Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1868-10-02
An Extraordinary Meteer-it Affects
Magnetic INSTRUMENTS.

Rio JANEIRo, Brazil, August 8, 1868. "A
meteor or mrolite, was observed at early
morn on the 3Oth of July, passing in a
southwest direction from Rezende, in the
south of the province OF Rio Janeiro, into
San Paulo. scientific gentleman, named
DR. Franklin Massena, Glanced to be look
ing at the horizon from the observatory at
Itataya, and has communicated his obser-
vations which are interesting from the
fact that the meteor exerted great influence
on the magnetic instruments as it passed
The following is his communication:
Suddenly towards the. east at almost 80
deg. of the meridian, | saw an immense
and beautiful erolite crossing to the south
west / called Messfs. Arsenic and Veja,
and togetherwe watched the disappearance
of the luminous body and its form and mo-
ton. Its form was that of globe, having
an apparent diameter Of about 43 min, and
a tail of 8 deg, in an elliptical curve, ex-
tending into space with an inclination of
about 30 deg The tail was of an oval form
and very divergent toward the part away
from the nucleus. The motion was made
by the nucleus, the tail following it's track
Both the tail and nucleus were as brilliant
as electrical light, and emitted some lumi-
nous drop or tear-like particles, which
threw out silvery sparkles with incredible
rapidity. @
Six minutes after its meridian passage
the body exploded toward the southwest.
Such was the rapidity with which it
moved that in IL seconds it traversed celes
tial area of ~ degrees, 81 minutes, losin g
itself behind hill at hours, SO minutes,
80 seconds, or IL hours, So minutes, so
seconds of true solar time.
This arolite so disturbed the magnetic
instruments that the declinometer turned its
pole from the north toward the west and
stuck itself in the box, where 1t found re-
sistance; the horizontal magnometer turn
ed toward the west eight divisions of the
scale: the vertical magnometer fell in its
centre of gravity; and finally the compass
oscillated Is degrees from north to west. |
showed Senior Arsenic the disturbed state
of the declinometer. Tt is, therefore, de-
monstrated for physics that an mrolite has
an intense action on the North Pole of mag
nets, powerfully attracting them. r.t-.
The following are some mathematical ell
ements of the orb of this body. Meridian
passage, hours, SIS minutes, 33 seconds,
on July so, 1868; defamation, So degrees
south; vertical distance, ~ deg, 32 min
utes setting, so deg, 10 minutes, west by
south. With these data the orbit OF the
erolite is found to have IL degrees 40 min
utes. of inclination upon the line of the
earth's rotation, with its movement con-
trary to that of the earth.
At six o'clock, at the movement of de-
tonation, the state of the atmosphere to be
taken into account for the calculation of
distance, was: Barometer, 5Si.3: Thermo-
meter c., s degrees, 3 minutes; Hyg,, of
relative humidity, 76.5; sky clear and cold;
wind northwest, weak. This motion ofthe
serolite was followed by q noise like silk
dragged over the ground The aerolite
must have passed between ItaIuba and
Guatatingueta, and it remains W to lind
out where it fell in order to ascertain its
SIZE