The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1885-12-02
FIERY METEORIC STONES.
BUT LITTEH KNOWN ABOUT THESE
STRANGE AERIAL VISIT oRs.
Tho showers of NIeteOric Dust-COunt-
less Millions OF meteOrs Annually
Falling Upon the Earth.


Tho Showers of ueteOric Dust-COunt-
less Millions OF meteOrs Annually
Failing Upon the Earth.
The theory of some persons thai these
red-hot stones have been thrown out of
some volcano, and then been drawn
back to the earth's surface by gravita-
tion, is wholly untenable. These fiery
rocks come from "other worlds than ours. "
It is not probable that they are recent en-
anations from one of the other planets
they are drawn, in all probability, by the
earth's greater attraction, out of their
place in some of the great meteor streams
that revolve, 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 con-
stitute the fringe, or skirts, so to speak,
of the meteor stream. Once, on the
18th of November, 1888, our globe must
have actually brushed thro ugh the thin
ner outer fringe of the astonishing
aggregation which has silce come to be
known as the November stream, " in
contradistinction to another whose skirts
we almost touch in August, aud which
is called, therefore, the August stream.
Other streams may exist, in the inter-
planetary spaces, of which the astrono-
mers have no positive knowledge; or,
there may be irregular masses, or even
endless cases of separate meteoric bodies,
all rushing around the sun in different
orbits. 1t is certain that countless mill
lions of these objects, mostly quite small
bodies, are actually drawn in upon the
earth. Most of them, apparently, are
burned up before reaching the earth's
surface, and descend in an invisible,
impalpable 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 real shower of rain, only a rain
from clear sky, but which quickly
proved to be a shower of dust, so
fine, that unless it chanced to be seen
against the sun it was invisible. Mr..
Proctor, the astronomer, holds this unseen
falling meteoric dust to have been an
appreciable, indeed an important, factor
involved in the problem of the alleged
growth of the bulk of our planet, and
has actually tried to compute something
of the rate and extent of that supposed
increase. However that may be, our
globe certainly does capture an enormous
number of little foreign bodies. One or
more can be seen silently streaming
across the sky on almost any clear, calm
night; sometimes a number of them
their seeming course across the sky, in
stead of plungiug straight down, being
merely an optical effect. due to the angle
at which the appearance is seen. These
meteors, entering the earth's atmosphere,
and plunging with more and more We
locity as they get nearer the surface, are
heated to a white heat, and thus made
luminous and visible by the increased
friction caused by their increased speed
and the increasing density of the air.
Most of them appear literally burnt
up" but some, usually the larger
ones, hold out against their own
confagration till they burst
with a great explosion, or plunge intact
(but red-hoD into the ground-or the
sea- Without giving credence to the
Western story, few years ago, of man
being killed by one of these meteors there
is still some small degree of likelihood
that such thing might happen; much
lesser chance than the danger of being
struck by lightning.
The August train of meteors is COM
puted to be 90, 600, 900 miles long-or
about as long as the distance from the
earth "a the sun. Others are of unknown
length.
Where do they originated
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 appear
to be not exactly like any of our rocks.
Many of them are more like a kind of
half-vitreous ''iron stone" than anything
else; they show the work of heat, and
ring, on being struck by hammer
Hartford Times.