The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-05-11

termine what elements are in the |
flame This done for Halley's comet,
we find sodium (Which appears in our i
common soda and salD, hydrogen
found in every drop of water, yet
harmful alone in certain combina-
last two deadly gases, the last of all
being capable of producing almost in
stantaneous death
1t is manifest therefore, that if the |
elements of a comets tail were to be i
precipitated upon us suddenly and CO.
piOusly, as the gases Of Mt. Pelee were
poured down upon the inhabitants of |
St Pierre, sending $4,000 men to de- |
struction in three minutes, our out |
look would be very gloomy. But, as |
the comets nucleus is surrounded |
with a gaseous envelope which ex-
tends far out into space, so also the |
solid body of our sphere is surround |
ed with our gaseous atmosphere, and |
with this the deadly elements of the |
comets tail must first reckon in max |
ing their attack upon the animal life |
of our globe. Our situation is like |
that of the fish in the sea. enveloped |
on all sides by water; whatever be |
the volume of noxious vapors which |
is poured out from the volcano upon |
it's shore, they must first penetrate /
the water to reach the fish, and prob |
ably win not so reach 1t at all as TO |
do any harm
Vitiation Would Take Time.
OF course, it is true that the law of |
gases provides for their interpenetra- |
ton when they are brought together. |
But it takes time to complete any |
such process. 1t cannot be done with
the swiftness with which stone may
be hurled from any heighth to the
ground. Even if our globe should
I M
the comets NUCLEUS, ii would perhaps
be days before the atmosphere would
be so yitiated thereby as to produce
any dire consequences. And, in the
meantime, influences would have been
operating whose tendency would be u
eliminate the poison so that il should
do no harm at all. 1t is a commoh
observation that the carbonic acid gas
produced by combustion and by
breathing is appropriated by the veg
etable world. 1t would seem that there
must be other deleteTious elements
entering our atmosphere. Without
such processes, very little understood,
yet clearly recognized, the air would
have been fatally vitiated ages ago,
and nothing living would be able to
testify to the preserving care of the
Creator and ruler Of all.
Extremely Tenuous.
|
most infinite tenuity of a comets tail.
we do not need TO resort to arguments
/ like these. Doubtless the minute ele-
ments OF which it is composed are
| separated from each other as widely
as are the considerable bodies known
as the Leonid meteOrs, which we
sometimes meet in a steady stream in
the month of November, each one of
whose many hundreds burns itself up
| in our. atmosphere and yet leaves it
not the less pure, fresh and life-giv-
/ ing. Nor is this all theory when we
can point to two known instances of
our globe passing through comets
tails, namely those of 1919 and 1861
| The fact that, in both these cases, no
one knew it was happening, proves
that what was happening was not
very serious.
What will happen then? If there
| be no danger to apprehend, is there |
anything of interest to anticipate?
When we passed through the tail of
the comet in 1861 men thought they
noticed a strange radiance in the |
heavens which even the light of the |
rising sun did not wholly extinguish. |
They did not know what it was, but |
regarded it as worthy of the written |
record which they made of it. We |
may believe, therefore, that a faint |
phosphorescent glory will cover the |
the tail, say at about midnight, ard |
that it will continue till dawn, and /
possibly even after the sun has risen. /
1t is unfortunate that the moon does /
not set that night till 2:45 a. m, as its /
radiance will diminish, if not extin- |
guish, that of the comets tail. But |
from 2 o'clock on to daybreak the /
scene ought to be one of beauty if not /
of splendor, bearing some analogy, no
lOubf IN that of the 9nrOra hnrpalis
or northern lights.
So extraordinary are the events of |
this occasion, probably never to be re-
peated in lifetime or much longer 4
that for all lovers of nature the usual Il
sleep schedule ought now to be rigid /
ly set aside Early in the morning of L
May II. not later than daybreak, one II
ought TO be looking low in the east
to see the huge comet ascending the |
sky in advance of the sun. Early in Il
the morning of May Is one should II
look yonder again to see the comets Il
tail stretching up from the east, while
its head fingers below the horizon as
if waiting for the sun. At o'clock, II
Utah time, on the evening OF May Is, Il
he should reflect that the comets L
head is now transiting the suns face II
Late in the evening of May IS, and on L
till daylight, he should be watching /
for the comets tail in the sky and try /
to realize how he and all mankind /
are now buried hundreds of thousands /
Of miles deep therein. Soon after /
sunset, in the early evening of May |
Is, he should look low in the west for |
the comets tail streaking eastward; !
and early in the evening of May 20 he /
should look again and see the comet |
at its very best. Surely it is a cause !
for devout thankfulness TO have been /