The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-04-06
DON'T GET SCARED MAY 18TH.


day, for over three hours we shall be
viewing the sun through the great
blazing head of a comet.
or sudden our earth, swinging
through space at $4,000 miles per
hour, will plunge into the tail OF
Halley's comet, close to the neck OF
it, The tail will have been whipped
against us at its own speed of 1885,
600 miles an hour. Thus this globe
will dive through the luminous haze
at total speed of 10000 miles an
hour, AZ miles per second, the earth
entirely immersing herself in the
celestial mist in less than three min
utes. yet so thick is the tail at the
point of 1000 miles
that we shall be nearly three hours
and half passing through.
What will happen? No two scien-
fists agree in detail They are, how
ever, practically certain there will be
no harm done to any creature of the
earth, save the harm which fear
does But the superstitious are al
most certain to be stricken with
mortal terror during those three
hours.
For those three hours will show to
men the most sublime, awe-inspiring
display of heavenly fireworks this
earth has witnessed since space roar
ed with the primordial flames of
creation, the astronomers say.
But, the chances are it will be moth
ing but light-terrific but harmless.
For our sunlight during those 2O5
minutes will be filtered through the
comets head or nucleus (the head
will be eclipsing the SUM and that
head will have just come from a bath
in the very flames of the sun. This
gaseous head, 81 times as big as our
earth and only 100000 miles
away "a mere step compared even
with the distance of the SUM, will be
boiling, fuming, exploding, blasting,
in titanic commissions of heat after
its recent experience.
And it is through such a lens our
sunlight must come filtered for three
hours and a half May 18th
We did, indeed, have one slight
previous experience with the tail of a
comet. On June 80, 1861, we snip
ped through part of the tail of Teb-
bets comet. But it was a mere wisp
of tail-just a thread at the extreme
end of the tails 24,00O,000 miles of
length--a hair a scant 800 miles
thick.
Yet, for the experience of seeing
that hair severed, the French as
tronomer Liais journeyed to Rio de
Janiero and set up his instruments.
The moment came. Suddenly
Liais saw the sky turn like blood at
midday. Then there was a rapid
plunge into a lurid, phosphorescent
yellow and almost instantly the sky
darkened to a coppery green, as if
tornado were approaching. And next
instant, before the observer could
realize it, the sun shown serenely
again, the earth's minute for passing
through the 30O-mile-thick hair was
up and Liais packed his instruments
and went home.
Well be in Halley's comets tail
over three hours. VIII the effect be
proportionately awful?
Scientists all over the earth are
warning people to be prepared for
strange sights, but not to be frighten-
ed. For, as the saying goes the
whole 62,000,000 miles of it's tail,
condensed, might be packed in
trunk"
Says Andre, director of the Lyons
observatory: You must not be as
tonished if it shows an aspect as
strange and stranger than anything
ever seen before"
What effect the adventure will
have upon the earth is disputed
Comets are little understood. There
are instruments which can detect
their weight and instruments which
partially show their composition, but
beyond those known facts each scien-
tist has a different explanation.
A recent theory is that the comet
nucleus or head is simply an enorm-
Gus gas lens and what appears to be
a tail is, in reality, only the pencil
of concentrated sunlight such as pro-
ceeds from the ordinary searchlight.
Outside of this pencil we can see its
length. But once in il, we would OBJ
serve an increase in the heat and
brilliancy of the sunlight.
Under this theory the only effect
that will be noticed May 18th will be
that the sunshine will fairly burn
one. But in the shade it should be
fairly comfortable.
If the comets tail is of gas, at
least the gas is much diluted.
Some observers fear the deadly
cyanogen gas, which, if thick, would
stifle all breathing things at once.
Diluted, such a gas might turn the
whole world very sick to its stomach
for two or three hours
Some predict a display of electrical
phenomena, tremendous, but harm
less as the aurora borealis. Desland-
res, a Frenchman, says the tail is
made up of cathode rays, which,
touching our atmosphere, would be-
come X-rays of great intensity. The