The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-03
METEoRs AND METEoRITEs.
stone and Iron Visitors from Inter
stellar Space.
New York Tribune

New York Tribune.
Astronomers distinguish between shoot
ing stars" or meteors, and meteorites. The
former which are by far the most numer-
Gus, are due to the passage through our at
mosphere of stones which rarely weigh
more than a few grains, and which are
burned up during the short period OF their
visibility. The velocity with when they
move, somewhere from ten to nifty miles
second develops enough friction as soon as
they enter the earths aerial envelope TO
render them incandescent Lord Kelvin says
that II is as if they were immersed in a
blow-pipe flame at temperature or sew
eral thousand degrees Fahrenheit; Profes-
sOr Newton, of Yale, once estimated that me
number of these tiny objects that come
into the atmosphere of the entire globe IS
from ten million TO fifteen million daily
But those masses which are large enough
TO survive this fiery ordeal are. relatively
speaking, exceedingly rare. Perhaps not
more than a dozen are seen seen, IN the course purse
a very few hundred fall without witnesses
i'm that period of time. These may weigh
from q few ounces TO several tons: Inc
flight of the larger ones is often attended
by a rumbling or roaring SOUND, ana also by
Explosions The unequal heating OF any
mineral tends to crack l. into pieces. IL IS
only for a few seconds that the meteorite
is subjected to a high temperature and only
the surface is acted upon. MS may De
made to glow brilliantly; and the thin, var
nishlike coating found on these visitors
from outer space shows that a little OF the
material has actually been FUSED ,s.i me
so characteristic of the exterior or aero
lites are usually accounted Tor by the COM
huston of portions of the mass, and thus
afford additional evidence CT the heat en-
dured Yet specimens have been picked up
Immediately after falling and found to have
retained so much of their original cold
the temperatSre of interstellar Space-that
thew froze the fingers. Il is not likely that
the momentary heat p2netrates far from
the surface of these strange objects.
Meteorites are classified according to their
composition. Nineteen out of every twenty
are stony; in Avery small proportion of
them metal preponderates. Iron is the prin-
cipaI metallic constituent A small portion
of nickel is mixed with il Usually. and
traces of "copper" tin, lead and several of
what are called the "rarer' metals have
also been found AT least thirty-four of the
terrestrial elements have been discovered in
these bodies but no element which could
not be identified. Sometimes these are COM
bined as salts of sodium calcium and po-
tassfum which can be soaked out by i'm
mersing the specimen in water; but the
greater part of the stony material Is insou-
bic stone being more brittle than iron, the
stony meteorites are more liable TO break
IN into small pieces than those which are
metallic 1t sometimes happens, though that
the iron is distributed unevenly. though IN
about equal proportions, in an aerolte. The
mass may burst into a hundred or a thou
sand fragments just before landing. Some
of these will be almost pure iron and others
merely stone. The iron Is usually ductile,
even though allOyed but there Is at least
one specimen known that behaved like tenn