The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-05-28
Meteors and Thunderbolts.

"An astonishing miracle has Just occurred
in our district" wrote VI. Marais, a worthy
il distinguished citizen of France, from his
home at L'Aigle, under date of 'the 18th
Fioreal, year ia date which outside Of
France would be- interpreted as meaning
May 3, 1893. This miracle" was the appear
ance of fire BALI in broad daylight-''per-
haps IL was wildfre," says the nsive chron-
icle-whch hung over the meadow" being
seen by many people, and then exploded
with loud sound, scattering thousands of
stony fragments over the surface OF a terri
tory some miles in extent
One speculator urged that aerolites were
neither Of telluric nor selenic origin, nor yet
children of the sun, as the old Crooks had,
many of them, contended, but that they
visitants from the depths Of cosmic space
This bold speculator was the distinguished
German physicist, Ernst +. +. Cbladni,
man Of no small repute in his day. AS early
as 1894 he urged his cosmical theory of me-
teorites, when the very existence of metco-
rites was denied by most scientists. And be
did more he declared his belief that these
falling stones were really one in origin and
kind with those flashing meteors of the up.
per atmosphere. shooting stars"
Naturally enough, SO unique n view met
time saw little to Justify il; and the non
scientific world rejected it with fervor
being "atheistic and heretical," because it
would seem to imply that the universe is not
y perfect mechanism.
But in 1888 occurred phenomenon which
So; the matter finally at rest. A great mete
oric shower occurred in November of that
year. and in observing il Professor Denison
Olmsted of Yale noted that all the stars OF
the shower appeared 10 come from a single
center or vanishing point ia the heavens, and
that this center shifted its position with the
stars and hence was not telluric. The full
Significance of this observation was at once
recognized by astronomers; IL demonstrated
| beyond all cavil the cosmcal origin OF the
| shooting stars. Some conservative meteoro-
| logists kept up the argument for the telluric
origin for some decades to come matter
| of course--such IA band trails always in the
| rear OF progress. But even these doubters
! were sil,nced when the great shower Of shoot
! ing stars appeared again in 1875, as predicted
| by Olbers and Newton, radiating from the
| same point of the heavens.
Since then the spectroscope has added its
| confrmatory evidence rs to the identity of
| a.eteerita- and shooting star-and- moreover
| has linked these atmospheric moteors with
such distant cosmic residents as comets and
nebulae. Thus IL appears that CHA lni' 5
daring hypothesis of l79l has been more than
verified, and that the fragments of matter
| cissociated from planetary connection
! which he postulated and was declared
| atheistic for postulating-have been shown TO
| be billions Of times more numerous than any
| larger cosmic bodies of which we have cog
| nizance-so widely does the existing universe
! differ from mans prcconceived notions as
| 10 what il should be.
Thus also the miracle" of the falling
stone, against which the scientific scepticism
| If yesterday presented "an evil heart of un-
| belief" turns out 10 bs the most natural of
| phenomena, inasmuch as it is repeated in our
! atmosphere some millions of times each day
From Meteorological Progress of the Cen
| tury," by Il. =. Williams, NJ. d., in Harper's
| for June.
The Elmwood Loyal Temperance Legion