Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1890-01-09
sHooTlNG SLAMS.
How They Travel Toward the Earth and
Perish In Streaks Of SpIcndor.


Perish In Streaks Of SpIendor.
small body, perhaps as large as a
paving stone or larger more often per
haps not SO large as a marble, is moving
round the sun. Just as a mighty planet
revolves in an ellipse, SO this small OBJ
iect will move round and round in an
ellipse, with the sun in the focus There
are at the present momont Uncomfortable
myriads of such meteOrs moving in this
manner. They are too small and too
distant for our telescopes, and we can
never see them except under eXtraor-
binary circumstances. At the time VIC
see the meteor it is usually moving with
enormous velocity, 50 that il often tray
erses a distance ~ ore than twenty
miles in a second Of time. Such ve-
locity is almost impossible near the
earth's surface: the resistance OF the air
would prevent il.
Aloft in the emptiness of space, there
is no air to resist the meteor 1t may
have been moving round and round the
sun for thousands perhaps for millions
Of years, without let or hindrance; but
the supreme moment arrives and the
meteor perishes In a streak Of splendor.
In the course Of its wanderings the body
comes near the earth and within few
hundred miles Of it's surface, Of COURSE,
begins TO encounter the upper surface
OF the atmosphere with which the earth
is inclosed. TO body moving with the
appalling velocity Of a meteor plunge
into the atmosphere is usually fatal.
As the meteor PUSHES through the at
mosphere the friction Of the air warns
its surface; IL becomes red hot, then
white hot. and is finally driven of into
vapor with a brilliant light, while we
on earth, one hundred or two hundred
miles below, exclaim, 20, look. there il
= shooting star!"--Albany journal
An American electrician who hap
pened to visit the Paris patent office
claims TO have unearthed the fact frou
some old records that barbcd wire is not
an American invention. lie says the
invention was first conceived and pat
ented by a Frenchman, Louis Francis
Janin. about five years before the ilrst
paten, was granted BY this Government.
Peter Jennings, an old sailor, re-
Gently turned up in san Francisco and
claimed to have been passenger many
years ago with an old pirate, who, on
his deathbed, divulged the secret hiding
place Of $500 treasure in Spanish
doubioons. The place is Wall Island,
in the Pacific Ocean, three degrees south
Of the equator. lie has succeeded in
interesting eastern capitalists 20 look
for the treasure and the mOneycd mon
went to San Francisco lately for the
purpose OF organizing an expedition TO
hunt for the dOubloons.
1t is said that one $500 share in the
New River Company, which was founded
in 1912 to supply the Clerkenweli dis
trict OF London with water, sold recently
at auction for SGl4. 900. The last annual
dividend on the share was $4,000. The
purchaser was an insurance company,
which took the stock a. permanent in
yestment. The great disparity between
the price paid and the earning power of
the stock may throw some light on the
eagerness Of English capital 10 seek in
vestment in American enterprises
"A good story is told about young
Rockland. Me, couple recently married.
They we're plentifully bcshowcred with
rice as they left for the noon train after
the wedding, but on the cars they as
sumed the airs Of an old married couple,
hoping TO escape detection. They got
out at the Union Station, Portland, and
as it was raining the groom spread the
protecting folds Of his new umbrella
over his bride. As the umbrella went
Up, two quarts Of rice which had been
carefully slowed within came down.
The hurrying throng saw the rice, the
blushing couple. and caught on.