Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-12-15
mErEoRs-WHAr THEY ARE.

almanacs used to say, ''about those
days" So far as yet ascertained in this
country nothing very unusual for That
period Of the year did occur on those
nights. Meteors were visible wherever
the sky vas clear, but in no very extra
ordinary numbers. On the 18th perhaps
as many as thirty brilliant ones were
noted, leaving a sort Of comet-like tail
behind one of them for a minute or so,
while it is said that five hundred alto
gether were seen on that nightin Wash
ington, and many on the 18th. Still, all
this is literally nothing to what was
expected from the analogy of 1888 and
1899. The difference in the sharpness
of peoples eyes, and the patient close
ness of their attention to natural phe-
nomena, where strikingly manifest in
regard to these meteors. As a general
thing, those whose reasoning powers are
strongest are not so good at observing
facts as those who care less for the pa
tient search after causes. 1t takes
the union of the two TO make II good
astronomical observer. Many were
pleased to consider themselves disap-
pointed because there was no more
brilliant display. The injustice of such
will be apparent il they consider that
one night was quite cloudy in 4 good
many places; that if our side of the
earth passed through the meteoric re-
gion in the daytime we should see
nothing of it; and that we may yet hear
of a very brilliant display having taken
place at some other point Of our globe.
But above all, il should be remembered,
as we point out, that some Of the very
best authorities had calculated that the
| phenomenon Of 1893 would not recur
until the thirty-fourth year, instead of
| the thirty-third; that is, in 1861 the
grand illumination ought to take place.
In 1864, DR.. Alexander Wilcocks read
before the American Philosophical So
ciety an essay on the whole of this sub
ject, and the influence of Ether in the
Solar System, which was published in
their Transactions of that year, and to
which we refer such Of our readers rs
may be induced to patiently consider
some of the very important facts and
~reasoningS which are being accumulated
on this subject. A short digest Of the
theory there ~propounded is all we can
give, but its importance demands Il
more extensive and patient considera-
ton.
DR.. Wilcocks believes that the mete-
oric stones that fall to the earth are, in
point Of fact. composed Of particles of
| iron shot out ofthe luminous atmosphere
| of the sun, or rather carried with i'm
mense rapidity and forced out into space
by an upward current of ether from the
| centre of the sun, and which he thinks
reach our earth in about eighteen days.
The stream of metallic vspor, reaching
| the earth's orbit at the time and place
where the planet is passing, is ignited
by our atmosphere and produces the
| phenomena of a shower Of shooting
stars. The portions of the suns surface
| from which these metals escape are few
and limited, and the stream Of meteors
November 18th, 1899, and 1888, issued
from one and the same spot upon the
suns surface.
1t has been proved by the spectroscope
OF Messrs. Buusen & Krickof, that the
sun throws off light containing iron, So
dunn, lithium and other metals, in a
yaporouS state. The Doctor thinks
that u portion of the metals in the solar
atmosphere escape without undergoing
the chemical change which produces
the light and heat and that the vapor'
Gus metals are by the ascending curren,
of ether carried to the region Of the
planets.
In confirmation of this view, he shows
that there is an ether beyond our atmos-
phere, a fluid of infinite subtlety, not SO
dense as the contents of an exhausted
receiver, yet endowed with a certain
amount of gravity and elasticity, like
other matter, and capable of retarding,
therefore, though very slightly, the mo-
tons of comets; that there must be ire
mendous currents of this ether produced
by the heat and motion of the sun; that
that heat is less at the two poles, and
greatest at the center, where it is at
least 300, 900 times as great as that pro-
duced by its rays on the surface of our
planet. At the equatorial zone of the
sun there is, therefore, al ascending
current of ether, while at the poles the
current descends.
In addition to this, 1t must De oorne
in mind that the sun revolyes on its axis
in 25.5 days, so that 4sT of these rota-
tons will take place in l2,4ls.5 days,
while 81 years of 365, 256 will be equal
to l2,4lS,7 04. The difference between
the two periods is, therefore, only two
tenths of a day, or four hours and forty
eight minutes.
Thus it is proved that any part OF the
suns surface turned toward the earth
at any given point in its orbit in 1873
was also turned to the earth at the same
point in its orbit in 1888, and will be
again in 1867 and 1901. It is therefore
believed that there may be ethereal
volcanoes in certain spots Of the suns
surface, shooting but into these tremen-
dous currents unconsumed iron vapors,
which reach our earth once in thirty
four years, take FIRE on reaching our