FACTS AND FANCY CONCERNING COMETS. 33 



each impact, nothing like 80,000,000 degrees being developed at any point. 

 When : 



4. Maximum heat can not appear unless cosmic matter fall on right lines to 

 the sun, and not on curves. Heat is now known to be a mode of atomic motion; 

 the greater the rapidity of atomic oscillation the more intense the heat. The 

 reason why a mass on collision evolves heat is because the motion of the whole 

 mass through space is instantly arrested, and massive motion becomes atomic. 

 When the body is moving, each atom in it maintains constant relation to all the 

 others, and no heat is developed. Let the mass strike a solid and each atom 

 begins motion in relation with every other, the instant translation through space 

 ends. If the velocity of impact is great, atomic motion is most rapid, and the 

 heat intense. If the collision is not powerful enough to cause every atom to shift 

 position, all the heat possible will not appear. Let a rifle ball strike a rock, every 

 atom of the lead changes location, the ball is flattened, and, if velocity is suffic- 

 ient, melted. But if it strike a mass of cork, resistance being so slight, the lead 

 atoms will not shift nor heat appear. Behold the sun; its density is only 1.44, 

 that of water being one, or about the consistency of calcimine applied to our ceil- 

 ings. A comet would plunge thousands of miles beneath the liquid surface of the 

 sun, and the heat would slowly radiate away, benefitting man instead of destroy- 

 ing him. Therefore : 



5. Eighty million degrees of heat can not develop unless the sun becomes 

 rigid as platinum and cometary nuclei solid. But it is not on these arguments 

 that we rely We will grant that comets can fall upon the sun, developing maxi- 

 mum heat, allowing alarmists the worst, and then demonstrate that such impact 

 can not affect the earth in any way except for good. If we burn fifty pounds of 

 coal in one hour it will radiate genial heat, and an iron bar suspended, say, at a 

 distance of four feet from the fire will be warmed through, supposing it to be an 

 inch in thickness. Now, put on a blast and consume the coal in one minute ; 

 the barVill not be warmed throughout. Consume the coal in one second, and 

 the surface only of the bar next the fire will be warmed. Burn the coal in the 

 millionth part of a second, the same amount of heat will be given out as when 

 one hour was occupied in the combustion, but the human hand could be held in 

 place of the bar and not feel pain. The heat would be intense, but of such incon- 

 ceivably short duration that it would not destroy the structure of one's hand. 

 Whence time is a factor in all problems where the action of heat is concerned. 

 Now, let a mass in motion at the rate of one foot per second collide with the sun, 

 and we say the time consumed in impact is such a part of a second; but let it 

 move 2,008,908 feet per second, the time of collision is 2,008,908 times shorter, 

 and the heat that many times more intense, the intensity of the heat depending 

 ing solely on the time of impact, and the time directly on velocity. Hence : 



6. The intensity of 8o', 000, 000 degrees exists less than the 1-2,008,908 part 

 of a second, and the heatwave that can strike the earth will have the same dura- 

 tion. Heat, light, or any other energy emanating from a center varies in the 



VI— 3 



