Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-12-07
Bolides and How
They Behave

Council Bluffs. Dec. 5.l-To the
Editor of The Bee: Newspaper liter
allure concerning the strange phe-
nomenon in the sky" that illuminated
a large area and shook a big portion
of three states Wednesday, with its
center or brilliancy and disturbance
in the vicinity of Milwaukee. is inter-
esting rather than instructive. The
enclosed clipping of press telegram
under Chicago date indicates that
two days inquiry has obscured rath-
er tltan cleared the mystery" 1t is
evident the astronomers" whose
opinions are reflected are of the as
THEOLOGICAL breed rather than the
mathematical scientists who weigh
suns and planets and secure COM
prehensive grasp of eelectial me-
chanics.
To these men the mystery" is no
| mystery at all. They know the
aerial visitor was a bolide. a gigantic
meteor, that shook the earth when
it struck the upper atmosphere. If
they could have been fortunate
enough to have seen it they would
have known exactly what became of
it. After collecting all the data
available, they would also have been
able to accurately determine its
weight. One of the astrologers men
toned in press kilograms as an "as-
tronomer," and happily for the
science not named, is quoted as say
ing "it might have been a meteor
and then goes On to describe the
course it must have taken, arbitrarily
declaring that "meteors become visi-
BILE so miles above the earth and
then perform parabola until they
hit the ground."~ "A parabola,"
Rats, .
A tyro in astronomy knows that
these celestial strangers may become
visible much more than so miles
away. that their course through the
air must be a straight line, and if he
had collected all of the observed
facts he would know whether this
bolide hit the earth or only struck
a glancing blow on the upper strata
of the atmosphere and passed on into
space with but little loss of speed.
Newcomb, Americas greatest as
tronomer, earned his first laurels by
tracing the course of gigantic
bolide that shook the New England
states when he was an unknown
young man. He started at the center
of disturbance where the shock of
the collision was greatest, and
where it smashed crockery and broke
windows. He followed the line of
fight each way, ending where the
shock was barely observed, He trav-
eled a distance of more than 500
miles between the two points and
realized that the bolide had only hit
the atmosphere, 'just grazing" the
earth, travelling in a straight line
and approaching nearest to the earth
at the apex of the surface curvature.
The point where the sound was first
heard was where it entered the air
and where it died away was where
it emerged. He weighed the meteor
by mathematical equations and found
it was an enormously dangerous fell
low, weighing over 1900 tons. The
velocity of a meteor is the speed of
the earth, more than IS miles a
second, and if it is head-on collision
it will be just twice that. The New
comb bolide would have produced a
planetary catastrophe if it had hit
the earth instead of only the air. It's
weight and speed would probably
have sent it crashing through the
earth's crust. wrecking a territory
perhaps several hundred miles in di-
ameter. y
On August 10. 1910. bolide sim
ilarly traced and estimated to weigh
several hundred tons, blazed through
the air above Council Bluffs and
Omaha and rocked a territory more
than 100 miles wide.
The earth is now passing through
the November meteoric swarm. These
meteors are known as "Leonids'
from the constellation from which
they appear to come. and the upper
air has been sparkling with them.
They are generally small. but big
fellow may occasionally be encouht-
cred. The one that shook us up on
Sunday afternoon, August 10. 1910,
belonged to the August swarm. where
big ones are frequently contacted.
The Newcomb meteor belonged to
this swarm. Both swarms are tracks
of disintegrated comets, and the
earth passes through them every
year. There are undoubtedly bolides
in the debris big enough to badly