Smyrna times., 1859-11-24
The Meteoric Phenomenon.

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A large and brilliant meteor was observed tc
pass over the city of New York on the morning
of Tuesday week, about o'clock, in direction
from north to SOUTH 1t must have been of un
usual size to have been seen by daylight. Ser
geant Clinton, of the twenty precinct
who was, with several other persons, a witness
of the phenomenon, transmitted the following
message to the central police office, No. Alb
Broome street: ave witnessed just now one
of the most singular things ever seen in this
city. large body of fire, in the shape of a
comet, with body as large as a horse, and a
tail about forty feet long, fell from the heavens
between this village (Yorkville) and Seventy
first street, lighting up the whole neighborhood,
and witnessed by crowds of people,"
A meteor was also observed in the vicinity of
Washington, az the same hour on Tuesday
morning. 1t was doubtless the same meteor as
mentioned above, and until it is found, perhaps,
there is no telling to certainty where it fell.
1t seemed quite near to both places. CORES
pondent of the Washington States and Union
writes, that while cunning on Tuesday about
three miles northeast of city, at 8 a. M, the
sun shining very brightly, he was startled by
the reflection of a most dazzling light along the
barrel of his gun; and, on looking up, instantly
beheld most brilliant sight. A meteor was
falling almost perpendiculary from the hea.
vens. 1t seemed TO fall about four miles from
me In northeasterly direction. When it
struck the ground it made report as loud as a
cannon He had view of it until it apparent
ly reached the grou0d. There was perpen-
dicular line of fire about 100 yards long, with
massive ball of fire at the lower end about the
size of barrel, and shaped like an inverted
balloon. 1t reflected all the colors of the rain
bow.
The phenomenon has given rise to much
wonder and speculation as to the cause of it.
The falling of meteors is perfectly in accord
ance with the laws of nature, and there can be
nothing wonderful in it, except that it may
somewhat startle those to whom it suddenly ap-
pears Beyond this all is perfectly regular, and
need cause no alarm among the good people of
New York or Washington. Meteors or ero.
lltes have been falling for centuries past, and
we have no record that anybody was ever hurt
by one. People in the early ages of the world
used to consider meteUrs with superstition, and
regard them as they did heavy thunders and
sharp Lightning, as the angry manifestations of
a Deity; but scientific research has fully ac-
counted for all this: and now, instead Of caus-
ing any great degree of wonder, the events are
made the object of scientific inyestigaton.-
LIvy says that shower of meteOric stones fell
on the Alban Mount, near Rome, about 654
years B. c. Plutarch and Pliny mention the
fall of great stone at Kgospoami, on the
Iielespont, about 467 B. C.. Since that time
these erolites have been falling to a greater or
less extent all over the world The largest
ever known is the one in Brazil, estimated at
l4,00O pounds; and they have been seen as
small as gravel. Sometimes they fall singly,
as the one on Tuesday week, and at other times
in showers, as on the 18th and 18th Of Novem-
Der, 1888, when Professor Olmstead, of Yale
College, says the stars fell like flakes of snow,
and to the number of 240,000. Probably the
most singular part of the matter is, that this
phenomena SHOULD occur at certain periods in
the year-as about the fifteenth of November,
when they have been so regular in their vista
tsOn as to be looked for and expected.
These stones are found to have been subject
ed to a great heat, the surface generally show
ing the action of intense but rapid heat, as il
they had swiftly passed through an extremely
hot space. Their chemical composition is iron,
nickel and cobalt, somewhat different from the
stones on the earth, but revealing no new sub
stance not found in the composition of the
earth. The height from which these @roites
descend has been varously estimated at from
Is to $50 miles, and descending at the rate ot
Is to 36 miles in a second. They are always
accompanied by train of light of greater or
less luminosity, according as the @rolite large
or small, or descends in the day or night time.
The theories of their origin have been dis
cussed for years by wise men, who have at last
settled down upon the generally received opin-
ion that these groites are formed in the atmos-
phere. However, this theory may not be cor
rect and as there are at present no means OF
ascertaining precisely their origin, we must be
satisfied with the most plausible theory that is
given. So if people choose TO say that they
are precipitated from the moon, volcanoes in
the planets, or are stars which have fallen from
their peg in the frmament-all is well SO long
as they think so