Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1869-05-08
ASHTABULA, OHIO, SATURDAY, MAY s, 1869.
The Northern Lights.

The beautiful exhibition Of the North
ern Lights witnessed by the inhabitants
Of Manhattan Island, on the 18th ult..
covered vast extent Of land and sea-
From Nova Scotia and Canada north
ward, and Maryland and Virginia in the
south, we have reports Of the splendid
heavenly display. We have no definite
report of its eastern or western bound
airy. Within the Artic Circle it may
have bclted the globe On our line Of
latitude forty-ope north) the exhibition
appears TO have been brightest in this
metropolitan district but even here il
"paled its Intellectual fires" before the
more brilliant display at Montreal. We
have no doubt that the exhibition was
one of surprising splcndor and sublimi.
ty within the latitudes of Central Green
land and Alaska. These wonderful lights
come from the icy regions round the
Pole. They are, we may say, phospho-
resent and electrical, aud although they
rise above the carth's atmosphere they
reach to the earth's surfaces. and in a
strong current or succession of waves.
as In the air, they run along the ground.
We have the evidence of this fact in the
working of various telegraph lines for
several hours without the aid of the
usual batteries.
Our idea of the celestial illumination
is that to us it was but the outer edges
of a great electrical cloud drifting down
to us from the icy laboratory round the
Pole. Yet within this city, as an obser.
yer near the Cooper Institute informs MS,
at near eleven O'Clock p. M, the central
point OF the display was exactly over
head. Right overhead there appeared
70 be circular opening in the luminous
vapor which otherwise seemed to fill the
air, and the color of this opening NAV
be described as a deep "invisible green.h
Radiating from this opening, like the
rays Of light streaming out from the set
ting moon behind hill, or like the spokes
from "the hub of the universe" were
numerous luminous lines, and bars, and
and lights and shades of different huos,
but chiefly of phosphorcscent white
ness, which feebly famed till faded out
like the traces of lucifer match on the
wall. The changing combinations and
dissolving views of this wonderful exhi-
''''O' "NiN "a III, NI ~ oOlb duu ueIl-
cate that it was exceedingly difficult to
mark any passing transformation. The
radii from the hub were comparatively
short on the south side, extending less
than thirty degrees from the zenith,
while norrhward they descended to the
great bank of the transparent but still
dense electrical vapor hich lay around
the horizon.
The radiation referred 10 shows that
this luminous vapor at the time was all
above the winds of the earth's atmos-
phere tor otherwise it would be driven
in parallel lines across the sky, or in ir-
regular lines with the battling currents
OF the upper air. That which we have
described as an opening in the sky over
head was perhaps a dense body of elec-
trical elements from which the rays in
dicated were supplied. At all events
the display was exceedingly interesting,
and its solution has, so far, pazzleL our
profoundest philosophers. In fact,
There more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamed OF in our philosophy.
.H. NJ Y TyoroyI