Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1859-07-08

[From the s. New American Cyclopadia, published by
request of our correspondent g G. HI
AERoIdrE (Gr. aer, air, and thos stone stones that
have fallen from the air. The fact is fully conceded and
it is also established that their composition differs from
that of any other substances acquainted with
Aerotes have been met with in almost all parts of the
world One in South America is estimated to weigh
$4,000 pounds and another $4,000 pounds and there is
a large in the Yale College cabinet from the Red
river in Arkansas which weighs 1886 pounds. Pallas
discovered in Siberia which weighed 1000 pounds,
and contains embedded crystals of chrysolite They are
described by Livy, Plutarch and Pliny. The latter
speaks of one large wagon that fell in the Hell
lespont By the ancients they held in great
Iron is the principal ingredient in these Stones
varying from IS to 80 per cent of their weight next
nickel from 60 to l07 per cent, and then follow long
list of metals, which are nearly all found in every anay
ss viz: cobalt, copper, tin, magnesium aluminium,
chromium, potassium, sodium, manganese, and other
substances as sulphur carbon, Silica PHOSPHORUS oxy
gen and hydrogen To the metals named lead is Low
to be added, the authority of Mr.. Geg of England,
who has discovered it in small globules in of
teorc iron from Tarapaca, Chill These substances
combine to form number of mineral compounds, some
of which often met with in the terrestrial rocks and
one is peculiar to aerotes. This compound is named
schreiberSie and is phosphuret of iron and Nickel
pressed probably by the formula N2 FED P. 1t
in small particles and little fakes disseminated through
the mass, and closely resembles magnetic iron pyrtes
that it may easily be mistaken for it.
These stones often called meteorc ron from the
metal of which they are principally composed. In ap
pearance they resemble maeable iron they are black
on the outside and grayish white within and like iron
affect the magnetic needle Their specific gravity veres
with the relative proportion of metallic and earthly sub
stances. According to Brande and Thompson it is
from 3.35 to 4.28, but according to Dana Mineralo
gy-it is rarely low 6, and fragment from North
Carolina gave 1913. Van Ma1um, in the Harlem
Transactions, describes from the Cape of Good
Hope of specific gravity-7.604, which is about the
| LIZ Il
fell in Tennessee in 1855 has the specific gravity of only
80. In whatever part of the world they found, they
present so remarkable similarity of composition and
appearance, that compelled to assign to them
common origin. Their composition differing from any
thing belonging the earth Though presenting
elements in connection with the circumstances attend
ing their introduction make it probable that their orr
gin is in other body than the earth. They appear
instantaneously meteors surrounded with bright
halo and rushing through the air, in oblique drec
ton towards the earth with immense velocity They
shine with intense splendor, and then explode with
loud noise sometimes at the height of thirty forty
miles above the surface. In Normandy in France in
the year 1903, they appeared In the form OF ball of
fire, accompanied with small rectangular cloud which
did not move, and from which explosions came the
Dor being sent out in all directions each explosion
This cloud high that it appeared at the in
slant Immediately the heads of observers league
apart. Stones fell from the cloud with Kissing noise,
as if projected from sling and scattered
Fl broad.
About two thousand were collected the largest weigh
ing seventeen and half pounds Fortunately for man.
kind the visits of these strangers seldom IN such
numbers They most frequently come sngly, and as
the unfequented parts of the earth and those covered
with the waters present by far the greatest surface their
fall for the most part remote from the habitatons
In their fall they bury themselves in the earth
great is their velocity, and for some time they
tnue so hot that they cannot be handled. AS these
hoHip trap n uDdr NJ
two hundred miles in extent, it probable that only
portion of the reaches the earth: while the main
body keeps its way through the heavens Three by
pothess have been proposed to account for the of
aeroites First that they meteors formed in the
atmosphere by the aggregation of their particles rain
and hail formed Second that they belonged to the
moon and projected from its volcanoes with such
force to bring them within the sphere of the earhs
attraction. This is the theory of Laplace. He cacu
lated that body projected from the with the
ocity of I'll feet in the first second would reach
earth in about two and half days. This velocity is
less than four times that commonly given to
ball. The third hypothesis is that of Chadni, the Ger
philosopher, who published his views in tract at
Riga and Leipsic in the year 1894 and still more fully
in his great work the subject in Vienna in 1919 1t
is that these bodies are small planets fragments Of
planets moving through space, which entering
atmosphere lose their velocity and fall to the earth
Such considerations lead to the original hypothesis Of
Chaldn AS first proposed by him it is thus stated in
general form by Professor Nicho: Through the in
terpanetary spaces and may be, through the inter
stellar spaces also vast numbers of small masses of solid
matter may be moving in irregular orbits and these
they approach any planet of powerful gravtaton, such
the EARTH will be disturbed and may fall towards its
surface" There is failure in this hypothesis to &C
count for the heat of these bodies they pass at
mosphere, and theory of the compression of the
mosphere caused by their rapid motion has been able
, explain it. But Professor Nichol suggests that the
recent and apparently established conception regarding
heat viz: that it must be evolved an equivalent fo
any destroyed mechanical effect wholly the diff
t fculty."