The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-12-03
METEORIC STONES.
AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR Hi5TQ.
AND ORIGIN.
Various Theories and the Reasons There
for The Well Known "NOVe'noer
Stream"-cf AIeteoric Stones
Shower of star Dust.
Hartford Times.1

Hartford Timesl
The falling of the huge one in western
Pennsylvania "a stone as large as an aver
age house-seems to have excited oms in
terest on the part OF many person to Iearl
sonlathing mora a bout these strange AMI
dangerous visitor. 1t is rare thai ", hear
Of ons OF such great sizs as this Psuusy,va-
MIA meteor; indeed, o1a may almost qu5s'
ton the truth OF the account. But tlero
have been even larger one though not,
probably, in IN )lera tim9s.
RED-aOT STONEy.
The theory OF some pereon5 that these
rel hot stonss have been thrown ont OF soma
volcano. an I then been drawn back 10 the
eGrtu's surface By srnvitation is wholly I'M
teuable. Taese fiery rocks come from "othsr
worlds than our,." 1t Is net probable that
they are recent emaua5ions from one of the
other piaasts; they ara drawn, in all prob
ability, by thu ear5h's greater attraction,
out OF their place in soma Of the great
meteor streams that revotve like the earth
around the sun. each in its own orbit. At
certain points in the annual journeys OF our
own world and Of these great streams of
loosely aggregated rocks of many sizes, the
two orbits evidently so nearly touch as to
make it possible for the globe on which we
live to capture some OF the meteoric bodies
which constitute the fringe or SKIRT, so to
ll2lh,
THE NOVEMBER STREAM"
Once on the l35a of November, 1898, our
globe must have actually bru he'd through
the thinner outer fringe Of the astonishing
aggregation which has sinco coma to be
known among astronomers as the "Novem-
Tor stream, in ccntradistinctiOl to another
whose skirts we almost touch in August,
and which is called, therefore, the August
stream. Other streams may exist, in the
interplanetary spaces, OF which the astrono-
mars have no positive knowledge; Or, there
may be irregular masses, or even endless
cases OF separate meteOric bodies all rush
ing around the sun in different orbits. 1t is
certain that countless millions Of these OBJ
jects, mostly quite small bodies, are actually
drawn in upon the earth. Most of them,
apparently. are burned up before reaching
the earths surface, AMI descend i'll an in
visible, Inpalpable form of exceedingly fine
dust
Occasionally this can be plainly seen-as
it was once, in the suburbs of this city, only
ten days ago when it seemed at first shown
against the afternoon sun, like a real
shower of rain, only rain from clear
sky, but which quickly proved to be 6
shower of dust, SO fine, that unless it
CHANGED to be seen against the sun it was
invisible Mr.. Proctor, the astronomer
holds this unseen falling mateoric dust to
have been an appreciable, indsed an inn
portant, factor involved in the problam
of the alleged growth Of the bulk of our
planet, and has actually tried to compute
something of tho rate and extent Of that
supposed increase.
LITERALLY 'tBURNT" UP.
However that may b., our globe certainly
does capture an enormous number OF little
bodies. One or more can be seen silently
-F.sa mi, fa- oil
clear, calm night; sometimes a number Of
them-their seeming course across the sky,
instead of plunging straight down, being
merely an optical effect, due 10 tie angle
at which tn appearance Is seen. These
meteCrs, cnterIly the earth's atmosphere,
and plunging vita more and more velocity
as they get nearer the surface, are heated
to white heat and thus made luminous
aud visible by the increased friction caused
by their increased spec and the increasing
density of the air. Most Of them appear
literally burnt up But some, usu-
ally the larger ones hold out against
their own conhagration till they bur +
with great explosion, or plunge intact Out
Tsd-hOD into the ground-or the sea. With
out giving crelencc to the western tory, q
few years ago, of man being killed by one
# these meteors, there is still some small
degree of likelihood that such a thing might
happen; q much lesser chance than the dan
ger Of being struck by lightning The Au-
gust train OF msteors is computed to be 90,
C0JG00 miles long-or about as long as the
distance from the earth to the sun Others
are of unknown length.
Where do they originates The question
Is easily asked. The answer, while it is one
about which we feel but little doubt, seems
to be not susceptible of being sustained by
actual proof. These meteoric bodies appsar
b. 10 not exactly like any of our rocks.
MANY Of them are mora like a kind of half
vitreous "iron stone" than anything elss;
they show the work of heat and ring,
on being struck by a hammer.