The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-05-17
NO DANGER FROM
TAIL OF COMET

prediction such as no scientist ever of
fered to his fellow men before. 1t Is
that the eitire globe ON whish we dwell
is to be shot through the tail of Hal
ley's comet with a speed of 125 times
that of a cannon ball, beginning to-
morrow,
Does the earth fly through space at
such rate as thisf BY no means; but,
while the earth is rapidly approaching
the comet, the comet is yet more rapid
ly approaching the earth, and the com
bined speed Of the two is the same as
if the comet stood still and the earth
entered its tail at the rate Of forty
three miles second.
If we struck the solid nucleus of
the comet at the center Of its foaming,
vapory head such speed would surely
be fatal to the comet, and doubtless
would do great damage to the earth.
But of this there is not the slightest
danger, inasmuch as the paths of the
two bodies do not run nearer than six
million miles, and their positions are
never such as to bring them nearer
than twelve million miles-fifty times
the distance of the moon. But with
the tail we can and shall collide.
Tail Streams Away From Sun.
1t is a very common error that a
comet Is tail follows it's head, stream
ing behind as does the smoke of To-
comotive. IT does this only in ap-
preaching the sun; but in retiring
from the sun the tail leads the way.
The direction of the tail is always de-
termined by an influence supposed to
be that of light, emanating from the
sun, which drives it almost straight
back from that body. The result, in
the present instance, will be that the
tail will come sweeping sidewise, and
we shall enter it and leave ii on two
opposite sides.
OF course. this depends, however, on
the tail being at least fourteen million
miles long. And, although this is writ
ten only few days before the event
il has not yet been fully determined
what the tail 8 length will be. But
no one doubts that il will be several
times as long as that, possibly even
100000 900 miles in length. Its
BREADTH moreover, at the point where
we shall encounter it, will probably
be billion miles. Hence it follows
that, great as is the speed of our prog
comets tail for some hours.
Composed of Thin vapors.
As we are absolutely helpless in
such a situation, it is of the utmost in
terest to know what a comets tail is
and what it is likely to do to us when
like the sea, il ineloses us on all sides
At the outset il is assumed to be told
that il is not solid. 1t is not, for in
stance, a stream of meteors. If il
were we might expect a gigantic me
teoric shower like the famous one OF
1888, when we thought that the stars
of the heavens were actually falling
and the universe had come to ruin
Comets heads are supposed so far al
their nuclei are concerned, TO be made
up of masses of meteors held together
by mutual attraction, and these no
infrequently are disrupted and streams
of meteors become their successors
following the ancient orbits where they
once travelled as units But comets
tails are merely thin vapors driver
out from the nucleus by forces origin
ating in the sun such as heat anC
electricity, and then driven back int
space by the force of light. And thei
splendid appearance is due in part 4
the electric energy which they carr,
within themselves, and in part to re
Election of the sun s light.
1t is, then, nothing but vapo
through which we are to be passed
and a very thin vapor, so thin that i
is literally imponderable, a marrow
escape from nothing. There can there
fore be absolutely no danger from tn
impact. 1t will produce no shock no
interfere with the steady onwar'
march of the earth in its orbit.
Has Unwholesome Elements.
Yet we should like to know the ma
ture of this vapor before it shall be
come mingled with our atmosphere an
made a part of our very breath. Wha
is it9 Some very unwh alesome eie
ments we are obliged 10 admit. 1t
the business of the speetroseope {
take beam Of Fight from any distan
body and so analyze It as to determ'n
what elements are in the flame. Thi
done for Halle's comet, we find sodiur
(Which appears in our common sod
and salt), hydrogen (found in ever
drop of water vet harmful alone !
certain combinations), chlorine an
eyanogen, these last two deadly gase
the last of all being capable of produ'
ing almost instantaneous death.
1t is manifest, therefore, that il tn
elements of a comet tail were to b
precipitated upon us suddenly and CO
piously, ms the gases of Mt. Pelee wei
poured down upon the inhabitants {
at. Pierre. sending 10000 men to d
struction in three minutes, our outloo
would be very gloomy. But, as Il
comet s nucleus is surrounded with
gaseous envelope which extends far ol
into space. so also the solid body
our sphere is surrounded with our ga
eous atmosphere, and with this II