The daily gazette., 1882-08-11
PLENTY FAILING STARS
WHAT MIGHT HAVE REEN SEEN
FOR THEpWATCHING.
A DAYS BAD RECORD OF BLOOD.
The Strike Not Yet at sans lznd in westsfn
herent states. y saktsg

Il
PennsylvAnia--PO Political matters in DIFF
ferent States. 4 i
tPhiladelphia Press.l
The regular August shower of meteors oc-
CURED last night and this morning, begin
ming at II. 80 p. m. and ending to the eye at
little after 2 p. M, on account of the
l moonlight. The meteorB were not frequent,
but many Of them were very brilliant. The
radiant point of the shower was In the con-
stellation Perseus, and anyone who watched
| the northeastern slxy for 10 minutes would
be rewarded BY feeting but bright celes-
tial rocket. f &
Every one who Is in the habit of walking
at night, and whose neck Is not too stiff to
prevent star gazing, has seen what are pop
ularly called shooting starsS faint
| trail Of light shoot across the short arc of
the sky and silently disappears. Sometimes
the occasional observer is fortunate; he
may see more brilliant appearance almost
like rocket. More rarely still, a few mo-
ments after the. disappearance of such q
heavenly visitor, a loud explosion can be
heard, and still more rarely, fragments of
stone fall to the earth. It Is only within
the last century that science has discovered
that these are few of countless small
masses moving through planetary space.
| A hundred yeare ago, It was popular
1 theory that erolites, mete0Fs and shooting
stars were thrown froms volcanoes in the
moon, being shot 80 far int space that they
came within the earth's attraction. It had
| already been shown by chemical analysis
/ that Brolites, the fragments which some
times fell to the earth after the appearance
| of meteor and by which people have some
times been killed, were Of extraterraneous
origin. They contained no chemical ele-
| ments which are not found in the earth, but
| the elements were combined differently.
Iron entered largely into the composition of
many, and there are several srolites now in
the Smithsonian Institute which look like
| pieces of iron ore. .
But the theory of the lunar origin Of
erolites was overthrown by La Place, who
| disproved 1t by mathematical calculation.
Since then it has been demonstrated that
the number of these meteorse within the
solar system alone is incalculable that
1 they have orbits above the sun, and that
many If not all of them are in some way
connected with comets, either actually
forming their tail or else having identical
paths.
SHOOTING STARS AND METEoRs.
4 The only difference between meteors and
| shooting stars, between the bright lines of
/ light which illuminate half the heavens and
\
as they are seen, is one of degree They all
have one common cause the encounter of
| the earth as it rushes through space with
some of the tiny countless bodies In its path.
The Question naturally suggests itself
Why do the meteors burn when Trey strike our
| atmosphere The answer Is simple enough
1 Motion checked causes heat 1gst Is fami-
| iar TO the most unscientifc person by exper-
fence, If not by knowledge, that II is q result
1 II Al R.aNA L. l.. I,,k, a
| A velocity of fifty metres second, If
checked, will cause rise of ten degrees
centigrade in the temperature.
Now the earth bowls along its orbit at the
rate Of 5000 metres a second. Any object
in space which meets this enormous velocity
will at once be raised 100000 degrees in
temperature. That is, it will suffer this
| sudden change of temperature in theory.
In fact, however, this heat is potential not
| actual. In other words, when a meteor
meets an atmosphere It undergoes the same
results as If 1t were suddenly plunged into
a furnace of the heat specified. The rarity
of the air at its uttermost bounds makes no
difference as to their potential heat, although
itdoes make a difference as to the actual
effect If, instead of striking rarlfed air,
meteor were to meet solid substance like
the earth itself, It would be instantly dis
sipated, not having time even to burn, as it
does in the air.
The detonation which sometimes follows a
| meteor Is not an explosion, but conclusion
of the air, like that caused by lightning and
| Is due to the enormous speed with which
| the meteor rushes through the atmosphere,
eondensing 1t before anil leaving a vacuum
/ behind. When the meteor is very large, the
intense heat caused as its motion is checked
merely fuses the inter-layers and the rest
i falls to the ground, generally broken into
pieces, however, by the violence with which
It strikes the air. The height at which
meteors usually begin to be visible has been
variouBly calculated. The mean of the best
estimates is 100 miles.
LAST NIGHTS SHOWER.
Last evenings meteors were part of
| shower which recurs on the 9th or 10th of
| August every year. The fact that meteorie
showers are periodic Is a comparatively new
| discovery. The largest showers occur In
November about three times in a century
Humboldt saw wonderfully brilliant
shower while in the Andes, November 12,
1799. Then, in November, 1888, there was
| q wonderful shower In this country, which
| terrified the negroes all over the South and
| led many white people to make hurried pre-
| parations for the Judgment Day. These
dates led Olbers to predict another shower
| in 1857.
Ills preulcuOu WIS lululteu, bnougn bne
shower was not confined to one year, but
was observed in 1866, 1867, 1868, and for a
year or two after, but always in November.
This great shower is due again about 1900.
| The orbit of these meteors was calculated,
and found to be the same as that of Tunpel's
comet, which reached its perihelion In
january, 1866, while the meteors followed
in November. The earth passes through
the orbit of these November meteors every
year; but the fact that the meteors them
selves are struck but once in third of
century shows that they are collected in a
bunch, and swing through their orbit In
close company. The August meteors, on
the other hand, which are seen every year,
are scattered along all through their path
| about the sun.
Democratic County Committee Meeting.
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