Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1899-11-30
The Meteor Display.

The meteor display on November IA,
Is and 16 was disappointing. Unfavor-
able conditions hampered the astrono-
mers at the Naval Observatory at Wash
ington on the 14th; clouds prevented
observations until o'clock a. m, and it
was only partially clear at any time
Paths of ten Leonid meteors were plotted
on the star chart. One of these was as
bright as a second magnitude star, but
the others were fainter. The conditions
at the Harvard Observatory were very
unfavorable for observing the meteoric
display. The efforts of the observers
met with some success, however. On
November 16 twenty meteors were seen
about o'clock a. m. at Chicago; the
student watchers had an opportunity
which was denied to the astronomers of
the Yerkes Observatory. At the Flower
Observatory Of the University of Penn
sylvania, Philadelphia, the watchers re-
corded 1O2 meteors, go Of which were
Leonids.
Nearly all the meteors observed were
faint. only few Of them being of the
second magnitude. Most of the non
Leonids were scarcely discernible. In
no instance did a meteor leave trail
visible for more than a few seconds.
The Harvard Observatory counted 64,
but the display hardly came mp to the
expectations of the astronomers. Pro
fessor Howe, of the University of Den
yer, reported that he counted IS Leonids
besides large number of meteors in
other portions of the sky. On Novem-
Der IA many students of Princeton stayed
out long after midnight to observe
them, and in order that all might have
an opportunity of observing them, the
bells in the town rang to wake up the
students at one o'clock. No photo
graphs were taken of the few stray me-
teors which were seen. AT McGill Uni
versity photographs of 1856 meteors were
obtained. At Lima, Peru, at half past
12 O'Clock on November 10, there was a
strong earthquake shock, but no celes
tial phenomena were observed. By the
falling of an aerolite seven miles south
of Crescent City, ILL.,, residence was
partly wrecked, tearing away portion
of the upper story. The aerolite buried
itself in the ground about three fee
from the foundation of the house.
In England balloon made an ascension
for the purpose of observing the Leoni(
shower. The observers saw only fly,
meteors, and they were obliged to make
a sudden descent, as the balloon wa'
drifting toward the sea. As resul
two of the three occupants of the bal
loon were injured. Generally speaking
the European observations proved fail
ure, except in the Austrian Alps, wher'
on November 10, no less than 300 Leon
ids were seen and photographed On
hundred were seen at Paris, and fai
display at Brussels.
The most interesting report receiyet
from the observations in the Unitet
States on November Is is a dispatch
uns nsubstantiated as yet by astronomica
authorities, to the effect that larg
meteorite fell in the woods just east o
Webster City, la. The dispatch SAT-
that the falling body came dow
with terrific roar and, all seething AM
smoking, plowed out a hole in tn
ground 80 feet square If the report
verified, the find will be more than usu
ally interesting, because, while meteor
ties at times fall to the earth, it is no
know that any of the Leonids hav
hitherto penetrated through the earth
dense atmosphere without being entire
ly consumed. Sci. Am.
THE projected ship canal from Georg
ian Bay to Montreal would mean tn
saving of 725 miles in the transports
ton of grain from Chicago to Liverpool
all but 29 miles is open river and lax
waters.