The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1910-03-30
THE RETURN OF HALLEY's COMET.
This Wanderer Has Visited us PerlOdi.
cally for Twenty Centuries.


with iery head and long bright tail
suddenly appeared in the evening sky,
It's visits was looked upon with dread,
for famine and pcstilence were it's
lieved. They watched 1t with anxiety
and hailed its departure with relief
On account of the dread which such
visitors inspired. it is not strange that
comets, or hairy stars, as they are
called. should be looked upon with
such fear, nor is it surprising that they
received the closest attention
1t is to the superstition of the past
that we Of the present are indebted for
much of our knowledge Of these celes-
tial wanderers, some of which come
to us only once in two or three gen
erations. There is no nation espec-
tally, whose superstition and intelli-
gence were in such sharp contrast
that while they ascribed to the comets
influence all the evils of the genera
tion in which It's visit occurred, they
at the same time recorded it's appear
ance and position so methodically that
we are now able to trace our present
visitor back for 1000 years. The Chi
nese historians were most careful i'm
their work, and so notably exact that
1t does not surprise us that a Chinese
emperor once struck off the heads of
two of his astronomers for failing to
predict an eclipse of the sun, especially
as the eclipse found the emperor with
no preparations made to receive the
visit of the Dark God with sufficient
pomp and Solemnity. For it's last two
returns our present visitor had had a
name of its own, for it is called
Halley's comet
Edmund HALEY was young man of
26 in London when his eyes first saw
this comet His father was soap
maker who appreciated so greatly the
value of education that he gave his son
all the advantages which the time af-
forded Young HALEY became astron-
omer royal Of England position
which gave full scope to his remark
able mathematical powers He also
became the warm friend of the still
ADLER mathematician, Sir Isaac New
ton, and to Halley's energetic admira-
tion OF Newton's genius, the world
owes the publication OF Newton's great
laws OF gravitation, for HALEY not only
urged Newton to prepare the manu-
script, but he also bore all the ex-
pense Of the publication.
And when Newton promulgated the
theory that some comets possibly move
IN closed curve and so really belong.
AFTER all, to the family OF our sun, it
was HALEY who at once undertook the
laDorious computation to prove wheth-
er this might be true. HALEY found
that the comets of 1881, 1907 and 1852
were very much alike. Each had
hery head and long tail each Travelled
In path which had the same inclina
ton to our own earth's path, each
reaching the same point in it's Journey
around the sun, and the comet of 1907
came about rs years after the comet of
1881, and the comet of 1852 was about
20 years later than that of 1907. Thus
HALEY made one of the most brilliont
discoveries In the history of astronom-
zeal science, although he himself could
not verify his results, for long before
the return of the comet, which bears
his name, HALEY himself had been
earthly activities. But so thorouehlv
had he done his work that when the
year 1853 approached, astronomers
prepared to welcome the return of
Halley's comet Meanwhile Clairoult
another astronomer, had worked out
the disturbing influence which the
planets would exert on the comet as il
passed them an announced that the
comet would be a little late This
proved to be the case but Halley's
comet was seen in January, 1859. has
tening onward in its journey around
the sun.
Since then the comet appeared in
1863 ana Is now once again Fastening
i's approach to our luminary. 1t is
SUN far away, but is family visible
with good opera glass in the west
after sunset and Is rapidly growing
brighter. 1t Will probably be visible
to the naked eye by the middle of
April, but 1t will then be in the morn
ing SKY and one must look for 1t in the
east about two hourc haSo,o ,,..