Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-11-13

Oric Displays OF Past Hears-Analy-
sis and Appearance of IErOlites.
A sensation OF no common kind may be
expected to occur next week. 1t Will prob
ably be noticeable during the intermediate
hours which end Tuesday and usher in
Wednesday, between II NJ. of the 18th and
8 A. M. of the l4th instants. SO ne aerial,
If not celestial visitors are then due at our
mundane hotel, and he who is on the watch
will likely "see stars" falling stars, or the
periodic return OF the grand stellar show
er, 80 called, which aroused SCIENCE aud
scared the ignorant into the mortal fear
that the end Of the world had come, and
perIition waiting, on the l4th Of Novem-
Der, 1888, very early in the morning. Many
now living well remember the terror with
which the phenomenon was then regarded.
During the three'hOurs OF les tendency the
day of Judgment was believed to be only
waiting for sunrise, and long alter the
shower had ceased the morbid and Ignorant
were of the sound conviction that the final
arTaignment was ut least only week
ahead. 10 tell how the Mayor of Philadel-
phia lowered himself down well; how
impromptu meetings for prayer were held
all over the land; how men sought to have
old debts settled in order TO carry clear
pecuniary balance into the expected eter-
nifty; and how the creditors insisted 1t
"was no use to talk dollars In the face Of
the general suspension of the universe, with
many other scenes of humOr and terror,
would take more space than the careful
exhibition OF the characteristics, the incl
dents, the known causes, and the appear
ance of the phenomenon will allow.
THE COMING METEoRIC SHOWER.
H. ...nt.ars,, oh lie
attributed to between the 18th and 18th OF
November is this: Between A. ID. 9O3 and
A. ID. 1888 not less than nineteen great star
fallings are recorded. A period of 33l1
wears, or an even multiple of that length of
time, has always elapsed as interval from
one stage of their occurrence to the next
and the next, and so on. The last one, "a
stated, was on the l4th of November, 1888.
the preceding shower came of on the same
day 80 years before. and previous to that
date in the same ratio of time. This turn-
isheS data and basis for astronomical
calculation, aud according to the conclusions
of the Greenwich Observatory professors,
next passage of the earth through the
meteoric grOupe will take place ON the
morning of November ii, two hours before
sunrise, A watch on the early morning OF
the 18th is recommended, as the moment OF
greatest stellar brilliance may very possibly
occur one day before the predicted time
The theory that dates the occurrence of the
| grand shower on the morning of the 14th
receives this further confirmation There
are two kinds of meteoric showers, periodic
aud sporadic, or occasional. The sporadic
have always been most frequently notice
| able on the l4th of various NOvembers
| yearly, but they are not sufficiently impos
ing to take them out of the sphere of or
! binary astronomical phenomena; yet thei
occurrence on tue 18th of November is 1
strong, conclusive probability in favor O.
| fixing their date regularly and annually a.
that time. The fact that every 33d sporadic
meteOric shower becomes of the vastCst pro-
portions has led to the calling of these large
showers periodic; hence the classification
Mostly, these sporadic displays are now on
ly specially noticed when an unusual mum
Der of meteors fall otherwise, they are re-
| garded as matter of course. The most re-
Inarkable in recent years of these meteOriC
showers, was that which occurred on No
vember 1914, 1865, when the maximum
display at Greenwich was 257 meteors pei
hour. The display this year Is expected t
be much greater-seyen hundred times
greater, something like the A2,000 PEE
| hour that characterized the last periodic
shower, off Boston, in 1888. .... ..,....
THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF PERIODIC
| METEoRIC SHOWERS.
The term meteor signifies any phenome
non of short duration occurring in the at
mosphere. They are, Of course, thus
various, such as meteors of rain, snow, fog
and hail, termed aqueous, while the effect
produced by the passage of these aqueous
particles through the air are called lumi
nous meteOrs. The phenomena of lightning
arolites. shooting stars, sc. are technicall!
termed igneous mcteors. But in best un
derstood language the term meteor is ap
piled only to those bodies that as globula
fire or shooting-stars are now and then seel
hurtling in space at unknown distance
from the earth and in unknown orbits. Tn,
fact of their solidity appears from their oc
casionally throwing upon our earth's sur
face fragments of stone, or "meteOri" iron
whose heat is intense. and whose ascertain
ed substance is composed of the following
elements:
ANALYSIS OF THE ERoLITE.