COMET
PILLS – 1910 REVISITED
The Grand Rapids Public Museum and
the Roger Chaffee Planetarium have come up with a delightful memento of
Halley’s comet’s next swing through the skies of earth – comet pills.
The idea was born 75 years ago
during the comet’s last appearance on its regular, 75-year orbit through the
solar system. Cyanide gas had been
discovered in the comet’s tail, and enterprising salesmen traded on fear and
superstition by hawking comet pills guaranteed to protect the gullible from any
and all evil effects.
There are no evil effects, of
course, and the Museum is selling the comet pills as a reminder of bygone days
and as a way for individuals to support the Museum.
The comet pills are actually a
healthful snack of yogurt-covered sunflower seeds. Each two-ounce jar is attractively packaged and bears a
distinctive label filled with all sorts of Halley’s comet lore – fact and
fiction. Through an arrangement with
the Grand Rapids Museum Association, Halley’s Comet Watch ’86 is offering the
unique comet pills to its members at the price of $2.00 per bottle.
Museum personnel have provided us
with this colorful verse to promote their comet pills:
Nineteen eighty-five is Halley’s
comet year
It’s only 1983, but Halley’s comet
pills are here.
Taken as the package directs
They’ll ward off any ill effects
That long ago touched off alarm
In those who believed that comets
caused harm.
Earthquakes, eruptions, all manner
of things
Plagues, wars disasters, even deaths
of kings
Were by ancient men with comets
associated
Although such events were not
comet-related
Halley’s Comet’s appearance in 1910
Set prophesiers of doom predicting
again
Foretelling that cyanide in the
comet’s tail
Would bring woes to earth in epic
scale
And one of the ways to avoid such
ills
Was to dose oneself with comet pills
Against evil effects from fatal to
vexatious
The comet pills were guaranteed
completely efficacious.
Halley’s comet will next arrive
In November of 1985
And though we know it will cause no
ills
Why not be certain with Halley’s
comet pills?
So buy the pills, we do exhort
Your Public Museum they will
support.
The label on the
come pill bottle reads:
In 1910, the earth
passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet.
People were panic stricken because the comet contained cyanide gas. While the amount of gas was harmless, some
enterprising people saw an opportunity to sell anti-comet pills.
Halley’s Comet is
due for another visit in 1986. So to
celebrate it return, and to commemorate those early days of naivete, The Grand
Rapids Public Museum is offering these tasty, harmless little comet pills.
Enjoy these pills
while you mull over these interesting facts about the worlds most famous comet:
- Halley’s Comet was first sighted over
2,000 years ago
- It’s the only comet to ever be
excommunicated by the Pope *
- It was the only comet ever referred to
by a Roman Emperor
- It is the brightest of all periodic
comets
- Mark Twain was born in 1835, when
Halley’s Comet Appeared
- He died in 1910 when the comet returned.
*NOTE: Go to Volume 4, Number 1 (February, 1985) for an article entitled: "The Myth of the Excommunication of Comet Halley" by Joseph Laufer.
Copyright 1983: Grand Rapids Public Museum
Return to Halley's Comet Watch Newsletter"