The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-07-11
METEORs AND METEORITEs.
A Mine of the latter Discovered in Oregon
Facts About Meteors.

WIZ
Facts About Meteors.
Washington Star.
A handful of small meteorites was re-
ceived the other day at the Office of the
geological survey II washington from q
man out IN the northeast corner of Oregon.
He said they were loose specimens from a
nickel mine that be had discovered and he
wanted them assayed, because there were
vas quantities more in the place he got them
from. Minerolgist Day 10 under the i'm
preston that. for the first time in scientific
history, q mine or meteorites has been
struck.
1t is not surprising that the finder should
suppose he had lighted upon the surface in
dicatlons of nickel. after a rude assay, in
asmuch as these projectiles from the
heavens, though consisting mostly of iron,
contain usually a large percentage of the
substance so commonly used as q metallic
veneer. The handful In question are about
% per cent. iron. 30 per cent. nickel ard the
rest cobalt. which last is . metal somewhat
resembling nickel. The proportion of
Dr.. Day believes that the Oregon man
must nave come upon a gully, into which.
under very extraordinary conditions, q
great number of meteorites had been
drifted by the action of water from q vast
expanse of hillside where they had fallen.
Hailstones are often similarly piled up.
There is no difficulty in determining the
fact that the specimens discussed are
meteorites, inasmuch as such bodies are
nearly always composed of just about
the same materials in definite proportions,
though why 40 one has ever been able to
explain.
Meteors are very curious things. The
ordinary ones. called shooting" or falling
stars" mostly are consumed before they
reach the earth. They take fire in passing
through the atmosphere by friction with
the air. On any fine night one may see an
average of eight or ten of them in an hour.
while . practical observer Will catch sight
of twice that number. At intervals the
earth passes through great meteor trains on
it's passage through space in the tremen-
dOuS journey the solar system IS making
toward the constellation Hercules. in the
north, and on such occasions the display of
celestial fireworks is amazing. AS many
as ten thousand meteors have been observed
within two hours.
But the most interesting meteors are the
big ones. naturally. One such is an event.
1t traverses the sky in a flame, usually ex-
plodes with a defamation. and finally burles
itself in the ground: Sometimes it explodes
before reaching the earth. The gigantic
meteor known historically as EAigle burst
over France in 1903, and scattered its ma
terial over seven miles square. The average
distance from the earth of the meteors
called shooting stars" is about sixty miles.
and their raDldlty of motion varies from
ten to fifty miles a second. The earth's rate
of progress in it's orbit Is nineteen miles per
second. There is upon the earth q cOntin-
uous rain of meteOrltes always, and it has
been estimated that twenty million such.
big enough to be called shooting stars il
seen at night, fall upon this planet every
twenty four hours.
The appearance of q really big meteorite
Is always an event worth recording. From
time to time such monsters from outer
space alight upon the earth and occasion q
sensation. For example. on the evening OF
Dec. 2, 1876, people in Kansas saw a bright
ball of fire at about 8 o'clock rising in the
western sky near where the moon was set
ting. 1t grew in brilliancy as it rose, draw
ing every bOdy out of doors. Suddenly ii
passed overhead. dropping into the south.
east. and taking about two minutes for Its
passage.
1t was seen to pass by the inhabitants of
Nebraska, Iowa.. Missouri, Wisconsin.
Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana,
Ohio. Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In
the meteor's path. four or five minutes
after its passage, were heard loud eX-
ploslons, like distant annonading, thunder
or the rafting of empty wagons over stone
roads. So loud were these sounds that
beasts were frightened. Over central
Illinois the fire-ball Was seen to break into
fragments like a rocket. and over Indiana
and Ohio 1t formed q flock or cluster OF
meteors forty miles long u five miles
broad.
Ordinarily, such great meteors as these
drop stones. of which six OF eight each
year are big enough TO find places in the
museums of the world. The biggest one
ever picked mp is a macs of iron and nickel
weighing 1900 pounds.