CHICORA METEORITE PRESTON, HENDERSON, RANDOLPH 391 



not notice it till it was all there, and since it reached the ground in 

 the north, but not m the south, he concluded it was some sort of rocket 

 that started in the north and traveled southwest into the sky. One 

 witness (11) reports that the trail had a spiral track in it, and others 

 (7, 19) describe it as "twisting clouds" or a "swirling streak in the 

 clouds." One (5) reports that the track was confined to a narrow 

 strip near the zenith and did not go anywhere near the horizon, while 

 others (6, IS) in his immediate neighborhood traced it to the horizon. 

 However, the former is not alone, for from other points an airplane 

 pilot (34) reports the trail as stopping short of the northern horizon as 

 seen from the Butler Airport, while an observer near Chicora insists 

 that the trail broke up and did not descend to the ground. One 

 observer (31) msists that the trail crossed the sky completely but was 

 intermittent. Observers near Mars, Pa. (18), thought the meteor 

 broke up near them, but so did people in Pittsburgh. This variance 

 is probably due to the effect of the roar of the "explosion," which they 

 were psychologically unable to dissociate from the notion that the 

 thing must have blowm to fragments. The roar comes from the 

 sudden expansion of the very much heated air and boiling stone, not 

 from an explosion of solid matter. 



The meteor, as shown by its track, had passed around the sun and 

 was now receding from it, when it overtook the earth. The difference 

 in the two planetary velocities was presumably a few miles a second, 

 from astronomical considerations. This is roughly 10 times the 

 velocity of somid m air. The meteor was not spherical, but flat or 

 irregular, and rotating rapidly, if we can judge by the spiraling of the 

 trail. 



The resistance of the air slowed it down and raised its surface 

 temperature to brilliant incandescence "like the sun." The limit is 

 set by the melting and boiling of the stone, which would probably be 

 in the neighborhood of 2,000° C. This likewise sets a limit to the 

 temperature attained by the surrounding air. 



The pitch of the sound near Butler was a deep roar like thunder; 

 at Chicora, a sound like an airplane; at Kaylor, a hiss. A proper 

 interpretation of the sound might yield interesting results. (See 

 section by Randolph.) 



The meteor passed completely unobserved at the Pittsburgh County 

 Airport. It was, however, observed at the Butler (Alameda) Airport 

 by several persons. The Pittsburgh-Butler Airport was not checked. 

 A pilot (34) in a small open plane was flying over Butler when the 

 meteor went by, but he had his back toward it and saw nothing till 

 he landed, when the smoke was still visible in the sky. This was 

 probably a minute or two later, at the earliest. Such a result is to 

 be expected, with the calm air conditions reported at lower levels. 



