The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-07
.HE SAW TWO METEORS..
The Experience Of ! Ton r Old
Boy in San Joaquin
Valley.
What Eminent Scientists Say
About These Visitors
From Space.
TIE Large Number That Fall Annually
Upon tho Earth-Observations All
Over the World.

Professor Davidson credits tho account
OF the 10-year. old Visalia boy. Otto e. Bns-
bore. OF the startling spectacle which no
witnessed near Visalia Aug. 10, says the
San Francisco Bulletin. It was in broad
daylight, about two O'Clock in the after
noon, with the sun brightly shining. The
lad was in his parents house, when sud
denly a loud report WAS heard. The house
was filled with an intense light. which for a
moment seemed to the lad brighter than
sunlight. He ran out, thinking that the
house was on IRE, and saw two msteors a
short distance overhead, travelling from the
northeast In a southwesterly direction.
They were blue, and behind them trailed a
blush smoke-liko haze, like the tail of a
comet. The two meteors had not gone fur
when . second explosion occurred. The
smaller Of the two broke into fragments.
which were scattered all around. The
mystery OF the arst explosion was now sx-
planned, The two meteors had origi-
nally been one. and had been split
apart by explosive force. The larger
metsor. 10 the lad says, continued on and
fell some miles distant, its contact with tho
earth being marked by a cloud Of dust,
which rose into the air 30 that it was
visible to him even ut the distance
mentioned. The total destruction of the
smaller meteor was accompanied by strik-
ing phenomena. With the explosion came
. burst of fame and the ~dwindling meteor
was at oncs a mass of sparks. The pieces
of the smaller meteor are reported to have
been found. Prof. Davidson does not
know personally anything about this oc-
currenc CO. He read the newspaper account
of 1t, of which the foregoing is a condensa-
ton. He says, however, that the phenomena
are familiar to observers. The first ex-
plosion mentioned would have thrown off
the smaller meteor, but it would still have
shared in the forward movement, as it Ia
reported to have one in this case. There
may be inaccuracies in the boys story, but
the main facts are in line with scientific
observation. -
Around tho globe meteogs are continually
falling. Mysterious in origin, darling with
predigious velocity into our elastic atmos-
phere. the great majority suffer fiery OK
~tinction before they have 4 chance to reach
the ground. Prof. Newton, of Yale COL
lege, an enthusiastic mathematician esti-
mates the number of meteors annually
shooting in at us from space at millions.
The atmoswhere is mols thnn a net to
catch these countless Bwarms of celestial
tirefies. It yields to and obstructs at once
their passage. Their enormous speed de-
velopa great friction when they come in con-
tact with the atmosphere. Many of them
BURR out at once. Prof. Davidson says that
the loint where a meteor burned out, the
formation of what looked like u small
double cloud. This was the burned out
material Of the meteor. Not long since he
was scanning the skies through a telescope.
and a meteor appeared which looked as If
An observer whom he considers entirely
capable and entirely reliable. saw at st.
Paul's island, rs did the lad at V%isalia, the
descent of a meteor by broad daylight. The
meteor which fell near St. Paul's splashed
into the water. 1t seemed to the observer
to be- about as large as a buahel basket.
The depth of tho water prevented it's re-
coverv. Professor Davidson, while sailing
to China, was also informed by one of the
officers Of the vessel. concerning the fall of
a day light meteor. This luminous visitor
appeared while the sun was shining and.
skimming along ut a low altitude, shot off
toward the horizon, but did not strike the
water in view of the officer. During the
past month skilled and amateur observ-
ers all over the Pacific coast have been on
the alert for meteors. Many meteors have
besn seen here. Professor Davidson, Incl
dentally to other scientific work, counted
meIeors for a limited time one night, and
his son also counted. During the period
the msteors averaged one in about two
minutes.
probably do not have access to all the as
Economical publications, may be interested
in q communication by w. r.. Denning, OF
Bristol, England. to The Observatory, a
monthly review of astronomy, published in
London. This publication in May has a
picture of q comet crossing a comet. The
substance Of MIR. DenninR's communication
is that while comet seeking on the evening
of March Both at nine O'Clock, with q ten
inch reflector, power 40, he picked up a
= bright, nebulous object in Andromcda. As
he failed to identify it with any of the con-
spicuous nebule which had become familiar
to him during previous sweeps in this re-
gion, he concluded it to be II comet. A few
minutes sufficed to reveal motion. The
new comet appeared round, with n bright
central condensation. A second observa-
tion made the object very Obvious. though
the gibbous moon was up. The comet WAS
subsequently observed twice, and on April
4, the atmosphere being unusually clear,
the comet appeared much brighter than on
previous occasions. Now here is the sug-
eestive picture in the heavens which Mr..
DenninR describes in few words: "lt (the
OluUb ANS - ~oAANNpS puAAy ~ VA
oeeding diaphonous that IL could only be
caught in glimpses. 1t stretched over GER
tainly more than half the fold of 80 min.
Grower 60), which / was using. though its
precise limits were indeterminate, perhaps
owing to the faint twilight lingering in
that quarter. At Oh. 35m. n telescope
meteor about 8th mag, crossed the comet
just under the hend." This transit ia pic-
tured in the publication, a black circle rep
resenting the skies, and the two luminous
objects are seen crossing. Mr.. Denning
says "the effect produced for q moment
waa very interesting"
Amateur observers will also be Interested
in s~1tracts from n paper read before the
Geographical Society of Berlin. by Pro-
lessor Forster, recently, on 1.-The Upper
Strata of the Atmosphere" The paper ia
reported in the July number of the "Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Geographical So
ciety." He said that tho discovery of a
means of determining the existence of ex-
tremely thin strata beyond u height of 10
miles dates back from the end OF the eigh-
tesnth century, when attempts were first