Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-11-24
THANKSGIVING ILLUMINATION

Predictions Of general COmmotlOn
Emons the stars have hecn quite numer-
Gus OF late. but nothing in the way oi a
sensation has rewarded those whose
faith has led them to watch at the cx-
pense of nights sleep.
Prof PRoCroR, a learned gentleman
connected with the University at BaIti-
more, delivered lecture last week, in
which he explains the phenomcnaof the
brilliant meteOric shower which OC-
Cured about forty or fifty years ago,
which lett such an enduring impress
sion upon those who witnessed it,
and about which we OF the present gen
Grafton have heard our mothers relate
such stories as made us "sce stars
Prof. PRoCroR tells Us that since that
time astronomers have been studying
the how and the why Of this remark
able occurrence, and are now able to ac-
count for it iutelligcnt,y, rs well as to
predict It's recurrence with tOlerable pre-
cisOn.
1t the weather be iayorablea mcteoric
shower similar to the one referred to is
expected ON the night OF Thursday next,
which will be Thanksgiving night,
Prot PEoCrER explains that the earth
will then pass through the train OF mete-
oroids which follow the path Of the now
extinct comet Biela. These fragment
ary bodies, now dark, when they come
within the atmosphere Of the earth will
be ignitei like luciier matches by the
friction. so enormously rapid is the mo-
ton through space. and will blaze min
ute suns in the black vault oil night.
Some oi them may actually fall tn the
earth Us me,r0ric stones, butby far the
greater number will be consumed en-
tircly and reduced to their constituent
vapors. These mctcoIs, should the
prediction be fulfilled, will seem
% radlate from a point in the
Northern heavens near CaSScopWia, not
that all nor even very many will actual
" start from that point, but the line OF
their apparent paths produced back
warl would ccRtcr at or near that part
Of the sky. Mctcors that move in other
directions on the night in question will
not he Of the Biela system, and will be-
long to another class. The history Of
this train of meteOric bodies, invisible
except when fired by the friction OF the
earth's atmosphere, is aremarkablc one.
II is the history OF a shattered and
ruined comet. In 1926, BIELA discov-
cred the comet, then in good repair, and
by calculation it was found that its per-
iod of revolution was about % years. Its
Temperatures were duly noted. Whenit
came back in 1916, however, it had suf-
ierrd a remarkable accident. 1t had
possibly been in a row with some Ofthe
other planetojds and had got bitten in
two. Certainly there We're two of them
chasing each other through the sky.
This comctary team continued to come
back on time until 1872, though show
ING signs of distress, but in that "car it
failed to appear. Il seems to have dis
sipa,ed. But the Biela comet, though
invisible, had stretched ont into long
line OF tiny fragments, sort OF burial
procession OF 4 deal comet, and only
waited for the earth TO furnish the
friction to light up its funeral
torches. This it did in 1872, and this,
according To expectation, j; will do
again on or about Thanksgiving night.
The display Of 1872. visible in Europe
but no; here, was magnificent. Ten
thousand five hundred and seventy
nine meteors were counted at the elias
Cow observatory. In Italy four OBJ
servers, selecting the four quarters OF
the heavens so rs not TO duplicate,
counted So, 400 shooting stars. The
most brilliant period lasted only about
four minutes, when the radiant point
seemed actually ablaze with the multi
tudes of meteOrs.
The prediction a. to the time Of this
metoric shower is not made with the