Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-07-25

hogan, of the harque Seneca, Of Baltimore,
says he observed a meteor rise, with a tre-
mendous motion, in the northwest about loo
from the horizon, out of dark cloud said
meteor rising in the form Of a globe, and rs
it assembled increased in size until twas about
seventy degrees high, when it broke out into
the form of a comet with a tail about three
degrees in length. In this form il described
an arc in the heavens of over ninety degrees;
and in falling exploded into three small
globes, making a southeast course and barely
clearing the vessel. First appearance was
about the size of full moon, and expanded
into double that size The time it took to
describe the arc was about thirty seconds.
Professor Bartlett, of West Point Academy,
had peculiarly favorable opportunities for OBJ
servering the meteor. He states that ait
moved east apparently very slowly; its mo-
ton resembling that of a FIRE balloon propelled
by the burning of feeble rocket composition.
At nearly equal intervals it threw Off masses
of burning matter, which Immediately took
the shape and velocity of the principal body,
with however, greatly diminished luminosity;
the whole suggesting the idea of a parent fol-
lowed by numerous progeny, dotting her
path through the heavens. Just before it disap-
peared, the principal mass divided into two
nearly equal portions. The color which
was intensely bright, was at first blue and
then white, which at the close took a tinge of
yellow. The altitude seemed not greater
than that attained by ordinary signal rockets.
It lasted about one minute and quarter. It
must have had great altitude from the slow
ness of its apparent motion"
Meteors are usually most frequent about
the first of August and the middle of No
vember. One theory of astronomers in re-
gard to this fact is, that the path of the earth
at these times traverses a region of space
containing moving bodies, which take fire
on coming in contact with our atmosphere
Professor Bartlett's theory for the explanation
Of these phenomena is as follows:
"These bodies are of the nature of planets,
and circulate about the sun in orbits as uner-
ringly as their larger brethren When they
and the earth come simultaneously to these
points of their orbits which are nearest to-
gether, the action of the earth often becomes
superior to that Of the sun, and the small
masses are drawn to its surface. Plunging
with enormous velocity into our atmosphere,
these little bodies compress the air in front
and rub against it with such violence on the
sides, as TO produce heat enough to fuse, and
light sufficient TO illuminate the most refrac-
tory and darkest of substances. The exterior
and molten crust is swept to the rear by the
resisting air; new surface becomes exposed;
this, in its turn, is fused and carried back
ward, and so on till finally the whole track
Of the meteor is strewn with groups of disin-
tegratei and scintillating material"
1t is a well ascertained fact, says the N. Y.
Post that masses of stone and Jumps of iron
for erolites and meteors are the same thing,
differing only in SIZE and density-occasion-
ally fall from the upper regions of the atmos-
phere, and have done SO from the earliest
periods Of recorded history, often doing incal-
culable damage. On the 18th of April, 1903,
one ofthese bodies fell near the lower D. Aigle, /
in Normandy, and by its explosion scattered
its fragments over an area of thirty square
miles. Four instances are recorded Of per-
sons having been killed by the descent of such
bodies, Others ofmuch less density made their
appearance as shooting stars, followed by
trains of light They now and then appear
like great fiery balls traversing the upper re-
-gions of the atmosphere, sometimes leaving
long luminous trains behind them, sometimes
hr,rgAsr,rr Nth 1or11 and
becoming quietly extinct Among the latter
may be mentioned the remarkakable meteOrs
Of August, 1888, which traversed the whole
Of Europe, from Shetland to Rome, with ave
locity of thirty miles a second, at a hight Of
fifty miles above the earth, with a light
greatly surprising that of the full moon, and
a diameterof quite half mile.
On several occasions meteOrs have appeared
in astonishing numbers, following like a
shower of rockets or fakes of snow, illumin- |
ating at once whole continents and oceans in |
both hemispheres; and it is remarkable that
these displays have occurred in the early parts |
Of November and August From careful OBJ
servation made at the extremity of base !
fifty thousand feet long, it has been inferred |
that the heights of meteOrs at the instant of |
first appearance and disappearance vary from !
sixteen to one hundred and forty miles, and
their relative Yelocities from eighteen to thirty
six miles a second. Attitudes and velocities
as great as these indicate an Independent
planetary circulation about the sun. Pro-
fessOr Bartlett suggests as a condition of
things not impossible, that some Of these !
bodies may have been converted, by the su-
perior action Of the earth, arising from prox-
unity, into permanent satellites; and there
are those who believe in the existence of at
least one ofthese bodies which completes its
circuit about the earth in three hours twenty
minutes, and at mean distance of about five
thousand miles.