

ilk\% 



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Quantity of 

 nutter in it, 



HE yETEOR SEEN IN COVNECTICUT, 



equal to that,^thc iijwon, q|^.2' ; this, with the extrenlf 



distances at Weiiharn, l^^and 167 miles, furnish thft 



limits \\ and 1^ miles, frhis last estimate exceeds the 



others considerably; this may be owing in pairt to the smalts 



ness of the altitude^ the object, which .probably made, ii 



appear larger than/t would otherwise have done, from the> 



same cause which mukes'the moon appear largest when near 



•the horizon. The least of all ttie Hmiis of the diaineter vf 



the meteor is 491 ^et. A body of ^Jris magnitude and of 



the same specific gravity as the stJftne th^t fell at Weston 



(which weighed about 225 pounds to a cubic foot) would 



contain a quantity ofnnatter exceeding in weight 510" miU'iovt 



of tons. If the specific gravity were the same as that of the 



air at the surface of the Earth, the Quantity of mafter 



would exceed two thqfi&tind tons: and if the specific gravity 



were the same as XlakiQ? the air at the height o&the meteor 



(which by the usuajmile for l)arometrical admeosurements 



19 about -jVth pan of that at the'surliice of the Eurth) the 



quantity of matter would exceed fifti/ tons. Either of 



these estimates exceeds by faV the ypeight of the whole mass 



that fell JieaT Weston, which, by the accounts published, 



rfoes n^cppear to have been greater than halt a ton, and 



woul^not form a sphere^of twcf feet diameter Cjf the same 



specific gravity as the stone, a^was observed by professor 



Day, in bis valuable paper on tne origin of meteoric stone^-^ 



A sphere of this diameter, seen at the distance of the 



meteor from W'enham, would hardly be visible without the 



assistance of a telescope, since its apparent diameter would 



not exceed two thirds of a second. These reasons seem 



•pptientjj did gtrongrly to favour the orrinion, that by far the greater part 

 i>ot fall to the „ , =» •' . / . ' •'. , ^ 7,. * , 



Ilaith. of the mass continued on its course without falling to the 



Earth, and the gradual disappearance of the meteor, as 



observed by judge Wheeler, is agreeable to this hypothesis. 



As it is but within a few years, that observations of these 



meteors have been carefully made, we have not yet sufficient 



data for a well grounded theory of their nature and origin ^ 



none that has yet been proposed is free from difliculties.' 



The greatness of the mass of the Weston meteor does not 



accord either with the supposition of its having been formed 



in our atmosphere, or projected from a volcano of the 



Earth 



The whole 



