The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-29
nounARD,rgxT IS PERPETUAL.
Millions of Iron and stone Missiles
Hurled at Mother Earth.
From he Popular Science Glolthly.

Hurled at Mother Earth.
From The Popular Science Glolthly.
A thin stratum of air, an invisible ar
NOR Of great teHuity, lies between man
and the menace Of POSSIBLE annihia ion.
The REGIONS Of space beyond our planet
are flied with flying fragments. Some meet
the earth On rs onward rush; others hay
ing attained inconceivable ve,oci,y. over
take and crash into the whirlng sphere
with had detonali0n and om'noas g.are.
finding destruc ion in It's molecular armor.
CT perhaps rieocheting from it again into
the unknown. Some come singly, vagrant
fragments from the inhnlty Of srace; 9th
ers fall in showers like golden rain; all
constituting a bombardment appalling in
its magnitude. 1t mas been estimated that
every twenty -four hours he earth or its
atmosphere IS struck by 100 09Q 900 missiles
of iron or stone ranging from an ounce up
10 ions IN weight. Every month there rush
es up1n the flying globe a least l20JOGOO-
Coz iron and stone fragments, which with
lurid Impairment, craeh into the cir
cumambiert atmo phere. Owing to the re-
sistance offered by the air few of these
sod shots strike The earth. They move
out Of space with a possible velocity of
thirty or forty miles per sec nd. AMI, like
lured 70 their des rJtt!cn by its "a al at
traction. The moment they enter our at
m S here they gnite; TIE air is piled I'D
and compressed ahead Of them with in
conceivable force. the resultant friction
producing an Immedi1te rise in tempera-
ture and the shooting star, The meteor of
popular parlance, The result.
Me,eorites vary in size from minute OBJ
jects not larger than a pear to masses OF
irou of enormous size. The ChuDa deros
meteorite which fell in Chihuahua. ATaM-
co. weights twenty-five tons. Another.
which fell in Kansas broke into mvrf Ids
of pieces, the sections found weighing 200
pounds. A meetroite in the Vienna muse
um, which fell in Hungary, weighs C47
pounds, while the Cranbourne meteorite in
the British Musem weighs four tons The
Red river meteroite in the Ya.e Muse m
weighs 1870 pounds. The largest mete-
Ortie known was discovered with n the
arctic circle by Lieut.. Peary The Es-
kimos had known OF it for generations as
a source of supply for iron. It was found
by Lieut.. Peary in May. 1891. but ov ing
TO It's enormous weight, could not BE- re-
moved until the summer of 1897 when aft
er much labor, it was excavated and hoist
ed into the hold of the steam whaling
bark Hope and carried to New York,
where it has found a resting place in the
cabinet of the American Museum of Nat
ural History. II is believed 10 weigh about
100 tons
Up 20 1772 the stories of bodies falling
from space were not entertained ser orsly
by scientific men. So eminent scientist
| as Lavoisier after thoroughly inve tig t
ing a case, decided that il was m rely
stone which had been struck by lighting.
Falls finally occurred which demonstrated
beyond dispute that the missiles came
| from SPACE, and science recognized the
| fact that the earth was literally being
! bombarded, and that human safety was
| due TO the atmospheric armor, scarcely 100
miles thick, that enveloped the earth. One
| of the most remarkable falls during rec mt
! years is known as the Great Kansas me-
teor. 1t was evidently of large size flash
| ing into sight eighty or ninety miles fr m
| the earth, on June 20 1876, over the state
| Of Kansas. To the first observers Il ap-
| peared TO come from the vicinity Of the
| moon, and resembled a small moon or a
! gigantic fire ball blazing brightly, ana 2
ating terror and am3Zcment among ttol-
| sands of spectators who witnessed its
| fight. 1t passed 10 the east, disap peariny
near the horizon in a blaze of light. The
| entire passage occupied nearly fifty Sec
| onds, being visible TO the inhabitant, Of
| Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, Wis
| consin Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio
| Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
This visitor created the greatest a arm
and apprehension along its path, the blaze
| of light being accompanied by repeated ex-
| plosions and detonations which sound d
| like The rumble and roar of cannoading.