The Comet
image 1
image 2
image 3
image 4
cropped image 1
The Comet
The dread day has arrived when the comet, which, like Coroner Connery’s pet witness, “carries his tail behind him,” is to pay a visit to this mundane sphere. People who don’t read the papers, and only learn by vague oral tradition of their contents, have a lingering idea that some time between this and midnight there will be a great sight, if not an awful smash. We are happy to report, that at the hour of present writing, within a few minutes of noon, nothing has been heard or seen of the dread visitant. Therefore we conclude that our guest is unavoidably detained, and that we shall not have the honor of his company, at least for the present. If he arrives during the afternoon we will issue a special edition to announce the fact.
Seriously, however, nothing can be more absurd and unfounded than a belief that a collision can take place between any of the huge bodies which whirl through space. All their operations and movements of which we are cognisant are governed by fixed and immutable laws; and even if the destruction, or rather disorganisation, of any one was about to take place, reason teaches us that it would be brought about in accordance with the natural laws which it has hitherto obeyed in the geological changes it has already gone through. The world was not made in a day, and there is no likelihood of its decomposition occupying less time than its original formation.
Apropos of the comet and astronomical matters generally, a very valuable and useful apparatus has recently been discovered by a Mr. Smyth, and endorsed by the Scottish Society of Arts. Its effect is to render telescopic observation as easy and accurate at sea as on land. Mr. Smyth has published a description of experiments made by him during a recent voyage to Teneriffe, which have demonstrated the success of his invention. The difficulty to be overcome, as will be obvious to every one, has always been the rolling and pitching of the ship, whereby observer and instrument are alike rendered unsteady. To overcome it, the professor invented a balanced frame, with free axes of rotation, somewhat on the principle of the gyroscope, which, when the wheel is kept in rapid motion, remains uninfluenced by the most violent movements of the ship. The importance of this invention to navigation can hardly be overrated. After long contined gales, it sometimes happens that the mariner can only ascertain his true position, or check the rate of his chronometers, by observations of the stars, or an eclipse of one of Jupiter’s moons. With Professor Smyth’s apparatus, the observations can be taken as accurately as on shore.