Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1879-11-26
A STAR SROWER.

On or about the 9th OF the present
month it is predicted that we shall see,
If the weather be favorable, metoric
shower similar to the great one OF
nearly half century ago, which left
such an enduring impression upon
those who witnessed it, That event
took mankind by surprise, but since
that time science has been busy study
ing the how and why and is now able
not only to account Tor those brilliant
phenomena of the past but even TO
predict their recurrence with tolerable
precision. On or about the 9th inst.
the earth will pass through the train
Of meteoroids which follow the path Of
the now extinct comet of Biela. These
iragamentary bodies, now dark, when
they come within the atmosphere of
the earth will be ignited like lucifer
matches by the friction, SO enormously
rapid is the motion through space, and
will blaze out like minute suns in the
black vault Of night. Some of them
may actually fall to the earth as me
teoric stones but by far the greater
number will be consumed entirely and
reduced to their constituent vapors.
These meteors, should the prediction
be fulfilled, will seem to radiate from
a point in the Northern heavens near
Casseop9ia, not that all nor even very
many will actually start from that
point, but the line of their apparent
paths produced backward would cen.
ter at or near that part of the sky.
Metcors that move in other directions
on the night in question will not be Of
the Biela system and will belong to
another class. The history of this
train of metcoric bodies, invisible ex-
cept when fixed by the friction of the
earth's atmosphere, is remarkable
one. 1t is the history of scattered
and ruined comet. In 1926 Biela
discovered the comet, then in good re
pair, and by calculation 1t was found
that its period of revolution was about
81 years. Its reappearance were duly
noted. When it came back in 1916,
however, it had suffered remarkable
accident. II had been possibly in a
row with some of the other planetoids
and had got bitten in two. Certainly
there were two Of them chasing each
other through the sky. This com.
etary team continued to come back on
time until 1872, though showing signs
OF distress, but in that year it failed to
appear 1t seems TO have dissipated.
But the Biela comet, though invisible,
had stretched out into long line Of
tiny fragments, sort Of burial process.
sion Of a dead comet, and waited for
the earth to furnish the friction to
light up its funeral torches. This it
did in 1872 and this, according to ex-
pcctation, il will do again on or about
Thanksgiving night. The display OF
1872, visible in Europe but not here,
was magnificent. Ten thousand five
hundred and seventy.nine meteors
were counted at the Glasgow Observa.
tory. Ia Italy four observers, selecting
the four quarters of tine Heavens so as
not to duplicate, counted 33,400 shoot
ing stars. The most brilliant period
lasted only about four minutes, when
the "radiant point" seemed actually
ablaze with the multitudes of meteors.
Prot. Proctor, from whose contribution
to Beigrdria the leading facts of the
foregoing article are taken, does not
make the prediction Of the meteoric
shower with any pretense to such pre-
cision as is attainable in dealing with
planetary bodies. He does not an.
nounce it with certainty as he might
an eclipse or an occulation, but puts it
forth as scientific expectation merely,
net knowing the hour Of its occurrence
nor even certainly that II will come at
all. 1t is, however, well worth watch.
ing for, for II the night be cloudless,
the display will be magnificent beyond
all description. Such athing, in fact,
happens only two or three times in
century. - Baltimore Gazette.