The San Francisco call., 1910-04-05
NEW ERAS MARKED
BY HALLfY'SCOMFT
OF Twenty-four Appearances
One Attended Invasion of
William the Conqueror
Distress in Europe Followed Re-
port of Celestial Visitor After
COnstantinople Fell

Fantastic ideas have been entertained
concerning comets from the earliest
ages. The middle ages, If it were pos
sible had even more foolish ideas than
antiquity. Paracelsus held that comets
were sent by angels as a warning to
the wicked Alphonso VI of Portugal
when the comet of 1864 appeared, over
whelmed 1T with abuse and threatened
it with his pistol.
Halley's famous comet. says Camille
Flammarion. the distinguished French
astronomer, in the Paris Figaro, has al
ready visited this earth "a times since
the year IL B. c. Its first memorable
appearance in the history of France was
In s37. in the reign of Louis I the good
natured." An anonymous astronomer of
that time wrote of 1t:
In the middle OF the holy DAYS of
Easter phenomenon always fatal and
foreboding appeared in the sky. From
the time the emperor saw this he had
no more repose. He said to me, This
sign announces that there will be
change OF reign and the death of
prince. He took counsel of the bishops
They told that he should pray, build
churches and found monasteries He did
NORMANS GUIDED BY COMET
Halley's comet appeared again in
April. 1865, at the moment that William
the Conqueror was invading England.
All the chroniclers wrote: The Nor
mans, guided by a comet are invading
England Matilda, the wife of the
conqueror, has represented this comet
upon one of her. tapestries, which any
one may see today at Bayeux. The
kings of England have worn in their
crown filagree work representing the
tail of this comet, which had such sig
nal influence upon the victory of Hast
ings.
But the most celebrated of it's ap-
pearances was that of June, 1856, three
years after the taking of Constantine
pie by the Turks. Europe was prey to
distress caused by this news The his
torians of the time describe it as great
and terrible; that its tail covered two
celestial signs, that is 60 degrees; that
1t had a color like shining gold. and
was an undulsting fame. They saw in
it certain sign of divine wrath. The
Mussulmans saw in 1T a cross; the
Christians a scimitar In so great a
danger Pope Calixtus III called upon
the faithful to recite the Angelus with
more fervor to conjure the comet and
the Turks.
p
Pare, thus described the comet of 1928:
This comet was so horrible and so
frfghtful that it engendered such great
terror in the vulgar that many died of
fear; others fell sick. It appeared to
be of excessive length. of the color of
blood At the summit one saw the
figure of a bent arm holding a large
sword in the hand as in the act of
striking. At the point there were three
stars At the two sides in the rays
of this comet were seen q great number
of axes, knives and bloody swords,
among which were a great number of
hideous human faces with bristly hair
and boards" One may infer that the
imagination of that period had very
good eyes to aid it.
HALEY PREDICTED RETURN
Newton. having stated that following
the unusual law of attraction, the
course of the comet of 1882 should be
greatly elongated curve, tried, aided
by Haley. his coworker and friend. to
represent this course automatically,
and met with complete success. HALEY
recognized later that the comet of 1882
in its course around the sun resembIed
two comets observed in, 1881 and 1907.
and that it was without doubt the same
comet and that it should reappear about
175S. HALEY had calculated that the
action OF the planets would retard the
next return of the comet and he
predicted its return for the end of
175S or the beginning of 1859. The
comet reappeared. 1t passed it's peri
helion on March IL, 1859, a month be-
fore the day indicated.
The orbit of Halley's comet is today
completely determined. 1t accomplished
revolution from 1859 to 1885. It's last
passage to perihelion took place No
vember 16 of the latter year, which
gave 2S,o06 days for the revolution from
1859 to 1895, instead of 27,937 days
which had been taken between 1882
and 1859. There was an augmentation
of 135 days, due to the influence of
Jupiter. and a diminution of SIS days,
due to Saturn, Uranus and the earth.
The next return should be on the oath
of May, 1910. This revolution should
be shorter than the preceding ones, or
only 27,217 days, that is, IA years and
months. according to the calculation
of Pontecoulant.