The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-24
WHAT WILL COMET
Do TO THE EARTH?
Tail Is Too TenuouS to Sweep
Us From the
Globe.
VIEWS OF A SCIENTIST
RAREFAcTioN OF GASEOUS MASS
WILL RENDER 1T HARMLESS.
VIEWS OF A SCIENTIST

The question, What will the comet
do to us?" was recently answered by an
astronomer. in an article quoted in
these columns, by saying that 1t would
90 just nothing at all, says the Literary
Digest. The question of mechanical in
reference may be regarded as settled.
The comets tail is too infinitely tenu-
Gus to sweep us from the earth OF to
interfere with terrestrial motion. But
how about its chemical effects? There
are poisonous gases, very little or Wnlcn
suffiees to cause death, and one or the
most deadly Of these is present in com
cts tails-so the spectroscope tells US.
Just how much of it is there in the tail
of Halley's comet? Just how much
may possibly be transferred to our own
atmosphere? Just what may be the Ell
feet of the portion thus assimilatedY
Apparently the most shilful astron-
omer can not reply definitely to these
queries, but Charles Edward Guillaume,
joint director of the international Blu
Teau of Weights and Measures, tells us,
IN communication to La Nature
tParis. February 26). that there is like
J. to be so little accession OF poisonous
gas TO our atmosphere that 1t can be
detected only by chemical processes.
He suggests that we look among the
residues of our liquid-air plants for
traces of 1t, His closing speculation
Cf a poisoned world is lurid, but APP
parently he would not have US take 1t
seriously. After assuring US that cy-
anogen undoubtedly forms part of the
tails of comets, Mr.. Gutllaume goes on
10 say:
"Cyanogen, which is the base of prus-
sic acid. is a terrible poison; but the
rarefaction of the gaseous mass that
will come into contact with our atmos-
phere removes in advance all the
frightful nature of this substance.
It will be interesting, none the less,
to study the consequences or the cap
ture by our atmosphere of an appre-
ciable quantity of cyanogen. we
should bear in mind that its density is
about 1.S, with relation to that of the
air; that it Hquefies at -25 degrees and
sOlidifies at IA degrees; that 1t is
cOmbustible, and that finally ii dis
solves in water and decomposes rapidly.
Several times already comets have
brushed against our atmosphere. But
since the last time there has been a
change in our knowledge of the compo-
sition Of the air and in our possession
of very powerful methods for pursuing
it's study.
Fifteen years ago. the air was sup
posed by every one to be mixture of
nitrogen and oxygen, with traces of
carbOnic acid and variable quantity OF
water-Vapor. There was mention made,
to be sure, of the gases escaping from
craters, or pozzuolani. but 1t was al
ways added that their traces defied
analysis.
To-day the known atmosphere in
cludes new family, that of the noble
gases as they are called in Germany,
or the Inert gases as we name them
-argon, the principal member of the
series, with its superior neighbors,
krypton and xenon, and its interiors
neon and helium. The last named is
celebrated for particular reasons; IL is
at once the final term of the disinte-
grafton of radium and the most perma-
The extremes Of this series. helium
and XenOn, exist in the atmosphere in
extremely small quantities of the order
of One-millionth for helium and one
three hundred-miliionth by volume for
XenOn.
Helium, as is well known, occurs in
relative abundance in radioactive min
erals and at the mouths of certain hot
springs that pass through radiferous
strata; but the other inert gases are
obtained only from the air itself and
their very small quantity, IL we except
argon, as we'll as their invincible re-
pIgnance to entering into chemical
combination, prevents their isolation
except by process of fractional dis
ttllatiOn. In other words, the isolation
of the new gases is dependent on the
Hquefaction of the air and its system
attic evaporation.
gases is still of the naturj described;
and industrial plants for the Iiquefac-
ton OF air are thus powerful aids to
investigation. The most striking ex-
ample is that of bulb of gas turned
over by George Claude TO Sir William
Ramsey A.. a bulb containing the res
idue OF the condensation and distilla-
ton of 100000 cubic meters OF atmos-
pheric air. All the kFyptOn and all the
Xenon contained in this enormous vol
ume of air had remaineu in the lfQue-
faction apparatus; and these few liters
of gas were of inestimable value to
those who obtained IL.
What the liquefaction OF air has
done kryptOn and xenOn, Ii may also do
for cyanOgen. If. by diffusion into our
atmosphere. cyanOgen reaches US in
appreciabie quantities. the hQuefaction
apparatus Will catch and keep il. And
as some machines now operate in such
fashion as to turn out 5000 cubic feet
of oxygen hourly. from about five times
that volume OF air, a milliOnth of cyan
ogen by volume would leave about 2
grams in the apparatus every hour.
Now the liQuefaction machines do