The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-11-19
THE FAILING STARS.

Many persons now living, we'll remember
the terror with which the wonderful phenom-
snon of falling stars was regarded on Tie
18th of November 1888. Daring the thres
hours Of its tendency the day Of judgement
was believed to De only waiting for sunrise,
and long after the shower had ceased the
morbid and ignorant were of the sound con.
viction that the final arraignment was at least
only q week ahead. To tell how the mayor
of Philadelp hia lowered himself down a we'll;
how impromptu meetings for prayer were
held ell over the. land how men sought to
have old debts settled, In order to carry a
clear pecuniary balance into the expected
eternity and how the creditors insisted that
it "was no use to talk dollars" in the face Of
the general suspense of the universe with
many other scenes of humor and terror,
would take more space than the careful exhi-
bition of the characteristics, the incidents,
the known cause, and the appearance of the
phenomenon will allow.
In many places, in New England, where
Millsr's doctrine of the end of the world was
believed, the metoric shower was, to them, an
evidence of its truth.
The New York World says:
The reason why the metoric showers is attributed
to between the 18th and 14th of Der is this
Between A ID. 903 and A. d. 1888, not less than
nineteen great star fallings recorded. period
of 33t years, or an even multiple of that time, has
always elapsed as interval from state of their
occurrence to the next and the next and The
last one, as stated, the l4th of November,
1888: the preceding shower came off on the same
day 80 years BEFORE and previous to that data in the
ratio of time. This furnishes a data and ba-
sis for astronomical calculation. The theory that
dates the occurrence of the grand shower the
morning of the l4th receives this further confrma
ton There are two kinds of metoric showers, peri
odie and sporadic, occasional. The sporadic have
always been most frequently notceble the 14th of
various NoveIb ers yearly, but they not sufhc-
iently imposing to take them of the sphere of
ordinary astronomical phenomena; yet their occur
renee the 18th of November is strong, conclu-
sve probability in favor OF fixing their date regular
ly and annually at that time The fact that every
SD sporadic meteorc shower becomes of the
proportions had led to the calling of these large
showers periodic; hence the ella ssication. Mostly,
these sporadic displays are now only specially no
ticed when unusual number of meteors fall 9TH
erwise, they regarded \ matter of course The
most remarkable in recent years of these metsoric
showers was that which occurred November 13-
IA, 1865, when the maximum display at Greenwich
was PSI meteors per hour.
The display, in 1889, according to the cal
culations made. was something like 242, 900
per hour.
The conclusions of the Greenwich Observa-
tory professors was. that the shower this year
would bs. ON a similarly grand scale, and take
place between the hour of midnight of the
18th and some two hours befors sunrise of
the l4th. We have reports from the
Greenwich, England, and also from the Chi.
cago observatories, that the shower did take
place, as expected, though the falling was not
near as large as expected, or the weather
was so thick, and cloudy, that the falling
stars could not be seen in SO great numbers.
THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF PERIODIC METEOR
&c SHOWERS.
The term meteor signifies any phenomenon
of short duration occurring Ia the atmos-
phsre. They are, OF course, thus various,
such as mete0rs OF rain, snow, fog, and hail.
termed aqueous, while the effect produced by
the passage of those aqueous particles thro'
the air are called luminous meteors The
phenomena of Tightening, aeroIitss. shooting
stars, &c., are technically termed igneous me
teors. But in best understood language the
term meteor is applied only to those bodies
that as globular fire OF shooting stars are now
and then seen hurting in space at unknown
distances from the earth and in unknown Or
bits. The fact of their solidity appears from
their occasionally throwing upon our earth's
surfaca fragments of stone, or meteoric iron,
whose heat is intense, and whose ascsrtained
substance is composed of the following ele-
ments:
ANALYSIS OF THE AERoLITE
Iron. ......5722 Phosphorus .......13.92
Cobalt. 80 Alumina ......... ..I.63
Silica. ..163 Copper ..unascertsined
Chlorine ...........0 13 Zinc .......unascertaned
Nickel. ...........25.S2