The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1910-05-14
HALLEY's COMET.
Something About the Mysterious Stranger
Which will Pay the Earth Visit on
May 18-No Danger of Anybody


Which will Pay the Earth Visit on
May 1s-No Danger of Anybody
Being Hurt
On the 18th of May the tail of Halley's
comet will, in all probability, Craze the
earth, was the prediction made by DR.. A.
B. Dinwiddie. of Tulane University. in
most interesting address before the
Louisiana Engineering Society in New Or
leans last Monday night.
"Yes," he said. as he smiled, I'VE are
liable to Craze that tail. but, he added
reassuringly, that's all there'l be to it.
Why, we might go right through the GEN.
ter of the tail and never know it. and I'm
pretty safe in telling you that you won't
be killed on May 18."
DR.. DinWiddie explained that comets
come from somewhere out in space, be-
yond the furthest planetary Oh bit, make the
course around the sun once, and then go out
| into space again, to be heard of no more.
The force that attracts them is the
same force of gravitation that makes an
object fall to the earth when released
/ from the hand. 1t is the force of the sun
that pulls them in toward the earth. DR..
Dinwiddie stated that although the sun
had the power to draw the comet in
/ 3,200,O00,000 miles, it did not draw in
ward the particles which fell from the
wanderer. These particles go backward
and form the comets tail. They are
probably so small that the strong light of
the sun drives them backward. The tail,
the speaker explained further, is not an
essential part of the comet; it is the
part that falls from the head.
THE tail this morning, when saw it,
observed DR.. DinWiddie, "had an enor-
nous sweep, and it was the finest ever
saw, with the exception of the one in 1882.
ITO get back to the question, that comet
is the biggest thing in the sky. Its head
is from 10000 to 100000 miles in diameter
and Ishould say from $4,000 to $4,000 miles
across. The tail ranges in length from
100000 to 100.000.000 miles. The comet
of 1882 had tail f00,OOO,0OO miles long
and a head 100000 miles across. A very
little of that comet could hit US, consider,
/ ing its length. How much does it Weighi
) So little that we can't weigh it. We car
say thatf it weighed as much as ont
hundred thousandth the weight of the
earth, we'd know it. 1t might hit tbs
earth in 15,O00000 years.
The tail of the comet is the rarest
: thing known, DR.. Dinwiddie said: it is the
!, next thing to zero as to density. One
a famous astronomer said that man coulf
!, take up 15.000,000 miles of the comet;
e tail, roll it up and put it in his pocket anC
4 hardly know it was there.
S DR.. Dinwiddie summed up things likely
$ to happen May Is. He showed that the
: comet was on a higher plane than the
: earth, but for all that the earth woulC
e likely Craze the comets S tail on the 18th
S If the earth was on the same plane, i
: would pass through the center of th'
tail, as happened IN the sixties. In tint
islands of the Pacific astronomers vii
= look to see the head of the comet eros
the sun and they will then determine thu
density of the head. Between and
. O'Clock in the evening of May 1S the peo
n pie here may see the tail of the come
+ sweeping across the whole sky, and Oh
the 21st OF May, just after sunset, tn
comet should be seen at its best. Their
a will be total eclipse of the moon on tn
23rd, and with the moonlight blotte'
Q from the sky the comet should make
q grand sight. In conclusion. DR.. Dinwiddi
Il said that he thought great many pee
pie had taken Venus for the comet.