126 Generating Economic Cycles 



Now whether one accepts the theory of Arrhenius, 

 or of Birkeland, or of Deslandres the tails of comets are 

 electrical in nature and should show a distortion in the 

 presence of a magnetic or an electric field. The follow- 

 ing incident, therefore, has a bearing upon the hypothe- 

 sis as to the magnetic field of Venus: In 1910 when 

 Halley's ''comet passed near Venus . . . the tail . . . 

 broke up, as if a result of the near approach to the 

 planet." ^ 



The observations of Halley's Comet in 1910 throw 

 light upon another aspect of our problem. Venus, 

 according to the Director of the Lowell Observatory, 

 seemed to break up the tail of the comet when the 

 comet approached the planet. If now it can be shown 

 that the comet in its approach to the Earth affected 

 terrestrial meteorological conditions, there would seem 

 to follow two probable conclusions: (1) that terrestrial 

 weather is affected by the electro-magnetic condition of 

 neighboring celestial bodies; and, (2) that Venus by in- 

 fluencing the magnetic field between neighboring bodies 

 and the Earth may affect the Earth's weather. Two 

 observations will be cited. The first is from Kr. Birke- 

 land, the Norwegian physicist: Je mentionnerai . . . 

 quelques observations faites le printemps dernier a mon 

 observatoire, sur le pic de Halde, pres de Bossekof, 

 au moment du passage de la comete de Halley. On 

 constata qu'apres de violents orages magnetiques, il 



certains gas presentent sous Taction du rayonnement cathodique." 

 Bosler: "Sur les relations des orages magnetiques et des phenomenes 

 solaires." Annales de l' Observatoire d' Astronomie Physique de Paris, 

 1912, pp. 8-9. 



1 V. M. Slipher, "The Spectrum of Halley's Comet in 1910 as Ob- 

 served at Lowell Observatory," Lowell Observatory Bulletin, No. 52, p. 15. 



