When Comet Halley Was About to Cover Earth in Cyanide Gas
The year was 1910 when worldwide panic broke out. Mankind would die that night as Earth was about to pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet.
A few months before the encounter, The New York Times had announced that the comet could abruptly end life as we know it. The person behind the announcement was the famous French scientist Camille Flammarion, who used a process called spectroscopy to detect cyanide gas in the comet’s tail. When the announcement came there was already an apocalyptic hype surrounding the 1910 return of Halley’s comet, fueled by superstitious people and misinformation.
When further spectroscopic examinations of the comet light showed that there was cyan in the comet nuclei, this incited real panic. Hydrogen cyanide (or hydrocyanic acid) was a well known and extremely toxic substance, often used to fight pests or vermin in dwellings. Many had died due to careless use of hydrocyanic acid. A few years later, in the First World War, it was used as combat gas.
On May 19, Earth would thus be wrapped in the comet’s tail. Many people probably thought that the tail was a hard and tangible phenomenon that would crush the Earth. But even astronomers feared that the gas would impregnate the atmosphere and possibly snuff out all life on the planet.
All over the civilized world, rumor was now spreading that comet Halley was a cosmic magazine for cyanide gas. After more than 100 years, one can still sense the doomsday mood. Astrophysics was a young science and one of its very first forecasts seemed to conclude that humanity would be wiped off the planet.
Reports of suicide came in from Hungary, many months before the encounter. Some people found it better to die on their own than to be killed by the poisonous comet. Rumors were soon heard about fear and panic from all over Europe. In Moscow and in Odessa the churches were asked to pray for the Holy Russia to be saved from disaster. Handy people made gas masks or carefully sealed their houses to keep the acid out. Chimneys were sealed and keyholes pasted over. Some people acquired oxygen tubes, to be able to breathe for a little time when others were already dead.
It was in the middle of the nigh when the comet would pass over Central Europe. One could expect the toxic effect of the comet matter at dawn or early in the morning. That night, St. Peter’s Square in Rome was packed
with people. They turned their eyes to the pope windows where light was on. Many sought refuge in the huge church, which had its gates open all night.
In Minnesota, people fled coastal areas because it was feared that the comet would cause a flood. In London and in Paris and in many other big cities the streets were crowded with people. In Bavaria, crowds of peasants went in processions with torches, crucifixes and images of saints.
The night at May 19 in 1910 symbolized a culmination of all that comet fear that had ravaged our earth for thousands of years and for the thirst time one could give a scientific justification that the Earth or humanity would go under. Through newspaper notices we can anticipate the panic some 110 years ago. It didn’t help the situation that established papers like The New York Times came up with claims like: “Cyanogen is a very deadly poison, a grain of its potassium salt touched to the tongue being sufficient to cause instant death”.
Reports came in from every continent and the misinformation escalated the panic further. Venus was located in the eastern skies and it shone as a bright star. Many people confused the planet with the comet Halley. It seemed like it was moving across the sky, growing in size and some people could even anticipate a long bluish poisonous tail.
Daylight finally came and there was no Armageddon. The Sun went up over a terrified Europe, following a night that would be long forgotten. When astronomers started to summarize all observations it could be concluded that they hadn’t observed anything. No one had observed the tail and the core wasn’t visible when it passed across the skies. And there were no signs of cyanide gas in the atmosphere.
