Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-12-29
The Red Glow in the sky
Nov York SUM-


New Workers who rose at six yester
day morning witnessed repetition of
the fiery sunrise that Senator Lapham
dropped into poetry over on Canandai-
qua Lake. Tue atmosphere was clear,
and the sight was especially noteworthy.
Passengers on the steamers Alaska aud
City Of Chester, which reached the bar
Just before the spectacle began, had a
superb view of it.
at was a picture Of Sunday night's
strange sunset painted over again, but
reversed, said an officer OF the Alaska.
"a red glow began to light the horizon
shortly after six o'clock. 1t spread I'M
til there was huge area OF blood red
spanning the Eastern sky. The sun
came up then like ball of fire, and, as
" rose further and further out of the sea,
the color softened little, and bank OF
feecy clouds that passed over the orb re-
fected a golden light. Then the red
glow gradually softened into beautiful
pink, mingled with yellow and pale
green hues. 1t was half an hour before
the sky and sun assumed their normal
appearance. 1t looked like sunset in
the early morning. We sailors dent
often have time to pay attention to such
things, but this was too fine and too re-
markable for us not to stop and adj
lnire it.
at seemed as though the eastern
sky were all atire, said an officer of
the City OF Chester. Il never saw a
sunrise like it before. A bank of cloud
covered the surface Of the sun. But
you could see the orb blazing behind it,
and the red glow shot upward to a great
height, just as II there were really q
tremendous fire behind the cloud. 1t
looked as though things had got twisted
around and we were watching sunset. !"
AT meeting of the American Asron-
omical Society in Packer Institute,
Brooklyn. last evening, Secretary g. p.
Serviss said that the phenomenon first
appeared in San. Francisco about No
vember Goth. 1t was then supposed
that the appearance was caused by some
fire burning in the west, although such a
superstition placed the fire in the Pacific
ocean. Subsequently the phenomena
were observed in the Mississippi valley.
1t seemed as If il progressed from west
to east across the continent. Bat on
the 9th and 10th of November, two
weeks before we saw it, similar phenom-
ena were seen in England So wide
spread was the red glow that
the lecturer soon came to
the conclusion that it was
due to cosmical causes. He illustrated
with diagrams his method of computing
the height above the earth Of the cause
Of the red light, and said that as nearly
as he could calculate, it was about sixty
one miles. 1t was a question whether
matter floating in the earth's atmosphere
could attain height Of sixty miles and
still exist in sufficient quantities to pre-
duce the effect observed. Mr.. Serviss
then advanced the theory that the cause
OF the phenomena might be reflection
from meteoric dust. He said that me-
teors were known to he in the earth
atmosphere to the number OF hundreds
OF millions, and the products of their
combustion were visible as they APP
preached the surface. Meteoric dust
has been found in the arctic regions.
Space was filed with clouds OF meteors.
During the last two or three weeks there
has been large numbers Of metcors OBJ
served in this country and in England.
Prof. Brooks OF Phelps had discovered
them when looking for comets, and he
was not man to mistake flock of birds
for telescope meteors, such as he had
testified he had seen.
The lecturer also suggested that the
phenomena of the green sun seen in
India aud South America might be
accounted for in the same way. He
discarded the idea that either Of those
phenomena could be accounted for by
the volcanic vapors from the Island of
Java, as had been suggested, because
that explanation could not account for
both. The earth being enyeloped in a
cloud Of meteoric dust. the reflection
from 1t would account for the strange
appearance in tho sky during the hour
or two hours before sunrise and after
sunset.
Professor Coakley was of opinion that
Professor Draper was the most correct
in ascribing the phenomena to excessive
moisture. As matter Of fact, he said,
the atmosphere at morn and eve, all
through the month Of November, had
been charged with an extraordinary
amount OF moisture, and the red APP
pearance was visible on the present
morning just before sunrise. 1t was
simply due to the reflection OF the sun
light through this very dim medium.
Il