The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-04-26
Mcteors-Fal1Ing Stars-Aerolites.

The term meteor iB used in its broad
sense to express any phenomena of the
Heavens, which are short in duration
and irregular in periods. Rain, snow,
FIRE balls, lightning, clouds and all such
come under the head of meteorology. In
every day language when meteor is
spoken Of, we understand shooting
star" from the tiniest speck of light to
the aerolite which may weigh tons. The
word meteor means "lofty, or far off in
the air.
Aerolites, which are "stones of the air, }"
which now and then come within the
earth's atmosphere, as was the case Fri
day night, the 9TH instant, when a most
brilliant one flashed across the Heavens
and to all appearances exploded before it
reached the earth. From the best infor-
nation received the explosion took place
over Pickens County. No fragments
have been picked up.
These aerolites were once supposed to
be thrown up to great distance by the
volcanoes of the moon and, getting with
out its attractive Influence, they we're
drawn to the earth. Scientific examina-
tion shows that these stones ere not of
volcanic origin, and, therefore could not
have come from the moon. The general
opinion is that they are of cosmic origin.
That is, they came from the same crea-
tive hand that fashioned our globe, the
moon and the stars, and that they wan
der through space until drawn to our
earth.
Shooting stars, as. they are called, may
be seen every clear night. They exist in
day time, but are then invisible, unless q
very brilliant one flashes across the space
above US. There are special periods
when most wonderful showers of stars,
as they are called, may be seen. The
Investigations of these meteoric iperiods
are in their infancy and little is known
about the laws that control them. The
observations are not sufficient to deter
mine. whether meteoric showers were
more frequent two thousand years ago
than at the present day. The Chinese
records go back $500 years and they
state that 16 aerolites fell in the thou
sand years up to A. D. $685. The Greeks
and Romans during the same period not
ed four such falls. 1t stands to reason
that three.fourths of the aeroli!es fall in
the ocean, and are never seen by man.
Of the oue.fourth that falls on land, a
great portion falls on the thiuly settled
parts of the earth out of reach of tele-
graph lines and newspapers and no
record is made of them. They come
when not expected, and their passage
through the air is so rapid that they can
neither be weighed nor measured.
In tae year 81 B. O. there was fall Of
1,2OO stones recorded in Locanis, a dis.
trict of Italy. One of these weighed l60
pounds. Besides stones, showers of sui.
phur, sand and fire have been reported.
Failing stars" as they are called,
seem to come at regular intervals, except
the sporadic stars to be seen every night.
Displays noted for their brilliancy are
recorded October, 9O2; October 10, 1902;
October 81, 1866; November 9-lO, 1887 !;
November 1918, 1899; November 13,
1888; November 13 H. 1866. About
the same date in November of each year
the falling stars are more abundant than
usual. 1t will be remembered that last
November there was brilliant display.
The heavenly bodies, whose size and
orbits have been ascertainea vary in size
from Jupiter, with diameter of 10000
miles, to Clio, the baby asteroid, that is
about IS miles in diameter. Reasoning
from this there may be bodies whirling
through space with diameters ranging
from 16 miles to 16 inches and even
down to aggregatiens of "star dust"
These may be the bodies that gives us
meteoric showers and aerolites. 1t hes
been estimated that 5000 of these aero.
lites reach our earth annually. Some.
times single mass falls and then a show
or, consisting of hundreds of small stones,
comes down. Pliny says one fell in
Thrace 467 B. @. the size of a wagon. In
Alsace one weighing 260 pounds fell in
1892. In Crens a shower fell in l511
and 1900 pieces were collected, the
largest of which weighed 26O pounds.
An American vessel in 1856, 24O miles
south of Java, passed through shower of
small stones about the size of shot. The
largest aerolites have been found in
Greenland, the largest weighing 25 tons.
One of these weighing 10 tons is in the
museum of Copenhagen. The British
Museum has one of moro than tons.
Yale College has more. than 100 speci'
mems, one Of them, which fell in Texas,
weighing 1886 pounds.
Chemical analysis shows that acrolites
are of two kinds, the stony and the me-
tslIic. The stony resembles scoria
brought from the earth's deep interior
below the stratifed rocks. Metallic aer-
olites consist chiefly of iron combined
with nickel. They usually contain about
go per cent. of iron. This combination
of iron and nickel is never found in the
rocks belonging to the earth. Traces of
other metals are also found, such as
phosphorus, silicon, aluminium, cobalt,
manganese, tin, copper and 80 on.
Looking back at the records it will be
seen that brilliant showers of meteors, or
falling stars, occur every 33 years. Those
who are living November IL to Is, 1899
t..1xl L.o, onoLo baoopca in oil proh.