Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-08-29
THE AUGUST METEORS.
\ Calculation of the Vast Number of these
summer Visitors.
From the Chicago Times


Little do the mass of mankind reflect
how closely their fate is interviewer Will
that of the earth, over which during thcii
brief career they fancy they possess
partial control. When about the 9th of tn,
present month, the earth plunged into {
great cloud of metcors, scarcely any one
but Il professional astronomer was awar,
that She was not ploddng along in hen
usual way. The great public, absorbed in
its diversified occupations of pleasure on
necessity, had no suspicion that the upper
regions of our atmosphere were the
theatre of bOmbardment. beside which
any devised by the wicked ingenuity of
man i'll his attempts to iniure his
fellows and blast the face of nature mus
sink into inSlgniiicanCe. Yet every year
at TINS season. the bOmbardmcut is
repeated. Indeed, it is continuous: for
every day and hour the earth encounters
these Migrants of intcrplauctory space.
but not in such Il multitude as when.
about the 10th of August. she reaches
about the middle of II great stream For
these bodies seem to exist in space in great
streams or SWarinS, some of which are
within the limit of the solar system, and
move about the sun in orbits whose elc-
ments have been determined with more or
less precision. ON" who is not familiar
OF the estimates IN regard To the number
of metcors which enter our atmosphere
Yet simple calculation will convince him
that the number is enormous. if not
indeed, incalcuable \ single obScr-
vcr under favorable circumstances. sees
from six To eight mcteOrs an hour. But
he sees only one-iifth or one-siXth of those
visible above his horizon. The total mum
bcr therefore, visible in an hour at Il given
station is about 35 If we should multiply
this by - we should get over 500 as The
number visible at Il given point of the
earth 5 surface in an entire day, provided
the clouds or sunlight did not interfere
with the observation. From single point
on the eartli'S surface. however. we see
only portion of the atmospheric envelope
and il is within this atmospheric envelope
that the meteOrs become visible. The total
number visible over the whole cart II in a
day would be upwards of 10000 times the
number visible at single station or 10000
multiplied by $40 equals s,OOO,OOO as the
number of lnctcors falling ever day to the
earth, which would, in the absence of the
sun, moon and clouds. be visible to the
naked eye 1t has been found, however,
that by far the greatest number of mctcurs
are never seen. being too faint to be visible
unless in the field OF Il telescope. 1t has
been estimated that the number visible
with the aid of the comet-sceker used by
Pope and NinneCk WAS 10 to 30 times as
great as that visible to the naked eve
This would carry the total number of
ordinary and telescope mctcOrs falling
upon the earth each day up to hundreds Of
millions, an estimate which is APP
parcntly not fully indicative of tile
rcal number, as every increase of
optical power would increase the number
and, 50 far a. we know, indefinitely Ii
must further be remembered that by the
morning of the 10th instant meteorS were
about ten times as numerous rs usual. so
that the imagination may not perhaps be
able to conceive the wild storm of these
small bodies, among which the earth was
at that time. and is now. rushing. pursu-
ant To its annual motion about the sun at
the rate of ~ miles Il second
Fortunately for us these bodies are not
very large, and il protective atmosphere
lnterpOSes between us and their tumultu-
Gus assault. Were it otherwise every
thing on the surface of the earth would be
battered down to a common level.