Delaware gazette and state journal., 1899-11-02
THE NOVEMBER METEORS.
Philadelphia Times.


study Of nearly all the higher schools
from which thousands are graduated
every year, said the Club Philosopher !;
yet of every score of intelligent per-
sons hardly one has more than a vague
and almost useless knowledge OF the
heavens. why did not some one teach
me the constellationsf' cried Carlyle,
late in life. and Darwin, school bred,
was ashamed before the sailors when
he made his first voyage, because he
did not know the stars.
But if men of average sense do not
know a Ilanet from star, and if they
persist in the old fallacy of shooting
stars, Mt least they acknowledge the
authority of professional star-gazers,
and are not to be frightened, as our
grandfathers were &c years ago, by
| celestial fireworks that form the
grandest spectacle human eyes ever
beheld. Even expert knowledge, then
was not more exact than that Off the
| Chaldeans, and there were no news
| papers that prepared the people against
causeless panic. At the end of the
second week in November, 1898, our
grandparents and their children went
to bed hardly later than the chickens
flew on their perch, and with no
thought of the brilliant scene that
! would alarm the timid. Science was
still in swaddling clothes, and took no
pains to enlist the people us observers.
| Toward morning the light seepers were
disturbed by the unusual bowling Of
the dogs, the bawling of the cattle, and
the cackling and flutterirg of the fowl.
There were flashes of light on the
bed. room walls and o quick rush to
windows. What the people saw filled
them with terror and awe. There were
world enders then, as now. Perhaps
people were better acquainted with
their Bibles and the vision Of the
Apocalypse. That the world was to
be destroyed by fire was a common
belief until science predicted that ii it
should escape falling into the sun it
would become stone cold, like the
moon. They could hardly doubt that
the heavens we're falling.
From quarter of the sky came
countless thousands of what were
thought to by falling stars. Each
point travelled with lightning speed.
leaving trail of fire in it's wake.
Many seemed to reach the earth, and
, occasionally ball of fire burst with
a loud report, lighting up the cal tn, SO
that objects cast % distinct shadow,
removing the first impression that the
shooting bodies might be insubstantial
gas There were some people, the
Millerites, who quickly put on their
white iobes and assembled to the house,
tops, sure that at last the oft-deferred
end of the world was at hand. For
tunately, dark NovembeI's sky was
cleaf of clouds in nearly every part Of
the country that was inhabited and in
parts of Europe. The chances are
largely against clear sky on any
particular night near the middle Of the
NOR th of clouds. Most of the spectators
were without the knowledge Of any
precedent for such an impressive event,
and could form no plausible theory as
warning, and was followed by one of
the greatest religious revivals in the
history of several sections of this land.
The descriptions given by different OBJ
servers were widely diverse, showing
that the popular excitement was too
intense for accurate, unimaginative
study of the Terrifying phenomenon.
The fear of the people was parable ed
only by that of the French when a
brilliant comet blazed in the sky and a
leading astronomer asserted possible
contact with and destruction of the
earth,
"On the night of tho 14th of Noveni-
ber there will be a repetition of that
amazing shower of burning meteors.
In 1866 it was looked for, but cave in
u few favored spots tho people CT
America looked into sky heavy with
clouds. Those who caught glimpse
of cloudless space, reported an extra
ordinary shower. If, by great good
fortune, the heavens should be clear,
| we shall see that which it would pay
the most indifferent TO go thousands of
| miles to witness. The astronomers are
making unparalleled preparations for
| the event, and have called on every
body throughout the world to note
carefully everything in connection with
| it--as far as practicable the number
| falling in IA given time, the direction,
| apparent size &c In former showers
there have been occasional 'fireballs
that burst.
"Science affirms that the swarm of
moteors which are of all sizes from
that of a pea up to the weight of many
pounds, are tho romans of TemEel's
comet, which was drawn into the solar
system by Uranus, and which burst
3, 300 years ago. They were at first in
q closer mass, but in travelling in their
orbit some go slower than others, and
| gradually separate, SO as to fill the
entire orbit at last. Every year in
November the earth crosses the path of
tho comet and meets with some of the
fragments which are fired by the
friction of our atmosphere, most Of
them burning up at distance Of so
miles from tile earth's surface. Every
33 years the earth enters that part Of
the comets orbit that contains the
largest mass of fragments-a mass
1000, 600, 600 milas in length and a
100, 600 miles in thickness. When these
myriads of flying stones pass the earth,
they travel at the rate OF about rs
miles a second. The earth itself is
moving around the sun at speed Of Is
miles second, and it meets the
meteors full front So when they dash
into our atmosphere they are virtually
flying at the velocity Of "A miles a
second. Naturally, the intense heat
caused by friction destroys them in a
second or two, turning each into a
wisp of glowing vapor. OF course,
cluster il burned up in our atmos-
phere. While none reach tho earth,
on the tops of the highest mountains
meteoric dust is found. AS they are
liko the occasional larger metorites
that are not wholly destroyed, and the
romans Of which are picked up their
congestion is pretty well known.
The November meteors are called
Leonids, because they fall from that
point of the sky where the constellation
of Leo is. At the hours when the
ShnMer will hn larnnst in tha nnrln