New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-07-27

sous ia Philadelphia who describe it with some curious
variations All agree that it passed with great dellb-
era,eness from w. n. w. to K. s. f., in straight
line 20 10 800 above the horizon, and seemed nearly
as brieh, as the moon But some cay the light was OF
bright green, others of bright blue, others, that its
color was of the ordinary yeowish white light Some
sneak of red scntations One person describes as
large meteor, followed by three other small ones;
two ON one side and one on the other. Others de-
scribe two satellites only. One observer describes
il as string of meteors, three in line, the largest
ahead as it were pulling the middle one by thread Of
light and that pulling the third by similar thread.
An three moved in straight line. Each ball had
red center, surrounded by bloe envelope The last
one was ragged. Several persons who saw it
sevantageously near Wilmington, in Delaware, de-
scribe it as large ball, which near the end OF it's
course parted suddenly into two each nearly as large
as the MOON with about that interval between them,
and each furnished with its own tail OF Light Passing
on together one is described tagging little behind
the other. All agree that there bright and per-
sstent wake left in the sky.
That il was one of the most remarkable phenomena
of the kind on record pretty evident ana that tne
body was large and at a considerable great distance
from our planet is also evident. The ateness of the
hour against the probability Of hearing OF Its appear
ance IN any number of observers on the other side OF
the Atlantic; but we may hope that 1t was nenced'
and perhaps measured at Of the obseryafories.
We will undoubtedly hear of it from the West, ana
rbaps receive accounts of stone showers having fol-
lowed its EXPLOSION. az some say innumerabe sparks
we're sean TO follow. The explosion of the crust of
small pIanetoid body rushing rapidly through our
atmosnbere as 70 be heated 10 white heat, is easily
comprehended; but the actual PARTITION through it's
middle of mass 80 vast for this one must have been
some miles in diameter is phenomenon quite mac
countabe ON any known hypothesis, and invests this
meteor with peculiar interest 1t has been accounted
strange that 40 high heat could be got up in few
seconds bv resistance to 80 thin an element as the
eartbs atmosphere at great elevation. But it must
be remembered that the velocity Of heavenly body IL
far greater than we can conceive that the retardaon
of motion experienced by solid body passing through
resisting medium increases in geometrical ratio with
its velocity and that all retardaton loss of motion
is really the conversion of motion into something else
light heat electricity, &c. This explains the nsan-
taneous appearance of dark meteor on entering the
air, as well as the high heat to which is al once
brought No doubt if our electrometers were SELF
registering they would show at the same time vio
lent disturbance of the electrical condition OF things IN
the Deighborhood of the meteor.
The progress of science in our day is observable In
nothing more plainly than in the universal interest
taken in purely philosophical facts by mutudes who
until lately have had of hearing or recording
such events but who read with avdity, and there
fore, observe and tell with intelligence what they see
From all parts of kingdom or hemisphere come
kilograms of apparitons to some centrapont OF news
and in few hours the conflicting, mutually correcting,
and combined accounts are redistributed with com
ments questions and advice, which in their turn elicit
a new income of more accurate information Thus,
vibrations of science circle outward and inward
alternately, from center to circumference, backward
and forward until curiosity comes to rest again. wait
ing instructed for the next event. Empires are turned
into lecture rooms and nations into academies of
Observation and discussion 90 on, not only with ae-
CELEBRATED speed but with improved accuracy, under the
benignant influence of the telegraph and the news
paper snpe rstcns chased into the few dark and
lonely places which still remain where children are not
taught TO read and therefore men and women know
not how to see and the pulpit lie obliged to shut
up its commentaries of the dead now and then, and
listen to the awaked roar Of the living muttudes who
have at last learned how both to ask and answer ques
tons.