400 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.90 



in about latitude 40°45'N., longitude 79°50'W., and at a height of 

 about 12 miles. 



The horizontal trace of the trajectory passes within 4 miles of 

 downtown Butler, but the meteor was then about 10 miles up in the 

 air, and perhaps 1 1 miles away in a straight line. The sound of the 

 meteor (the thunder roll) should therefore have begun approxim.ately 

 1 minute after the flash. All observers estimate a shorter time, but 

 the best of them seem to feel their estimates are underestimates. 



WIDTH OF THE SMOKE TRACK 



Several observers near Butler report tlie track to have been, in 

 their opinion, slightly greater in width than the full moon. As the 

 full moon is very nearly K°, we may take their estim.ates of the width 

 as being %°. With the meteor 11 miles distant, this makes the track, 

 after adiabatic ex})ansion, one-eighth of a mile wide, or about 650 

 feet. 



The observer at Nineveh reported the track about half the width 

 of the new moon or less. This would make the track a good deal 

 wider, for Nineveh is far away. Williamson (p. 394) makes it 2,000 

 feet wide. Heyl's sketch (fig. 19) shows it nearly a mile wide. But 

 these latter observers were viewing the cloud from the south, and the 

 part to which their estimates apply is probably not the same as the 

 part that was most conspicuous at Butler. (See section by Randolph.) 



THE SEARCH FOR FURTHER FRAGMENTS 



No other fragments than the two small pieces found by Adam Garing 

 were reported by any of the residents of the area. A few large lumps 

 of ordinary slag were offered us from south of Butler, and were even 

 exhibited in a local store window as possible fragments of the meteor- 

 ite. A number of scientifically inclined or adventurous helpers 

 undertook to search the region by every available means. 



J. M. McCormick and L. G. Ghering, both of the Preston Labora- 

 tories, traveled every back road of the critical areas and made a house- 

 to-house canvass for information. This produced some interesting 

 stories but no fragments. McCormick flew over the area in a small 

 plane, looking for craters or broken trees, and searched the woods on 

 foot wherever he saw anything suspicious from the air, but without 

 result. 



George Aderhold, of the Saxonburg Potteries, to wliom we are 

 indebted for the recovery of the two fragments from Adam Garing, 

 stationed himself on open hilltops and directed aerial search by two 

 young aviators (37, 88) . These boys flew over the valleys at so low an 

 altitude that they located most of the groundhog holes, apparently, 

 and almost skimmed the treetops. They reported that the ice storm 



