Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1874-07-22

For some days in FEBRUARY the companion
was the brighter of the two. Presently
three tails were seen running from the
primary, aud three comeiary fragments
(one observer says fvel around its nucleus.
Whet could it all meanl Do you wonder
that astronomers were excited by these
wizard changes
In 1852 the comet was always at
great distance from the earth, and only
to be seen through the largest telescope.
The changes of size and brightness of the
two comets were remarkable, and as they
could but just be seen, sometimes one
and sometimes the other alone was visible;
which one it was that person saw at any
time was only told by computation after
ward.
The two comets we're now eight or ten
times as far apart as they had been seven
years before, ,250,000 miles, Prot. Hub.
bard found that he could not tell which
following, IN 1852. One suppositiou
agreed as we'll with the observations as
the other.
Since September, 1852 with one doubt
ed exception to spoken Of ),neither of the
two Biela comets have been seen. In 1859
their path was to us behind the sun. In
1866, better chance for seeing them
could hardly be. They were at all times
to be away from the suns light and when
nearest to the earth not more than one
fifth the suns Distance. The paths we're
carefully computed, and the action of all
the planets. notably that or Jupiter. al
lowed fer A dozen observers for months
sweeps the heavens with their telescopes,
but nor the slightest trace of the comets
was seen.
Again, they should have come to peri
heion year ago last Autumn (Oct. 6,
1879, but, as | suppose. neither OF them
was seen. With the loss Of its hero, our
story would seem to come to an end.
must ask your indulgence, however, for
another chapter.
! suppose that each one of you has Of
ten seen a shooting star. On a clear
night you have seen a bright point OF
light travel quickly across the sky as
though a star had been shot from its place
in the armament. 1t may, if it was a
large one, have broken into sparks us 1t
disappeared, or have left cloudy train
along part Of its path for an instant, or
perhaps it was SO faint even that you
could not be quite sure that you saw any.
thing. Some of you have seen these
shootlng-starS by hundreds in star show
ers. t
Until near the close Of the last century
poets dreamed, and other men guessed,
about these objects, but knew nothing.
Two German students, Bradcs and Ben
zenberg. found out, and tod us, that
these bright flights were in the upper
parts OF the atmosphere. From the two
ends of the city track always appeared
to be in the same part of heavens. But
when one went to a village many miles
away track was seen by tho two persons
lat A and b. in dieffelnt parts of the
sky. Hence they were able to measure
the hight Of the shootiDg-stars from the
ground. f4It
We now know that these lun,iuous
paths are rarely less than 40 miles or
more than 60 miles from the earth We
also know that any shooting star was a
small body, Of unknown size, perhaps not
larger than pebble or grain Of coarse
sand even, undoubtedly solid, which has
been travelling around the sun 10 its own
Independent orbit, like hny planet or
comet. Its path came within 4 1000 miles
of the earih's center, and so the small
body struck into the earth's atmosphere.
Its velocity was so great-hfty or q hun
dred times greater than that Of cannon
ball-that even in our rare upper atmos-
phcre an intense light and heat was de-
veloped by the resistance, and the body
was scattered IN powder or smoke. These
bodies, before they came into the air, !
call meteoroids. 1t is only when they
have reached our atmosphere and begin
to burn that we ever see them. They are
then within 80 miles Of tie ground.
Braudes, one of the two German stu
dents spoken of, was riding on an open
90 the night Of December 6,
1913, and say and counted hundreds Of
these shooting stars or meteors. Attimes
they came as fast as six OF seven a min.
ute. Those meteors which Brados saw
that night we now know were bits from
Biela's comet. In November, 1888, oc-
Cured the famous star-shuwer which some
of YOU saw. The facts of that shower
gave to two New-Haven men, Prof. Twin
ing and Prof. Olmstead, the clue to the
true theory of the shooting stars. From