The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-22
BLAZE WHIRLS AND FLARES
ACROSS THE SKY.
GOES OUT IN GRAND caNNoNADE
EARTH TREMBIES AND PEOPLE
RUSH INTO THE STREETS.
W hat Some People Did and Said Who
saw the Pyrotechnic Phenomenon
Definition OF Meteors.

Sunday night at about 1913 a white
light broke ouI in the sky 10 the south
eas. vi this place a. an angle OF prob
ably sixty degrees with the horizon. In
minute and q quarter il had Travelled
. about the same position in the north
and dropped on down from view on the
horlz"n-
Il was about three minutes and a half
from the time the blaze left the body till
a sharp, heavy report like the firing Of
a cannon followed and died away in a
long, heavy rumble Ike an earthquake
II appears from reports that the shock
mas more severe in some parts Of town
than others, and al Colwich il was much
heavier chan here.
As the body first appeared in the
southeast il presented a circular appear
ance probably three feec in diameter,
bus waen il had passed tae zenith. il
seemed 70 De ab0uc Inc size and shape
OF an ordinary salt barrel L was per-
fecly white and shone like q million
candle arc light II was so bright on
Douglas avenue that from the back end
Of a hundred foot store il looked like
MONDAY. The light was different from
The ordinary fash OF an electric storm.
Il penetrated q room like the white heat
Of a powder explosion. There was no
long trail % fire, bU; stiff. quivering
blaZes fiared out from the sides and fol-
lowed i. When the blaze had died our
the thing seemed 70 De a red hickory
coal about the size and shape OF a wash
tub. and a few light sparks left it as i.
dropped through the atmosphere
Estimating the time intervening be-
tween the expiration Of the fash and the
report Of the explosion or conclusion at
four minutes, the body disappeared
about midway in time between them.
Allowing Two minutes from the time the
body disappeared completely on the nor
lion 70 the report, the explosion or strik-
ing OF the body was az least twenty-sev-
en- niles away. Sound travels at the rate
of 1.142 feet per second, which in two
minutes would put the conclusion a lit
lie over tYenty-seven miles away.
Some who saw il advanced the opin-
ion that the noise was caused by the
passage Of the body through the air or
the cgncussion of the air from the
air from the vacuum. II this were true
the sound would have increased grad
ually as the body neared the zenith. or
a Least would have come from the south
cas-. The direction from which the body
The noise came from a west direction
for this reason:
Nj. J. F. Costello. the night operator 7
ct the Santa Fe, was exchanging words
win the operator a. Garden Plain when !
the light appeared. Garden Plain is
-wenty-one miles due west OF here. /
When the light brouke out the Garden I
Plain man said over the wire:
See -hat?''
Mr.. Costello replied Yes
The next sentence that came from /
Garden Plain was:
What an awful noise
Don't hear" Mr.. Costello answered I
Don't you hear that"
JUS as the instrument licked on 70 1
the word that" Mr. Costello says ne 4
heard an awful sound Mr. Costello says
il was about eleven seconds from the 4
Nt-A- N-AT 4-tA an -A-s1A4 AA4CiLNASAAC4A
the noise ill ne heard il himself. 50 ,hat /
/; must have come from the west, what
ever may have produced X
AS 20 what produced the sound the
Eagle has no suggestions.
Some claim thai i was the concus-
son Of the air. Others are OF the opin-
ion taat- the body from hea- Or some
ocher cause exploded. while a great
many claim that The boom and rumble
came from the o6jecS striking me earth.
A. Colwich. Miss Brown who came down
early yesterday morning from that place
10 attend normal mere, says that ne /
houses trembled Till the windows ratified
Miss Ethel Breese. who lives near CO..
xich. says THAI the swaying OF their
house caused by the explosion almost
.u-ned her father il bed.
Others who came down from there say
,ha- here was a peculiar ordo- IN the
az following the report.
Al Hutchinson, Mr.. Allen. manager or
the telephone company. says thai here
was no report there at all; that the me-
.eo- travelled from the north 20 the
south. was bright Tor about Two min
1,es. Mr.. Morgan. editor u the Hutch
nson News, gave about the same &C