METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 483 



An estimation of the height, direction, velocity, and magnitude was made by Bowditch. 3 

 His conclusions were that the course of the meteor was south 7° west, in a direction nearly 

 parallel to the earth and at a height of about 18 miles. It was visible for a distance of 107 

 miles, and its velocity was about 3.5 miles per second. 



Herrick 4 studied the path and velocity of the meteorite, with the following results: 



The meteor which cast down stones in several places in and about Weston, in this State, on the morning of Mon- 

 day, December 14, 1807, excited uncommon attention far and wide, and full accounts of its interesting phenomena 

 were published in the highly valuable memoirs of Professors Silliman and Kingsley and of Doctor Bowditch. To the 

 elaborate calculations of the latter we are indebted for our knowledge concerning its height, direction, velocity, and 

 magnitude. 



The case of the Weston meteor is one of exceeding importance, because it is probably the only instance where a 

 meteor from which stones are known to have come to the earth has been sufficiently well observed for the determina- 

 tion of its velocity. This element is of great value on account of its bearing on the relation between meteorites and 

 shooting stars. There can, indeed, be no reasonable doubt that many of the meteors which have been seen and heard 

 to explode, and whose phenomena have been submitted to calculation, were true meteorites; but this is a case where 

 there is absolute certainty. 



Doctor Bowditch ascertained that the course of the Weston meteorite ' ' was about south 7 ° west, in a d irection nearly 

 parallel to the surface of the earth, and at the height of about 18 miles." It was about a mile farther from the earth's 

 surface when it exploded than when it first appeared. The length of its path from the time it was first seen until it 

 exploded, as determined from the observations made at Rutland, Vermont, and at Weston, was at least 107 miles. 

 This space being divided by the duration of the flight, as estimated by two of the observers, viz, 30 seconds, we have 

 for the meteor's relative velocity about 3.5 miles a second. The observations made at Wenham, Massachusetts, are 

 probably less exact in this respect and need not be mentioned here. Every one accustomed to observations on 

 meteors knows how difficult it is accurately to determine the duration of their visible flight. An inexperienced 

 observer, however intelligent, will frequently give the time ten or even twenty fold too large. The apparent motion 

 of the Weston meteor was probably much slower than that of most meteors, but it seems to me highly improbable that 

 its visible flight could have exceeded 15 or 20 seconds. Mr. Page, the observer at Rutland, Vermont, says: "Motion 

 very rapid, probably 30 seconds in sight." The arc traversed by the meteor as there seen was not over 15°. Now, it 

 is scarcely credible that any man could consider as very rapid the motion of a meteor at the rate of 1 degree in 2 seconds 

 of time. It will perhaps be deemed improper to introduce here, at this distant period, the recollected observation of 

 one not unversed in science, who saw the meteor from a spot a few miles northwest of this city, and who is confident 

 that it could not have been in sight as long as 10 seconds. I will therefore make no further use of his testimony. 

 There are, however, two considerations which may throw some light on this point. 



1. The meteor, if a satellite, must have moved with a velocity greater than 3.5 miles per second, because if it did 

 not the earth's attraction would soon have brought the whole mass to the ground. But it is certain that much the 

 greater portion passed on. In order to have done this, through the air, at the height of 18 miles, it must have had a 

 velocity not less than 5 miles per second. 



2. According to Mr. E. Staples (one of the observers at Weston), "when the meteor disappeared, there were appar- 

 ently three successive efforts or leaps of the fireball which grew more dim at every throe and disappeared with the 

 last." Soon after the meteor disappeared were heard three principal heavy reports, which "succeeded each other 

 with as much rapidity as was consistent with distinctness, and altogether did not occupy 3 seconds." Professors 

 Silliman and Kingsley, who thoroughly examined the region where the stones fell a few days after the event, say: 

 "We think we are able to point out three principal places where stones have fallen, corresponding with the three loud 

 cannonlike reports, and with the three leaps of the meteor." The account given by Mr. Isaac Bronson of an investi- 

 gation made December 19, 1807, by himself and Rev. Horace Holley confirms this position. 



(1) The most northerly fall was in Huntington, on the border of Weston, near the house of Mr. Merwin Burr. 

 (2) The second principal deposit was near the house of Mr. William Prince, "in Weston, distant about 5 miles in a 

 southerly direction from Mr. Burr's." (3) The third and probably the largest collection fell near the house of Mr. 

 Elijah Seeley, "at the distance of about 4 miles from Mr. Prince's." 



Although it is not certain that these several masses came in the same direction from the meteoric body, yet until 

 the contrary appears, it may, not unfairly, be assumed that they did ; and consequently the interval of space at which 

 they struck the earth furnishes some measure of the velocity of the meteor relative to the earth's surface. The state- 

 ment will permit us to allow not quite a second of time between each report, and we thus obtain a velocity as great ae 

 4 or 5 miles a second. This result is of course no more than a rude approximation to the truth. 



The velocity thus far spoken of is only the velocity relative to the earth. Here the question arises, if the meteor 

 was not a satellite of the earth, what was its absolute rate of motion? Now, it will be noticed that the path of the 

 meteor must have been nearly in the same direction with that of the earth at the time. Their directions in azimuth 

 were almost identical; the direction of the meteor's path in altitude appears to have been a little below that of the 

 earth. If the meteor was moving around the sun, then nearly the whole of the earth's velocity (at that season) of 

 rather more than 19 miles a second must be added to the meteor's relative velocity to obtain the true velocity. In 

 this view its absolute rate of motion will be found to have been at least 20 miles a second. 



