Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-03-04
POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.


Preece, thief engineer and electrician 10
the postothce, has put up wire a mile
long on the coast near Lavero..k aud a
shorter wire on Flatholm. n little island /
three miles off in the British Channel. |
He fitted the latter wire with sound
err to receive messages and sent mes
sage through the former from a power
full telephone generator. That message /
on the mai land was distinctly heard on |
the island, though nothing connected |
the two, on, in other words, the POSSIBLE |
ity of telephone between places uncon-
nected by wire was conclusively estab- |
lished. There is a possibility here of
inter-planotary communication good
deal more worthy attention than any
scheme for making gigantic electric
| flashes. We do not know il
we can communicate by telephone
through the ether to New York or Mel
bourne, with or without cables but we
do know that If we cannot the fault is In
our generators and saunders and not In
any prohiOitory natural law. Will our
habitual readers bear with us for n mo-
ment as we wander into another, and, as
many Of them will think, a supersensual
region? The thought in mans brain
which causes him to advance his foot
must move something in doing 1t, or
how could it be transmitted down that
five or six feet of distancel II it moves
physical something, internal to the
body, why should it not move also
something external, wave, as we
all agree to call it, which on another
mind prepared to receive it--titted with
asounder. in fact-will make an impact
having all the effect in the conveyance of
suggestion, or even of facts of the audi
bilitv of wordsl Why, in fact, If one
wire can talk to another without connec-
ton, save through ether, should not mind
talk to mind without any wire at alls
None of us understand accurately, or
even as yet approximately, what the con
ditions are; but many of us know for
certain that they have occasionally, and
bv what we call accident, been present
to particular individuals, and that, when
present, the communication is completed
without cables, and mind speaks to mind
independently of any machinery not ex-
listing within itself. Why, in the name of
science, is that more of miracle, that
is, an occurrence prohibited by i'm
mutable law, than the transmission of
Mr. Freezes message from Lavernock to
to Flatholm?- London Spectator.
Amour AERoIIrEs. - Many of the
meteors that have fallen to the earth
have been sub jected to chemical analysis,
, They are composed of elements all OF
which occur on the Garth There are
seventy elements on the earth and
+ twenty-four of them have been found in
meteors. The produce of Il shower OF
! meteors may be divided into meteo:ic
iron and meteoric stone, the latter being
of volcanic origin Not infrequently the
. fall of meteors is attended by a loud de
? tonation. History records instances OF
Q considerable damage having been done
2 to life and property by the descent Of
these bodies. a Chinese catalogue re
> cites that meteor that fell in January
9 GIG B. c., broke several chariots ane
t killed ten men. On the evening of Nov
18th. 1885, a brilliant meteor was seen il
: the department Of Aisne, France. /
e traversed the country in north
a easterly direction and burst nea
castle, setting fire to barr
and stables and burning the corr
and cattle in a few minutes. A ston.
!. substance, supposed to be an aerolite
+ was found near the place after the oc
G currence In March, 1916, a luminoI
l. sheaf, which transversed the air wit
4 great velocity and noise, fell on n bar
c in the village of lIaute Jaronne and dc
stroyed adjoining buildings and what
|. ever animals were unable to escape tn
r confagration. Astronomers have mad
e out long lists of the aerolites that hay
thumped into the earth The lists sho'
|. that the monthly average of these Wis
n tors from December to June is less tina
q the monthly average from July to Noven
q Der. That, moreover, the months
= March, May, July and Noyemb'
exhibit the greatest numbers. I'll
lists also indicate that the cart
l. in its annual course round Il
,e sun would seem to encounter a create
r. number of aerolites between July an
January than between January and Jul,
. 1t has been asserted to be general ri
10 that the area over which a shower
stones fall is oval, measuring from six
ten miles in length by two or three
breadth; moreover, the largest ston
r may be expected to be found at one e,
At tremty of the oval. That's only one
? the odd pranks Of playfullneteors WhC
found entire the stones are complete
< coated or glazed over Wiz thin, darl
or colored crust, formed of th1 molten SUI
stance of their surface, fused by ignite
/ in the fire5alls. The part which ira
-" eled foremost is sometimes dist
guishable from that which was
i. the rear. Sometimes they brei
into fragments as they disappeo
in Sometimes you find a fragment, al
ID sometimes you do not. The fall OF Il
ne aerolne Of 1927 was witnessed by Il
astronomer. Gasscndi. He states tn
when in the air it was apparently SIT
Mt rounded by halo of prismatic color
IN This being the only aeroltc Of the fall
ho which he had ever heard, he supposed
ON was the result Of volcanic eruption
a. some one of the ncighboring mountain
ed The acrolte Of Dee. i3. 1873, in,r
,c duced itself with loud explosion, f
he lowed by kissing noise, heard throug
IS. out considerable portion OF the NJ
| i 1 aI.ak d