Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-10-07
THE METEORITES.

! Lieut.. Perry has brought the York
/ Meteorite from Cape York, Greenland,
and it will be deposited in the New
| York museum of natural history This
| meteorite was discovered by Sir John
| Ross in 1918 and has been utilized by
the Esquimo for their supply of iron.
1t is the largest known meteOrite in the
world. The composition of meteor
! ties is mostly iron in combination with
nickel There are often traces of many
other elements besides these two, but
| as they acquire a great deal of heat on
| entering our atmosphere, everything
cCmbustible would be burned out il
any such elements were originally
| present. The heat is so intense, caused
! by the friction of the air, the presence
| of oxygen and the velocity Of their
| motion, that most of them are con-
sumed or exploded before reaching the
surface of the earth. Millions fall to
the earth every year in the form of mi
mute fragments Of dust. The larger
fragments are sometimes scattered for
miles by the explosion. In 1873 a me-
teOrite burst and fell in Iowa, which
spread four or five miles. 1t weighed
over 500 pounds and the parts which
we're found fitted when assembled
These meteorites are small bodies
revolving about the sun in an eliptical
orbit, like comets, but in belts or
zones, so that the earth passes through
them at stated times. The fall of
meteorites in unusual numbers at these
periods of intersection can be predict
ed with reasonable certainty The
bodies are wholly invisible till they
meet our atmosphere and are heated to
Whiteness. Of course they are invisi-
bic in the day time even then. EXCEPT
in some rare instances. There are sew
erai or these meteOrite zones, but they
seem to be so situated that the earth
crosses them in November each year,
with minor intersections in September.
The bodies are not evenly distributed
IN the zones, so some years are much
more fruitful Of meteors than others.
The great Leonid star shower occurs
once in about thirty-three years and is
due in 1898, on the morning of Novem-
Der Is. But for two or three years be-
fore and after the great shower the
earth will pass through the growing
swarm; so this year we can look for
great increase of observed shooting
stars November Is to II. These are
the forerunners of the great event.
The earth crosses the orbit of the
mptpOr0lnS Mo
as their revolution is through period
of about tEirty-three and a quarter
years. They move at about twenty
five miles second and it takes over
two years for the Swarm" to pass
the earth, the stream is so long. The
shower lasts about five hours at the
time of its greatest elimination on the
thirty-three-year period. The heavens
are all ablaze with them. 1t is a literal
lain of fire. Whenever these meteors
| appear, if the line of their approach is
traced back, it is always towards the
| sickle of Leo, hence the name as the
| Leonid stream. There can never be
any doubt as to the genuineness of a
| meteorlte, for when cut across in any
direction, polished and treated with
| acid, there is revealed a remarkable
| system of capitalization belonging to
| nothing else, which once seen is well
| known. No infringement on their
| trade mark has ever been known. What
| they really are, what they represent,
what their office in astronomical econ
omy, or what their origin, is all prob
| lem unsoIved