MISTER HALLEY'S COMET
A Regularly Returning Piece of Our Past
It takes seventy six years, an average lifetime, to make its journey around the Sun and back again. Most people only get to see it once. Lucky ones live long enough to see it twice. It has been dubbed Halley's Comet, in honor of its discoverer, Edmond Halley. Halley, an English astronomer, made many outstanding contributions to the study of astronomy. He is best known for his prediction of the regular return of a comet, one which has not lived up to the hype in its last two visits but is the best known of all comets.
Halley studied the paths of nearly two dozen comets. A pattern soon developed. Comets which had been seen in 1531 and 1607 were observed as having similar paths. Halley theorized that these two comets were actually the same comet. Then in 1682, a comet returned along the same path. Halley was sure that the comet was the same and that the variation of one year was due to the immense gravitational force of Jupiter. Halley predicted that the comet would return in 1758 or 1759. A German farmer spotted the fuzzy comet with his telescope on Christmas Eve in 1758. By the following Valentine's Day, the comet had reached its closest point to the Sun. Edmond Halley was right. Astronomical experts accepted his theory and named the comet Halley's comet in honor of Halley, who died in 1742.
Historians and astronomers compared notes and found that the reports of the visits of Halley's comet go back as far as 240 B.C., when it was blamed for the death of the empress dowager in China. Other catastrophic events which have been blamed on Halley's Comet include the defeat of Attila the Hun, the death of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, and several widespread plagues.
Genghis Kahn, who considered the comet his own personal messenger, interpreted it as a message to massacre millions of people. Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name of Mark Twain, was born in 1835. His conception came when Halley's Comet was near the Earth. Twain died on April 21, 1910 , one day after the comet came around the sun on its way out of our solar system. This coincidence was not lost on Twain and some of his admirers, who speculated that Twain came into and left this world on the comet.
With the rise in the printed media in 1910, reports of the comet and speculation of its effects on the Earth were spread over the world. The previous visit was apparently less than spectacular. John McArthur, of Wilkinson County, who saw the comet twice, remembered seeing Halley's Comet for the first time at the age of nine years while he was attending a corn shucking. Newspapers predicted that the comet would destroy the earth. Reports were being made that the tail was composed of poisonous cyanogen gases, which if made contact with the Earth, would destroy all forms on life on the planet. Entrepreneurs were selling comet insurance, comet pills, and gas masks to protect the gullible.
By the end of April, 1910, Halley's Comet was in its best viewing position, rising in the northeastern skies of Laurens County around four o'clock in the morning in the constellation of Pegasus and near Venus, the brightest planet in the solar system. It was traveling at twenty six miles a second, making the ninety three million mile trip from the Sun to the Earth in twenty eight days. People were still afraid that the Earth might come in contact with the fifty thousand mile long tail of the comet, despite the fact that the latest predictions estimated that the comet would come no closer than fourteen million miles.
On May 18, 1910, the skies over Laurens County were cloudy. Naturally that was the day Halley's Comet was closest to the Earth. Viewing conditions improved in the days following. Laurens Countians and people all over the world got a great view of the comet, which by the end of the month would start to fade from view. At certain points along its path, the comet's tail stretched half way across the sky. Although the effects of passing through the tail of the comet were exaggerated, "The Dublin Courier Dispatch" reported a few interruptions in telegraphic transmissions. There were a few deaths reported that day. Newman Ware, a nine month old son of Mr. and Mrs. George Ware, succumbed to a long illness. Dr. Thomas Kea, of Adrian, also passed away on the day the comet came to take them to heaven.
Rev. C.M. Chumbley, of Henry Memorial Presbyterian Church, looked for a religious meaning to the comet. On the following Sunday, Rev. Chumbley gave a sermon on the true meaning of the comet. A large crowd gathered at the church, which was then located on the southeast corner of North Jefferson and Columbia Streets. The sermon was preceded by a twenty minute musical performance, including a rousing solo by Mrs. William L. Branch. Rev. Chumbley did his homework in preparing for the sermon, studying every available scientific, historical, and biblical resource at his disposal.
Rev. Chumbley told the congregation of eclectic denominations that the comet was a symbol of the assurance of the faithfulness and care of God. Chumbley saw no conflict between science and religion. In fact, he thought the two were related. The regularity of Halley's Comet was a symbol of order in lives, order brought by God. He speculated on what his father and grandfather saw the last time the comet came and what his grandchildren and great grandchildren would see with the return of the comet seventy six years in the future. Rev. Chumbley speculated on whether or not Halley's Comet or another comet would strike the Earth and be the conflagration that would destroy the Earth as predicted in, The Holy Bible. Chumbley refused to admit that a collision with a comet would destroy the Earth thus fulfilling the Biblical prophecy. But here did dare anyone to deny that it was a distinct possibility that the event might happen, although the odds of such an event were one in every two hundred and eighty million comet passes. Chumbley continued to compare historic evidence of comet or asteroid strikes to confirm the likelihood of a comet's collision with the Earth. Chumbley, who apparently had an outstanding knowledge of astronomy, gave a highly detailed explanation of celestial events related to comets. Rev. Chumbley concluded his sermon with an appeal to the congregation to keep their faith in God, "who promised to return again and again to take to himself all those who love and trust him."
In the world of 1986, the return of Halley's Comet was over-hyped and over commercialized. The comet, which is actually only a dirty snowball 9.3 miles long and six miles wide, was at its worst position for viewing in two thousand years. We were all disappointed to say the least. Maybe our children and grandchildren will see this most heralded celestial body in all of its grand splendor. If I make it to my hundred and sixth birthday, maybe I will see it too in the year 2062.
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