Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-10

| viii peculiar interest by well-informed
| people, especially since meteorites have re-
Gently been invested with additional value
TO science by reason of Prof. Ramsey's
discovery in England that they contain the
| neW-found element "argon," as well as
| the long-sought substance called ''helium,"
heretofore known to exist only in the SUM-
ana revealed in the solar spectrum by
| bright yellow lines. This discovery, which
mas created great stir in the scientific
world, was made in an analysis of me-
teorite from Augusta county, Va, and ex-
| perimenters are eager to secure specimens
| of meteorites with which to pursue similar
inquiries for themselves.
Very few, however, of the meteors OBJ
served in August fall to the earth, and SO
become meteorites. meteoroites, or aero
ntes, as the fallen fragments are termed.
Most of the metecrite falls occur at pro-
1nlscuouS and whimsical periods, at any
time OF the day or night at any season of
the year, IN any region Of the EARTH ire
spectiVe OF weather and without warning
or expectation On the part of mankind.
sun some cases are on record where certain
or the displays booked for set times have
materlallZed into falls"
1t is true though that only small pro-
portion of the meteorites supposed to fall
are ever found.
Many experts on meteorites declare
precisely of their origin. Other physicists
believe that they are the fuel of the sun,
raining from space in myriad numbers and
furnishing the heat which the sun gives
out But the most satisfactory and plaus-
Idle OF the theories advanced by scientists
and accepted meekly by untutored lay
men Is that they are derived from comets;
that they We're once parts of comets and
nave been broken off the principal mass
Tor some cause or other, possibly by COM
ing from the intense cold of space into the
neat OF the sun, Just as stones are shat
tered in a hot fire. At all events. this
much at least is definitely known, that the
earth, at the special epochs when meteor
displays are most numerous, plunges
through vast streams of meteors passing
through space, and many of these streams
as noted above, travel along the track of
certain comets around the sun
Hence 1t is not unreasonable to suppose
mat the meteorites. moving in the train of
comets, like SO many camp followers were
once part of the comets. In a large az
greSatlon of meteors trailing through
space toward definite point like a school
OF 1sh through the water, it IS easy to
conceive some of them straying of to one
side or other Of the procession; and in case
some OF the stragglers should swerve to
the side nearest to the earth, as it ap-
ploaenes their orbit, they would constitute
an advance guard, from our staudpoinr
ana become visible to US at an earlier date
than the others of the system thus Dro
ducing the phenomena witnessed last
preliminary to the set displays of Au-
gust.
Great Number of Meteors.
An Infinitely greater number of metcors
are seen every year than most people have
any idea Of Daubree estimates that over
the whole earth from 600 to 100 different
1alls or meteors occur annually, while other
authorities place the aggregate at q much
higher figure. 1t is admitted that a very
q Of 4
meteors can be had from the number thai
are actually gathered up The enorm ms
majority necessarily escape the most eager
search even in the densest populations,
ellner belng disguised in the vegetation on
account OF their smallness of size, or else
because they enter the soil and are never
pioushed up. The largest number also
must fall in uninhabited countries or saw
age domains, which make up the hulx Of
the terrestrial surface, and especially in
the basins of the great oceans
me fascinating Investigations of deep sea
deposits conducted by the celebrated Chal-
lenger expedition QS72-6), publish I'd by Or
der or the British government in 1891, prove
that the abyssal ocean beds, especially of
the Pacific. are literally strewn with small
granuleS, cosmfc dusts, meteoric globules
and stone bodies of other than earthly
origin, which have silently and steadily col
iected in those submarine solitudes for un-
ton of the water. Some of these sneci-
mems brought up by the dredge consisted
of metallic iron. with traces of cobalt hav-
ing all the characteristics of meteorites,
deposits on the ocean floor can only be
guessed at, but from the significant facts
limited at by the Challenger drefges, the
quantities must be prodigious
OF the small meteors or shooting stars
most of which do not fall on the earth. the
number is Indefinitely larger The outer
space is densely packed with meteoroids-
small bodies moving in orbits around the
to hat
than 10000 times as many of these are seen
over the whole world than can be observed
by any single person, and that there come
into our atmosphere from the outside wastes
of the universe not less than twenty millions
of foreign bodies daily, each of which, on
cloudless night, would appear as a shoot
ing star. visible to the naked eye.
The Museum Collection.
The Oldest collections of meteors in this
country are those of Yale, Amherst and
Harvard colleges, the Lawrence Smith col
lection at Louisville, KY, and that of the
Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadel-
phia. The National Museum collection, al
though not yet as large as some of the old
er ones, is perhaps the most valuable in
this country, and it is the intention eventu-
ally to make it the greatest in the world
1t was formed under the supervision of
Prof. Frank w. .Clarke,I an honorary cura-
ter, and contains, $50 separate falls, includ-
ing 216 specimens belonging to the Shepard
collection (the late Charles Upham Shep-
ard, which will ultimately become the
property of the museum.
The specimens fill four large cases, ag-
gregating thirty feet long, five shelves high |
They are of all manner of shapes, sizes and
appearances, and were picked up in all
parts of the globe-in North, South and
Central America, Europe. Asia. Africa,
Greenland, Australia and the lesser islands
of the sea. Many Of the foreign rarities
We're obtained by exchange with the British
Museum and the museums of Vienna, Paris |
Berlin, st. Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro and
the City of Mexico. The heaviest stone
one of the heaviest in the world-weighs
1850 pounds and is of an irregular round
shape, not unlike that of a huge cobble-
stone.
The most unique stone in the collection
is the Signet, Irwin or Ainsa meteorite
from the Santa Catarina mountains, but |
long used in Tucson, Ariz., by Mexicans for |
an anvil, and presented by DR.. B. ]. d. |
Irwin, United States army. It weighs /, 400
pounds and has a great hole through its |
center, as though round mass had ex-
ploded from it. Some of the meteorites in
the National Museum collection were found
as far back as the years 400 and 1892. Each |
specimen has card attached, showing the |
Of Toll /