
/ i'm the heat and briliancy of the sun
light.
Under this theory the only effect that
will be noticed May IS will be that the
sunshine viii fairly burn one. But in the
shade it should be fairly comfortable.
II the comets tail is of gas, at least
the gas is much diluted. Some observers
fear the deadly cyanogen gas, which, if
thick, would stihe all breathing things
at once. Diluted, such gas might turn