PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 90 Washington : 1 94 1 No. 3 11 1 



THE CHICORA (BUTLER COUNTY, PA.) METEORITE 



By F. W. Preston, E. P. Henderson, and James R. Randolph 



THE CHICORA METEORITE 

 By F. W. Preston 



On June 24, 1938, at 6 p. m., eastern standard time, the weather 

 over western Pennsylvania from the West Virginia border {lY north 

 to Oil City {2) was fair. Over the central area, the southern part of 

 Butler County, the sky was blue and cloudless (S) ; north and west 

 were cumulus clouds {Ii), which in the v/est approximated thunder- 

 heads (5, 6) and in the north, a few miles from Butler City, the ceiling 

 was low and apparently somewhat solidly overcast (7). At Pittsburgh, 2 

 hours earlier, the sounding balloons from the county airport had been 

 lost to sight a little above 4,000 feet (above sea level) by reason of 

 cloud {8). The winds were light, both at ground level and aloft {8). 



The crows had already assembled for their nightly roost in the 

 hemlock woods of the overcast area a few miles north of Kaylor, Pa. (5), 

 but the chickens near Chicora were still scratching in the fields {10), 

 and the geese near Cooperstown were still swimming on a pond {11). 



The sun was fanly well up in the sky {12), but it was past business 

 hours: In Butler it was 6 p. m.; in Pittsburgh and the valley towns 

 nearby it was 7 p. m. by daylight saving time. People were gardening, 

 golfing, swimming, playing baseball or tennis, or sitting on their 

 porches listening to the news broadcast over the radio, and some were 

 just sitting. A few seconds before 6 p. m., as the broadcast was 

 changing {5, 6, 13), a brilliant fireball flashed across the sky from 



1 The italic numbers in parentheses refer to the list of observers on pp. 401-402. 



292784—41 1 387 



