The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-08-25
The Bombardmento of the Earth

Its lucky for us that the earth has
such a good bomb proof on The >k-~
ward side said the Astronomer OIL
Wednesday morning asst as be stood
c~oatless and bareheadei on the root
watching the August meateors.
why g. asked the reporter. painting
IS he clambered up through The sclttIe
hole.
"You'I have seen reason enou N II
sou had been M here with me for he
iast two houis, said the astronomer.
Why, the earth has been undergoing
a regular bombsrdmeRt. It's not over
vet. Look . that fellow. how 10
skins You would call it a shooting
star. Well there Is much reason for
calling il a celestial shell. Ii those
British artillerists could give heir pro-
~jcctiles q velocity like that, they might
plant plant their guns on the Wt'sh
mountain. and shell every troublesome
tenant IN ireland our Of his hut. That
meteor was moving twenty or thirty
miles a second; yet it could not get
through the bomb-proof that protects
the earth
Where is the bomb proof r.
W ny. llSLl 4AutI NOAI Hps' All
around you; it's the atmosphere. Wien
the meteoIoiis strike the ar thst .Ir
rounds the earth the heat PRODUCES IN
consequence OF their tremendous
velocity runs up a million degrees o.
more a second, and in a twinkling the,
are changed to v.por. If they coui6
get through the atmosphere they would
make it lively for Us. No man coulG
tell at what instant he might he struck
down by a shot from the sky, for II etsor-
olss are ~plunging into the atmosphere
all the time al 1.-THE rate OF several million,
q day for the whole earth. At certain
times. as about the 10th Of Auguz, aud
III. 18th of November. they COM il
showers and fairly lombard tn Earth.
The soft air that fans The cheek is to
most of these projcctiles from space as
impenetrable as a wall Of steel. Some
Of them, however, are able to penetrate
10 the earth, but they are comparative
Y very few in number. When a ME,
ttOrOld strikes the earth it is called an
aerolits. No good museum Of NINE
IalCgy is without or mole specimens
Of these black cru.ted, lronlike bodies.
I Humboldt tells Of two monks who
were killed by ttem, one at Crema in
1911, the other at Milan, in 1850. He
also relates that two Swedish saiioi-
were killed by an a%erolite on board
their ship in 1914. The thatched roofs
OF house. have been set on fire bv
aeroliteS, and shsep and other animals
have been killed in the fields by them
Some think it was shower OF aerolltes
that overwhelmed the Amorites atteI
they had been whipped 10y Joshua, a
described in the bible"
But these are rather ancient IL
stances"
well. there are modern I~ns,aHcc>
enough. We are no safer than ouI
forefathers. Hardly a year passes wlth
out one or mors masses Of meteoTic
stone falling in the neighborhood Of
human h~abitations. In 1873 a German
farmer was shot through the arm by Il
small aerolits, which made a hole like
a bullet. In 1878 a boy at Hanau had
a piece of his thumb clipped off by a
burning stone that fell from the sky.
About two year. ago a boy at Paterson,
y. j., wa. said to have been hit in the
leg by an aerolite. HIS story va.
doubted, but | believe it was never
d%isproved, and certainly it wa. not
impossible. A man is in more danger
of being killed by lightning than by
an aerolitc, but it would not be 50 if
the air did not protect him.