The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1872-10-01

METE0RITEs, THEIR ORIGIN.

It is most curious but, notwithstanding
this, well-established fact, that sometimes
stones fall from the sky, and formerly the
most absurd hypothesis were invented to ex-
plain their formation, IN the upper strata of
our atmosphere, by the condensation of va
pors of solids, as hailstones are formed by the
congelation of the vapor of water. Towards
the end of the former century, LaPlace sought
their origin at a greater distance; he concluded
that as gravitation ON the moon is some four
times smaller than on the earth, it might be
possible that the volcanoes there could propel
stones with such a force as to go beyond the
limits of lunar attraction into the sphere of
terrestrial gravitation, as a velocity double or
triple that which we can give to a cannon-ball
would be sufficient to accomplish this result ;
this hypothesis was accepted for a time, not
withstanding the objections of astronomers
and chemists, the former proving that the OBJ
served velocity of the bodies, and the force
with which they strike the earth, were much
greater than they could possibly obtain from
source so near as the moon; in fact, astrono-
mers proved that aerolites possess planetary
velocity Chemists, from their side, pointed
out that the chemical composition of aerolitcs
was by no means that of matters elected from
volcanoes, but that they were compounds of
metals as found in earth, but combined in o
way different from any terrestrial mineral
known; i'll fact, that the greater number of
aerolites We're imperfectly mixed alloys of
iron and nickel, with A to IA per cent. of phos-
po fba
in the quantity of 60, the nickel of 81 per
cent. Ghladni, in the beginning of this CEN
tury founded his theory in regard to the origin
of the aerolites on the opinion of Kepler, who
maintained that there were more comets and
smaller bodies of different kinds flying about
in space than fishes in the ocean, Chladni's
theory was that, in the interplanetary and in
terstellar spaces, small masses of solid matter
are moving about in countless numbers either
in regular or irregular orbits and that when
they happen to come within the spear of
gritvitating attraction of any planet, they will
fall towards the surface with velocity the re-
sultant of their own planetary velocity ptus
the newly acquired velocity of gravitation,
minus the resistance of the air which sur
rounds the planet. On reaching its surface,
these vele cities are destroyed and the neees-
sary consequence is the evolution of heat
this being nothing but molecular motion, the
metamorphosis Of mass motion when the lat
ter is forcibly prevented from continuing.
This accounts for the heat of the masses when
picked up Immediately after their fall, while
the train of fire exhibited in many instances
is easily explained by the consideration that
they. originally may contain combustble sub
stances which had no chance to burn in the
highly rarefied interplanetary medium but
coming in contact with the oxygen in our more
dense atmosphere, and that with the immense
planetary velocity, the friction, combined with
chemical action, raised the temperature rapidly
to the point of combustion.