The Coolidge examiner., 1934-04-27

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ON the nights of November y aud
T. lS3. the world vas visited with the greatest
shoxcr a. me;eors og which there Is any certain
rccord All along the eastern seaboard of the
United states people looked up NJ a sky that
vas literally aaame with falling stars" many
~ them as brilliant a. the most brilliant ~axed
star IN the armament The stars fell ou this
occasion Ike flakes ~ snow" one observer has
recorded. and it vas calculated that sc least
2s0opo q them had fallen during a period OF
nine hours
Then people began 70 recall that exactly on
The same date in lTp-3l years carller-tbere
hal h~en similar shower 81 falling stars
Again in 1915 there vas q great shower and IN
1861. one oniy slightly less spectacular than the
precedlng yrar Perhaps u was only coincidence
that these showers bad come at 70 or "a year
intervals or perhaps u was another manifesto
tien ~ the regularity - Nature. A. any rate
the astronomers looked for another shower On
tsq1 bat Il failed 10 maieTaliEc Neither did Il
come the next rear Evidently The 80 or - year
period had bccn skipped entirely.
Siill nudaunted hy the failure % the Leonlds
tfor that Is the scientific name Of these fall
lng siars'1 20 appear on schedule time In $50
the astronomers eyed the heavens hopefully on
November l. and u. i932 But once more they
were disappointed as they were again last year
BUT some % them stan think that this coming
November mas see she display % Natures Ore
works similar to thnse of the years mentioned
above. What has happened 10 these showers Of
rneieors at periods Of one.ihlrd % ceu,ury'
Nobody knows The disappearance ~ the Leoulds
Is one ~ the mysteries % science.
Me;cors except as they come IN showers like
the Ieonlds. are not az al uncommon. There
u never a clear mooniesS night when you can
not step outside your house and see several %
them In the course % Is minutes The most %
them % course. are very small-mere little wisps
of light that shoot acroSs the heavens Bot
and then you may see n much brighter one. AZ
times though not many % us viii have the luck
20 So H. one comes with a thunderous noise
Ike the roar of cannonade. and a brilliance
that blinds the eyes.
What are these sery travellers through
heavens1 sien used to think that they were actu-
ally stars broken loose from their moorings
Probably there are stiil many men who hold 20
soue such belief. bat Il IL very far from true.
The stars arc great suns. many of them vastly
larger than our owu sun. and millions upon mil
lions of miles distant from our solar system.
Mcieors are the aery display % stones captured
out - space By the gravitation of the earth.
and heated 10 incandesccnce by the friction OF
the air that blankets our globe. These stones
speeds. ranging from $500 To 10000 miles per
hour.
What becomes % themf They do not pelt the
ground around u.s. No the most of them are
burned O. ashes while stil many miles above
us Every now and then. however. one that Is
too large to burn up before II bits the ground
does cone Such stones are called meteorites.
and many thousands OF them. weighing from
several ounces 10 several tons. are on exhibit In
our museums
Anyone especially farmers may happen
upon a meieorlte Prof Harvey H. Nlnlnger OF
the Colorado Museum OF Natural History In Den
yer. who Is the worlds greatest authority on
the subject. says that there ls probably not an
area ten miles square anywhere In the United
states where az least stone from the sky
l. not waiting TO be found. II may be- under the
ground. especially II Il is large one. or II may
be out In plain sight
HIS conjecture Is based wide experience
fcr he has himself collected more than 30 of
them during the past ten years His specimens
may be seen IN almost every large museum In
the world: IN London. Paris. Berlin. Vienna; In
the Field museum in Chicago. 10 the Smithsonian
Institution In Washington. In the Museum Of Nat
ura History In New York City: and In many
others. No other man has collected even one
tenth as many as he has. The most OF Professor
Nlnlnger's stones have been bought from farmers
who turned them up while plowing or who found
them In tramps across fields and pastures.
They are easy 20 recognize. when one knows
what TO look for. Most meteorites are OF
two kinds: iron meteorltes or stony meteorItes
The irons" are always black on the outside
when newly fallen: but when one has lain ex-
posed TO the air for a time. It will probably be
reddish-hrown with rust. In either case. OF
course. II wiz be very heavy. Often. but not
always. II win have peculiar pits in II. somewhat
ike a piece OF putty into which somebody has
pushed his thumbs and fingers. ANY strange
piece OF iron. which isn't clearly OF some other
origin. may possibly be a meteorite.
Stony me;eorites are bit harder to identify.
They. too. are always heavier than the average
Earth stone; and also they are always black on