The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-08-18
AUGUST METEORS.
EARTH BoMBARBED BY STARS.
Struck by 100000 Every Day-Beats
the French Fleet at Kee Lung
Neptune in His Angry Mood
Meteor Happenings.

now closely their fate is interwoven with !
that of the earth, over which during {,
their brief career they fancy they pos |
sess partial control When, about the /
9th of the present month, the earth D..
plunged into a great cloud of meteors, !
scarcely any one except a professional (
astronomer was aware that she was not
plodding along in her usual way. The
great public, absorbed in its diversified
occupations of pleasure or necessity,
had no suspicion that the upper regions
Of our atmosphere We're the thea
ter Of a bOmbardment beside which any
| devised by the wicked ingenuity of man
| in his attempts to iniure his fellows and
| blast the face of nature must sink into
insigniticance. Yet every year, at this
| season, the bombardment is repeated.
Indeed, it is continuous; for every day
aud hour the earth encounters these va
grants of interplanetary space, but not
in such multitude as when, about the
10Th Of August, she reaches about the
. middle Of a great stream. aEOr these
bodies seem to exist i'm space
in great streams or swarms, some
of which are within the limits
of the solar system, and move about the |
sun in orbits whose elements have been |
determined with more or less precision. |
one who is not familiar with the sub |
jet may well feel incredulous of the |
estimates in regard to the number OF
meteors which enter our atmosphere,
Yet a simple calculation will convince
him that the number is enormous, if
not, indeed, incalculable. single
observer, under favorable circum-
- stances, sees from six to eight meteOrS
, an hour. But he sees only one-iiith or
/ ono-siNth of those visible above his
f horison. The total number, therefore,
q visible in an hour at a given station is
q about thirty-tive. If we should multi
y ply this by twenty-fOur we should
n get over 500 as the number
: visible at given point of the earth's
II surface in an entire day, provided that
, clouds or sunlight did not Interfere with
4 the observation. From single point on
n the earth's surface, however, we see only
q Il small portion of the atmospheric en-
IS velope, and il is in this atmospheric en-
v velope that the meteOrs become visible.
v The total number visible over the whole
e. earth in day would be upward of 10000
re times the number visible at a single sta
/. ton, or 10000 multiplied by 500 equals s.
nj 100000 as the number of meteors falling
lie every day to the earth, which would, in
Is the absence of the sun, moon and clouds,
ne be visible to the naked eye. 1t has been
" found, however, that by far the greater
I'm number of meteors
" ARE NEVER SEEN,
Nv being too faint to be visible unless in the
Ia field of a telescope. 1t has been estima-
NO ted that the number visible with the
ON aid ofthe comet-seeker used by Pope anC
he Winnecke, was forty to fifty times a.
ee great as that visible to the naked eve
-ot This would carry the total number ofor
ne. binary and telescope meteOrs falling
,st upon the earth each day up to hundred
ed OF millions, an estimate which is appar
.ty emily not fully indicative Of tho rea
"a. number, as every increase of Optica
ev power would mcreas the number, and
re so far as we know, indefinitely. Itmus
by further be remembered that by Tia
nm morning of the 10th inst, meteors wer
To about ten times as numerous as usual
no. so that the imagination may not perhap
,es 90 able to conceive the wild storm I
of these small bodies amongwhich the cart
Ied was at that time, and is now, rushing
ev pursuant to its annual motion about Tn
the sun, at the rate OF nineteen miles SCI
rht ond.
re Fortunately for us, those bodies al
red not very large, and protective atmo
me pherc interpOsos hntWt2u Us ana the
i'm tumultuous assault Were IL Othorwis
everything on the surface of the cart
10Y would be battered down TO a cOmmO
oar level. For the most part, these bodit
in are dissolved in the upper regions oi II
ere atmosphere, and descend inperceptibI
ne. as meteoric dust, n deposit OF which III
re- sometimes been fDuuG upon the tops
ery mountains. Occasionally some meteo
md of greater proportions than their mat
md reach the surface of the earth wlthol
MS being entirely consumed. SICh usual
the appear aS balls ot fire movf
oth across the heavens, and som
rty times explode, scattering fragments
roo all directions, but when they appear
,ero follow successfully n common path,
,on when their lines Of direction when ca
ana ried back intersect in a common poi
wv. i'm the heavens, they are assumed to co
de- stitutc stream, the common interse
ak ton of their lines of motion being call'
lied the radiant point. The motcOrs viii
day occur about the 10th of August seem
rvi- emanate from point in the conStel
,iny ton Perseus, whence they arc call
perseides. Perseus, about . or 10 O'clo
leos in the evening at this time of the yes
of is visible above the northeastern no
81 ION, and may be found by the iOllOwi
he general directions: Almostevery one
nee familiar with the Dippcr, of viii
yor- the two stars in the body the farth'
TO from the handle point to the North 81
the whence they aro called "the pointer
lone ON the opposite side of the North ~
can from the Dipper, and about equally d
,nte. tant from It, lies Cassiopeia, or the la
ain i'm the Chair. This constellation Conta
finW several bright stars disposed so us
Nor, contain the figure of n chair, in whicl
,oinr lady is supposed TO he seated. Bel
and Cassiopeia, between 1t and the hori%
and is Perseus,
two The August meteors have long b,
Int celebrated. No other stream is so ill,
e,io. To attract the attention of the ordini
very Observer lor' eNcept on eN't s',n
,iybt lplaV. Once every thirty-three years
November, prOdigious number oil
teors are seen, covering the heavens
some have said, like sunilowers. Blu
,... AFTER THIS GRAND DISPLAY,
Us the November meteorS Iade out am
The altogether, and do not again fix the p
INT, a lie gaze until the groWtn OF Nhot
IL, Generation of observers. Not so
s"'"' the meteors of August. Year after y
they come with great punctuality. III
wecn number is so great that the most M
rown servant can hardly fail TO notice u
and presence. They are usually of an
ON. nnro color, move very rapidly, and @
filled monty leave streaks which last Tor
ntion, or more seconds. THESE streaks
lston. highly useful in enabling us 10 hN
D be radiant point with precision. Not
ne to meteors leave streaks behind TN
ptI SO Dillcrnnt mptcOric streams seem To u
anied characteristics peculiar to Vleinsel
ID not \ singulMiN OF ia august meteor
rning. that there appear u be seyeral rau
after points in the neighbOrhood oil fei'
their and Cassopeia, all active nj the 81
.esort. time. some of which probably are
,iness' shoots from the main stream.
,r the Some have thought they nave
beer covered a definite maximum Tor
after shower similar TO that oil November
ed by according TO Mr.. Edwin i. sawyer,
music. has made n special study OF the SUI
some the assumption rests upon lnpe
II imp data. II seems then, that the met