The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1875-09-25

From a Lecture by Prof. II. A. Newton, at the
shefied Scientific School Of Yale College
suppose that each one of you has often
seen shooting star. On clear night
you have seen bright point Of light travel
quickly across the sky, as though star
had been shot from its place in the tirma.
ment. 1t may, if it was large one, have
broken into sparks as it disappeared, or
have left cloudy train along part of its
path for an instant, and perhaps it was so
faint even that you could not be quite sure
that you saw anything. Some Of you have
seen these shooting stars by hundreds in
star showers
Until near the close Of the last century,
poets dreamed, and other men guessed,
about these objects, but knew nothing
Two German students, Brandes and Ben
zenberg, found out that and told us that
those bright flights were in the upper part
Of the atmosphere.
From the two ends of the city, track
always appeared to be in the same part Of
the heavens; but when one went to vii.
liage many miles away; a track was seen
by the two persons in different parts Of the
sky. Hence they were able to measure
the height Of the shooting stars from the
ground
We now know how that these luminous
paths are rarely less nor more than ninety
miles from the earth. We also know that any
shooting star was q small body Of unknown
size, perhaps not larger than pebble or
grain of sand even, undoubtedly solid,
which has been travelling around the sun
in its own independent orbit, like any
planet or comet. Its path came within
four thousand miles Of the earth's centre,
and so the small body struck into the
earth's atmosphere. Its velocity was 50
great-ffty or hundred times that Of
cannon ball--that even in our rare upper
atmosphere an intense light and heat was
developed by the resistance, and the body
was scattered into powder or smoke
These bodies, before they come into the
air, / call meteoroids. Il is only when
they have reached our atmosphere and
begin to burn that we ever sec them. They
are then within ninety miles Of the ground.
Brandes, one Of the two German students
spoken Of, was riding in an open post
wagon on the night Of December 6, 1898,
and saw and counted several hundred Of
these shooting stars or meteors. At times
they came as fast as six or seven minute.
Those meteors which Brande ssaw that
night we know we're bits from Biela's comet.
In November, 1888, occurred the ia
nous star shower, which some of you saw.
The facts Of that shower gave to two New
Haven men, Professors Twining and 0lm-
stead, the clue to the true theory Of the
shooting stars. From that date shooting
stars have belonged to astronomy. The
November meteors were admitted new
constituent Of the solar system. Three
years later NJ Quetelet, Of Brussels, found
that shooting stars are 10 be seen in unu-
sual numbers about the tenth Of August
Of each year. A few months afterward
Mr.. Hsrrick made Independently the same
discovery; but he also told us of star show
ers in April and January. What Brandes
had seen in December, 1898, led Mr..
Hcrrick, moreover, to expect a like shower
in other Decembers, and he asked that
shooting stars bo looked for on the 9Th
and 7th Of December, 1888. This shrewd
guess was justified, for on the evenings
Of these days hundreds Of these meteors
were seen in America, in Europe and in
Asia by persons thus induced to look for
them. These shooting stars, also, had
once been part Of Biela's comet, though
this fact was not dreamed Of at that time.
In the course Of time we came to know
more about the meteoroids; that in general
they moved in long drifts like comets,
rather than round ones, like planets; that
some Of them were grouped In long, thin
streams, many hundred millions miles
long, aud that It was BY the earth 8 plunr.
ing through these that we have star show
ers; that the space Travelled over by the
earth has in il everywhere some Of those
small bodies, probably the outlying mem
bers Of hundreds Of meteoroid streams.
Also the periodic time and the path q
the stream Of November meteoroids werI
found out. Thea came the interesting
discovery shnt in this stream and in tha
Of the August meteoroids lay tho path O
two comets. Then DR.. Weiss, Of Vienna
showed that the meteors seen by Brande,
IN 1873, and BY Hcrrick, in 1898, az vel
a. many mefeor4 sem rnar HAna<oh6x 4 !,