The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-27

lndI we are not actually able 10 Try
this experiment with a body moving so
quickly as a meteor, but we can expert
ment I'D to a certain point, and then
calculation will take up the reasoning,
and conduct to a very striking result.
We can show that when a meteor
dashes into our atmosphere the heat
generated as it pierces its way through
by friction will be sufficient. not alone
to warm the object, but to make it
redhot, and even white heat. Nay. fur
ther, the heat that can be produced by
the friction of a cold body striking into
cur cold atmosphere may become
higher than that which is generated in
blast furnace. 1t may be higher than
the temperature in the flame of an
oxyhydrogen blow pipe.
The effect upon the meteor is of
most astonishing description. Be the
materials of this body what they may,
whether they are such as will yield cas-
lily to fire or whether they are the most
irtractible bodies which can be found,
they will be unable to withstand the in
tenSity of the fervor produced by this
atmospheric friction. The little object
not only grows red and white hot but it
is fused into liquid. Nay. further, the
abundance of the heat is such that the
liquid may be boiled off into vapor, so
that within a very few seconds after
ShC lHClCOl Ids llSell lHlO
the atmosphere its dissolution is COM
plete. 1t has persisted as an individual
object, and its remains lay strewn in
lmpalpable track of dust along a track
perhaps 10, 20 or so miles in length.
Our only knowledge of the existence of
the meteor is acquired during the very
brief space while its humiliation is in
progress. Before that time we could
not see it. for it was too small and
fnn 20 Ill,
After that time it could hardly be
known to US, for how could we gather
up the dust into which it had been con-
verted along its track? But during the
supreme moment of it's dissolution it
develops streak of light so bright as
to be apt to create an impression alto
gether out of proportion to the minute
ness of the object to which the light
owes its origin.
Such is, in fact, the usual history of
one Of these shooting stars which
every clear night may be seen to flash
across the sky. 1t will be noted that
each such apparition marks the total
transformation of the meteor. 1 use
the word transformation indirectly for
of course. it will be remembered that
no such event as the absolute destruc-
ton of a particle of matter ever takes
place in nature. The meteor is no doubt
comminuted into dust, that dust slowly
subsidies to the ground through our air
so that this globe of ours must be ac-
tually growing in bulk by the spoils of
the untold meteors which it has cap
tured
1t must not be thought that because
a single observer under ordinary cir
cumStances sees only a few shooting
stars on any particular night that,
therefore, the number of these objects
appropriated by the earth every "A
hours are not very numerous. 1t should
in the first place be remembered that
the canopy of sky visible to any par
ticular observer contains only a very
insignificant portion of the earth's at
mosphere, while, of course, the entire
atmosphere is employed in the work of
meteor catching. 1t must also be re-
membered that the shooting stars
which ordinarily attract attention are
only the brighter members of a vast
host of less conspicuous objects For
just as there are ordinary stars in the
sky too faint TO be seen except with
the telescope, so there are innumerable
faint shooting stars which are not Suf-
ficiently bright. to be noticed with the
LAed eye, though perceptible with OPP
teal aid. Every observer is familiar
with the fact that in the course of
his nights work, bright streaks of
light will occasionally flash across the
field of view of the telescope. These are
really telescope shooting stars. TAX
ing these objects into account, it has
been estimated that the number of
shooting stars which daily plunge into
our atmosphere is to be reckoned by
if not, indeed, by scores of
millions Indeed, considering that this
addition of external matter to our globe
has been in progress for illimitable
ages, it seems quite possible that
part of our earth may ac
tually have been derived from the daily
raining down of these little celestial
wanderers upon it's surface.
1t is unfortunate for us jewellers on
the earth that we are screened by our
atmosphere from these bullets of the
sky. For even though these objects be
no larger than the pebbles on a gravel
walk, yet, considering that they are
animated with velocities 100 times as
great as that of a rife bullet, it is OBJ
vious that they would render a resi-
dence on the earth highly dangerous.
On the moon, for instance, where there
is no protecting atmosphere to reduce
the missiles to StreakS of harmless va
pOr, and thus serve as screen, the
blows given to the plains and noun
tains must be terrible. For it should
be noted, in this connection, that the
efficiency of a missile in delivering a
blow. is to be measured, not merely by
it's velocity but by the square of its
1t follows that in comparing
the destruction which would be
wrought by a meteor with that eff
fected by rifle bullet of the same
weight, we may say that the former
must be 10000 times as much as the
latter, if we assume, as we have been
doing in this article, that the velocity
of the celestial missile is 100 times that
which we can produce by our rifles.
This consideration ought to make us
more heartily appreciate the benefits
we derive from the kindly screen
which the atmosphere provides. In
deed, in one way it may be regarded
as fortunate for our safety that these
meteors do move rapidly. If they en-
tered our atmosphere with a speed no
greater than that of a rifle bullet, the
heat developed would not be sufficient
to dissipate them, and consequently
they would reach the earth in a solid
and retaining the capacity
for doing no mischief 1t is, in fact,
the very frenzy of these little objects
which is the source of our security.
They are, so to speak, in such a ter
rible hurry to get at us that they be-
come dissolved into Streaks of harm
less vapor.
The ancients had a very poetical
as to the character of the
stars. They were supposed to
be fiery arrows which the beneficent
deities overhead discharged at the
demons. If an evil spirit were seen
stealing from its legitimate province
below and intruding its baleful pres
ance on the earth, it was made the
mark for one of these arrows. And as