Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1894-03-16
NIETEORS.
They Sometimes Pursue Zigzag Courses
Other Facts About Them.

log OF the steamship YemasSee that the
meteor seen by her officers ON Dec 20
pushed ZiSzag path in the latter par
OF It's course. This statement may be
challenged, but the officers Of the Ye
| maSSee need not modify it on that &C
count. They wouldn't, any way; for nc
skipper goes back OH his log; but theil
meteor is by no means the first that
has been seen making Zigzag course
as though beating against the wind
1t not lnfrequently happens that a
large meteor, in plunging through our
atmosphere, sometimes pursues tor
Cuous Path, darling this way and that
in most eccentric manner. Even in
the case of the meteor that Mr.. Lewis
OF AllsOnla caught Il photograph of last
year, part of the path appears as
crooked as a rail fence. 1t is probable
that the zigzagging motion of meteor
rs due to irregularities in the form of
the moving mass, causing variations in
the resistance that it encounters from
the atmosphere.
The brilliancy acribcd to the meteor
by the officers of the YemaSsee, lis by
no means Incredible or unprecedented.
Many meteors have been seen thai
shed an illumination brighter than that
OF the full moon. On Sept. 20 1876,
about O'Clock in the evening, a meteor
passed over England, producing an
illuminate equal to that of MONDAY.
so that, as the celebrated DR.. Wallis
said i'll his report to the Royal society
on CnlS phenomenon, The smallest pin
or straw might be seen lying ON the
ground" On the night of March u.
1916, Il meteor passed over Italy and
was carefully observed by the mathe-
matician Montanari. 1t appeared larger
than the moon. Sir Hans Sloane, vice
president of the Royal society, walk
ing in the streets OF London at a QUAR-
ter after s o'clock in the evening of
March 10, 171S, was startled by a sud
den great light in the sky, which
proved to be a meteor. Its brightness
seemd nearly to equal that of the SUM-
In fact it was so brilliant that he was
several times obliged to turn his eyes
fr1m 1T. 1t left a sparkling tract that
remained visible for about one minute
The great meteor that was seen pass
ing over Long Island sound and Con-
necticut about 11:2O p. M. on May 20.
1869, appeared equal in diameter to the
full moon, and a study of it's path i'm,
dictated that DIT 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 a con-
siderable time. A meteor seen in India
on September %, 1873, left train that
was visible for three-quarters of an
hour. We have seen the trains of
small meteOrs remain half a minute
Or longer after the disappearance of
the meteors, undulating with a snake
like motion as they floated in the cur
rents of the atmosphere
The story of the gradual recognition
Of the fact that meteoric bodies, iron
and stone, actually fall out of the sky
upon the earth is one of the most curl
GUS in the history of science. AL
though such falls had been noticed in
the earliest times, although every read
er of ancient literature knew the story
Of the stone which fell at Aegospota
mos, the rediscovery of which was
one Of the dreams of Alexander Won
Humboldt, and of the other stone that
dropped at the feet of the poet Pindar.
to procure the possession Of which as
a sort of national mascot for Rome
Pulius Scipio Nasica was sent as a
special ambassador to the king of
Persamos, yet at the opening of the
nineteenth century even scientific men
doubted whether anything ever really
fell out of the sky from beyond the
clouds and the limits of the air. The
question was finally settled by the fall
of showers Of stones at Sienna, Italy,
IN June 16, 1874, and at L'Aigle, in
France, April 26, 1903 Biet, the as
tronomer, investigated the last-named
occurrence, and his report ended all
doubts.
In our day the subject has assumed
fresh and keen interest ON account of
the curious discoveries made in the
meteorites themselves. They bring to
us out of the mysterious depths of
space, not only iron, whose condition
indicates that it has had an extra
ordinary history, and nickel, and mag
medic pyrftes, and cobalt, and various
other minerals, such as Divine and
troilite, but that Pfoteus of the min
eral world, carbon, occasionally I'm the
form, too, Of diamonds!
So diamonds are known beyond the
earth.