The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22
WHY THE LEoNIDS
 DIDN'T SHOOT
Sir Robert Ball Gives an Explanation
 of Their Failure to Materialize.

Sir Robert Ball Gives an Explanation
 of Their Failure to Materialize. New York World.
 The middle of November is always time of special interest to the watcher of the skies. If he be favored with clear weather he may count with reasonaole certainty on seeing something or thdI most interesting group or fdI sn0Gting ybiIs siITs if he be really fortunate enough 10 Wlt- ness a display of this group under the best conditions he will be rewarded oy one of the most sublime spectacles Wlilch it Is possible for the eye of man to De- hold. 4 o shooting star really consists. It may jects which streams across the sky with a flash bright enough to call Iorth an exclamation from every beholder is really quite a small body. It may weigh an ounce or less; it may very often De no larger than the stone in signet ring. Even a grain of sand would be large enough to form an appreciable shooting star. ,, empty space with speed about one hundred times as great as that or the swiftest bullet that was ever fred rom a rifle.
 swept along it's path until at last the supreme moment arrives. In the course of its Journey it encounters the earth or rather, the atmosphere which sur rounds the earth. By this plunge into our air the speed of the little qpJect IS checked, but the friction against the ar is so great that the object presently be- comes warm, and red hot and white hot
 Fierce Heat Caused by Friction.
 The heat generated is indeed so great that even if the little body were com posed of material as refractory as flint 1t would be driven into glowing Napor | just as if it had been heated by the | electric arc. Thus in d brief fraction of a second the little missile has been raised | from a temperature hundreds of degrees l below zero up to a temperature which | transforms it's path into a brilliant | streak. Such is the phenomenon or d shooting star.
 In its long wanderings the little object | Is not alone; it is accompanied by other similar objects. They are, in fact pres l ent in shoals of uncounted and uncount- | able myriads. When the earth in its Journey happens to encounter such a shoal. then q corresponding number Of shooting stars are near, And If the part of the shoal through which the earth passes happens to be very dense one
 then the beholders enjoy one of those superb spectacles such as many of us remember so well in 1866.
 It cannot be denied that much disap- pointment has been felt during the last few years at the absence of one of these grand scenic displays.
 lt was CefIdlIlN eNDttl6u III loJJS anu as it did not appear then there were grounds for believing that it might ap- pear in 19o9. l do not, however, think that anyone who had studied the sub ject held out any expectation that the display which failed in 1899 and failed | fin 1900 would nevertheless make itself visible in 1901.
 | It is generally admitted that the time ] has now passed by, and although there may no doubt he the usual November | displays, yet I do not think that there | Is the least reason to expect a great display for thirty years. Indeed, after our recent experience doubt if many | astronomers will have the hardihood to express any sanguine expectations even
 when the thirty years have elapsed. l There is however, no need to discuss
 that before the present generation. Our | object now Is the much simpler one Of explaining, if We may, how the reason- l able expectations of the great shower
 within the last few wears have remained | unfulhlled.
 Tho great shoal of -neteors follows a | certain track through space It moves
 along grand celestial highway around ] the sun, and it accOmplishes each jour
 ney in a period of thirtvthree years. | The shape of the shoal is remarkab ble; it is very long and thin. The form of
 the great body of meteors has been we'll | lilIened to a piece of silk several inches 1 long The shoal is many thousands of
 times as long as it is thick. so that in
 passing any point the shoal would ap- pear as a long. thin procession.
 Indeed, 1t is so long that. though the meteors move. as I have said, about 100
 times as swiftly as a rifle bullet they
 would yet take quite two years to pass by.
 We,.are then to think of the meteors as revolving around the sun in a long,
 oval figure, the thickness of tn" shoal
 being so inconsiderable in comparison 10 the size of the oval that if the oval be
 as big as could be drawn on this page