Year: 1860

The Meteor and its Origin.


The most distinguished stranger that has visited this
part of the world for many years not excepting the
Japanese princes the Great Eastern was the meteor
travelling across our armament on Friday evening
last It was seen by thousands of people, and over
range of the earhs surface of at least thousand
miles of longitude how much further remains yet to be
ascertained.


Where it came from, where it went to, what it was
made Of what damage it did, if any, and if not why
not and whether there more members OF the same
family to be expected and when; these and thousand
other questions in everybodys mouth, and in due
time we may reasonably expect answers more or less
worthy of respect to them ALL In order that the an
theories which may be adopted to explain the
phenomena should possess value the first thing to be
done is to ascertain with scientific precision which was
the phenomena For this purpose have been favor
ed by Pro Bartlett, Of the Military Academy at West
Point with an account of his observations for making
which he had very favorable opportunities He says
''The meteor passed over West Point on the evening
of the 20th instant about Oh som. 1t made its
first appearance in the west and moved, apparently
very slowly to the east its motion resembling that Of


fire balloon propelled by the burning of feeble rocket
composition At nearly equal intervals it threw of
masses of burning NATTER which Immediately took the
shape and velocity Of the principal body WITH however,
greatly diminished luminosity; the whole suggesting the
idea of parent followed by numerous progeny, doting
her path through the heavens Just before disappear
ed the principal mass divided into nearly equal por-
tions The color, which intensely bright was at


first blue and then white which at the close took tinge
of yellow The altitude seemed not greater than that
attained by ordinary signal rockets and this together
with the seemingly slow motion led at first 10 the infer
ence that it was some and marvellous successful
pyrotechnc device, fired from the western hills 1t last
ed about one minute and quarter As it tculminated,
its projection on the celestial sphere to a
corona borealis 1t must have had great altitude from
the slowness of its apparent motion. If its projection
ha a1 frnp 9th ltS
fore its distance from the earth may readily be
inferred"


Professor Bartlett's theory for the explanation of
these phenomena is follows; again quote his IAN
guage:


These bodies are of the nature of planets and crcu-
late about the in orbits uneringy their larger
brethren When they and the earth come smultane-
ouslv to those points of their orbits which nearest


together the action of the earth often becomes superior
to that of tine sum- and the small masses are drawn to
its surface. Pungng with enormous velocity into our
atmosphere these little bodies compress the air IN front
and rub against it with such violence the sides to
produce heat enough fuse and light sufficient to lu
inmate the most refractory and darkest of substances


The exterior and alten crust is weptto the rear by the
resisting air. new surface becomes exposed this in its
turn is fused and carried backward and on till final
y the whole track Of the meteorls srewn with groups
of dsiutegrated and scintillating material"


As vet we have nothing to indicate when or where
our distinguished visitor terminated its journey. 1t
going at last accounts and 1t went far enough
it probably ended its career in the ocean, w hope to
hear of no depredatons committed by 1t on It's journey,
though we confess that the less Of such fast com
pany we have about us the better shall be content
Fortunately they do not often, for when they do
come they are apt to do something to make their visit
remembered.


II well ascertained fact that masses of stone and
Jumps of iron-for @roites and meteors are the same
thing differing only in size and destiny-oecasionay
fall from the upper regions Of the atmosphere and have
done so from the earliest periods of recorded history,
often doing ncalcuable damage On the 18th of April
1903 one of these bodies fell near the lower Arge,
in Normandy and by its explosion scattered its rag
ments over an area a thirty miles -Four instances are
recorded of persons having been killed by the descent
of such bodies Besides these were solid bodies Others
of much less destiny made their appearance as shooting
stars followed by trains of light. They now and then
appear like great fiery balls traversng the upperregons
of the atmosphere sometimes bursting with loud explo
sion and sometimes becoming quietly extinct. Among
the latter may be mentioned the remarkable meteors
of August 1888 which trayersed the whole OF Europe
from SHETLAND to Rome with velocity Of thirty miles
a second and height of fifty miles above the earth
with light greatly surprising that Of the full moon
and diameter of quite half mile.


On several occasions meteors have appeared in aston
shng numbers following ike shower of rockets, o.
flakes of snow Illuminating at once whole continent
and oceans in both hemispheres and it is remarkable


that these displays have occurred in the early parts
November and August. From careful observation mad
at the extremity OF base fifty thousand teetong 1t ha
been inferred that the heights of meteors at the lnstan
of first appearance and disappearance vary from sixteer
to one hundredand forty miles, and their relative veloci
ties from eighteen to thirty-sx miles second. Alti
tudes and veloces great these indicate an lnde
pendent planetary circulation about the sun. Professor
Bartlett suggests as a condition Of things not impoS
sbe that of these bodies may have been convert
ed by the superior action of the earth, arising iron
proximity into permanent satellites and there are those
who believe in the existence of at least one Of these
bodies which completes its circuit about the earth il


three hours and twenty minutes, andat mean distance
of about five thousand miles n. Y. Evening Post