Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-15

The astronomical world win pause today
m lie study of the approaching comet to
pay a mental tribute to the man whose
name II bears, for It was on the 18th OF
January, 1872, that HALEY died After he
had recognized the comet, and predicted
its return IN 175s, he said that he would
not live to see II return, but that he hoped
an impartial posterlty would do him the
justice 70 remember that he had forecasted
its temperance. For the third time since
then II is now coming toward us, and for
the third time the world will unite In
honoring HALEY for his astounding knowl-
edge In predicting It's
Edmund HALEY was the son OF an Eng
lish soap boiler and first saw the light Of
day in 1905. He was a mathematician 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
sweethearts-he published a paper on the
orbits OF the principal planets, and had
studied a 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.
BY the time HALEY was % he had COM
pleted a visit to st. Helena, where 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 pre-
diction that the comet which bears his
name would return on schedule time. He
was the first man in astronomical history
who so far mastered the movements of a
comet as to be able to say whether It
went or whence 1t should return. II was
he, also, who led the astronomers to OBJ
serve the transits of Venus, In order to
establish the SUMS parallax. Upon the de-
termination Of the parallax Of the sun
has depended more. astronomical knowl-
edge than n other one thing.
HALEY became the royal astronomer of
England In 1870, and continued in that
office until his death. One of the most in
teresttng condolences In the whole history
or astronomy and mathematics was the
fact that he and Newton, working upon
entirely Independent lines, had both un-
dertaken to prove that the centripxslai
force in the universe was one varying
inVersely as the square of the distance.
When he visited Newton for the purpose
Of enlisting his aid in finally d~eterminina
the truth of his conclusions. he found
that the discovery of the law of gravity
had mapped out the same conjecture and
had taken the same means to prove II.
There is abundant evidence that HALEY
was a much better astronomer and mathe-
matician 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 west
ern seas to make the observations neces-
sary 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. unbroken rec
ord Of things accomplished, his name will
be perpetuated more through the periodic
return Of his comet than through all the
other things he did. Think Of it! A man
still too young to be eligible to a seat in
the United States senate, taking into his
mental grasp a wandering object in space
which goes more than $780, 900, 900 miles
away from the sun. laying out its course
as . civil engineer might lay out a mile
race track, and foretelling its return with
almost as much accuracy as one might
forecast the return of a friend who had
gone away en- a holiday vacation! To &C,
complish this he had to approximate its
speed, its direction, the distance 1t had tc
HoNSiI NiC bbdpC VI lS OTDlIy a Dozen
things which even now are beyond the
grasp of the lay mind.
The mind cannot conceive Of how far
Halley's comet has Travelled in the three.
quarters Of a century since it last looked
down upon the earth. During all these
years it has been Keeling off distance al
the rate of more than 10000, 900 miles 6
month, or 2.5OO,OOO miles a day, with never
a stop for breath. 1t left us so far be.
hind in space that the little distance Of
14,OO0, 900 miles which will separate it from
us in May seems no more than a steI
across lots to see a next door neighbor.
Assuming that there IL the same proper
ton of people over 80 living today as Their,
was in 1906, and that every person VIII,
was 5 years old when the comet appeared
can remember it, there will be about 300.
600 people in the United States who will b,
able to say that they have seen Haley
comet twice. The last time II was visibl,