The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-09-04
Meseors and n1.,eorlo Showers.

0S~oASS &AtsS 80
for the public, and that little diversion
from the all-absorbing and distraoting
subjects of Federal and State politics
might be agreeable to your readers. You
have, in more than one number Of your
paper, called attention to the meteoric
displays. with which we have been re-.
Gently visited. An allusion to few OF
the facts connected with them may be
interesting. The principal displays are
periodic; they come in countless numbers.
and the number is unaffected by season,
climate and weather. The apparent
magnitudes are very different; for while
the greater part seem to be the size of
stars OF the Sd, 4th, 9Th and 9Th magui-
tudes, some surpass Venus and Jupiter
in brilliancy. The term smeteor" is
made also to include the brilliant masses
of matter which are seen moving through
our atmosphere. and which, with loud
explosions, throw off fragments which
reach the earth. The fragments are
called meteorio stones or Drolites. There
is more general sense which includes
all the atmospheric phenomena. But I
conhne myself to meteorio displays and
mrolites. There are two regular periods
for the meteorio showers; one about the
18th August. the other about the 18th
November. The display in August is
not as striking as that of November,
though it occurs annually. The earth
encounters the elliptic orbit which this
meteorio mass describes round the sun
and goes straight through the ring of
meteors. The November mass takes
thirty three years to complete it's reyolu-
ton around the sun and Crosses the
earth's path at the point where the earth
is on the day above mentioned. It ap-
pears for three successive years, with d.
minishing numbors.
The observation of this phenomenon
dates far back in the history of astrono-
my, but the great interest which it has
awakened has been produced by the dis
covery of its periodicity. No longer re-
garded as casual occurrences, they are
now known to be as much the subjects of
low as the sun and the planets. I will
notice briefly one or two OF the most re-.
markable displays. Humboldt gives an
account OF an exhibition of shooting
stars and fre-bslls, which he witnessed
with Bonpland, on the coast of Mexico,
on the morning OF the 18th of Novem-
Der, 1893. Many OF them appeared to
explode, and some of them had nucleus
apparently equal to Jupiter. It is on
record that the spectacle was witnessed
at the same time in many parts of the
earth, and it is noticed by Ramsay in his
History of South Carolina. On Tuesday
morning. 18th November, 1899, from a
little after midnight until daylight, the
armament of Charleston exhibited sin
gular but splendid phenomenon. Instead
OF few solitary meteors sporting along
the sky, which IS not unfrequent, they
appeared in countless numbers, darting
appearance OF this uncommon phenome-
non. the weather was very CALI; yet the
fears of some timid persons were 80 ex-
in all directions, that tn pprehended
that the day OF juo" and confagra-
tion of the wor'' ..., at hand. On the
night OF tb -th November. 1888. one
of the grandest displays ever witnessed
States. November 14th, 1867, the shower
appeared again with its usuul splendor.
We need not look for any great display
next November. Msteors and prolites,
singly or in small numbers, visit US daily
~ WV tuoJ dI0
seen to fall in masses of various sizes,
and are too hot to be touched when
found. The museums of the world con-
tain hundreds of specimene. ALI of them
have certain external characters, and O
chemical composition which enables the
chemist to recognize them whenever
presented. These facts arc regarded as
proofs of q common origin. whatever
that origin may be. There is something
startling in the estimated size of some
of these stones. DR.. Bowditch has gi ven
US paper upon the extraordinary mro.
lite that exploded over the town of IVES
ton, Conn, December II, 1907. His
purpose vas to make en- estimate of it's
height, direction, velocity and magni-
tude. Let me give some of the results
reached by this greatest of our mathe.
maticians, the La Place of America. It's
course was in direction parallel to the
surface of the earth, and it's height was
about eighteen miles. Its velocity was
over three miles second. The magni-
tude presented the greatest difficulty, as
the apparent diameter was not measured
exactly by any observer. The least of
all tho limits OF the diameter was 401
feet, and this gives cubic bulk of
6,OO0, 900 tons. But small fragment