The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-02-22
INTERESTING METEORS.
a Z.gzag Path Not Unusual Some Notable
Xamples.


xamples.
1t IS down in the log of the steam
snip Yemassee that the meteor seen by
her officers on December 20 last pur
sued a zigzag path in the latter part of
its course. This statement may be
challenged, but the officers of the Ye-
massee need not modify it on that ac-
count. They wouldn't t, anyway, for no
skipper goes back on his log; but their
meteor is by no means the first that
has been seen making zigzag course,
as though beating against the wind. 1t
not infrequently happens that large
meteor, in plunging through our at
mosphere, sometimes pursues tortu-
GUS path darting this way and that in
most eccentric manner. Even in the
case of the meteor that Mr.. Lewis. of
Ansoni&, caught a photograph of last
year, part of the path appears as
crooked as rail fence. 1t is proba BILE
that the Zigzagging motion of a meteor
is due to irregularities in the form of
the moving mass, causing variations in
the resistance that it encounters from
the atmosphere.
The brilliancy ascribed to the meteor
by the officers of the Yemassee is by
no means incredible or unprecedented.
Many meteors have been seen that
shed an illumination broader than
that of the full moon. On September
20, 1916, about : o'clock in the evening,
a meteor passed over England, produc-
ing an illumination equal to that of
MONDAY, so that, as the Celebrated DR..
Wallis said in his report to the Royal
society on this phenomenon, 1.-The
smallest pin or straw might be seen
lying on the ground" On the night
OF March 81, 1916, meteor passed over
Italy and was carefully observed by
the mathematician Montanari. 1t ap-
peared larger than the moon. Sir Hans
Sloane, vice president of the Royal
society, walking in the streets of Lon
don at Sis o'clock in the evening, on
March 10, IT'S, was startled by sud
den, great light in the sky, which
proved to be meteor. Its brightness
seemed nearly to equal that of the sun.
In fact, it was so brilliant that he was
several times obliged to turn his eyes
from it. 1t left a sparkling track
that remained visible for about one
minute. The great meteor that was
seen passing over Long Island Sound
and Connecticut about 11:29 p. m. on
May 20, 1869, appeared equal in diane
ter to the full moon, and study of its
path indicated that it probably fell
into the ocean not far from the coast
northeast of Boston.
The trains left in the air by large
meteors also frequently last for cou
siderable time. A meteor seen in India
on September %, 1878, left train thai
was visible for three-quarters of al
hour. We have seen the trains o.
small meteors remain half a minute
! or longer after the disappearance o,
the meteors, und ulating with snake
like motion as they fioated in the cur
rents of the atmosphere.
The story of the gradual recognition
of the fact that me teoric bodies, iror
and stone actually fall out of the sky
upon the earth is one of the most curl
Gus in the history of science. Although
such falls had been noticed in the ear
| liest times; although every reader o
ancient literature knew the story O.
| the stone which fell at Aegospotamos
| the re-discovery of which was one o
| the dreams of Alexander Won Hum
| boldt, and of the other stone that fel
at the feet of the poet Pindar, to pro
cure the posses sion of which as a sor
of national mascot for Rome Publiu.
Scipio Nasica was sent as special am
bassador to the king of Pergamos, We
at the opening of the nineteenth cen
whether anything ever really fell ou
of the sky from beyond the clouds anC
the limits of the air. The question wa.
finally settled by the fall of showers o
stones at Sienna, Italy, on June 16
1904, and at L'Aigle, in France, April
26, 1903 Blot, the astronomer, inves
tigated the last-named occurrence, anC
his report ended all doubts.
| In our day the subject has assumed
| fresh and keen interest on account o.
| the curious discoveries made in the
meteorites themselves. They bring tC
us out of the mysterious depths o.
space, not only iron, whose condition
| indicates that it has had an extraordin
airy history, and nickel. and magnetic
pyrites, and cobalt, and various otheI
| minerals, such as Divine and troilite
| but that Proteus of the mineral world
| carbon, occasionally in the form, too
of diamonds.
SO diamonds are known beyond the
| earth.-N. y. Sun.