428 



METEORS. 



useful information will be obtained on the 

 chemical nature and physical properties of 

 pure iron and its alloys. At the same meet- 

 ing, Dr. Jacobi read a paper on the electro- 

 deposition of iron, illustrating his remarks 

 by a series of plates of extreme beauty. The 

 solution from which the metallic iron was de- 

 posited consisted of a double salt, the sulphate 

 of iron and magnesia. It was found desirable 

 to coat the article receiving the deposit with 

 a thin film of nickel or copper. Specimens 

 illustrating the application of the electro-de- 

 position of iron to purposes of engraving (aided 

 by photography) were also exhibited. 



METEORS. A meteor of great size and 

 brilliancy was seen at the principal points 

 along and near the Atlantic coast, between 

 Boston and Philadelphia, and doubtless at 

 many other places, from which no reports 

 have come, on the night of May 20th, about 

 11 o'clock. Its light is described as surpass- 

 ing that of the full moon, which was shining 

 at the time, and in effect was like that of a 

 flash of lightning. It left behind a brilliant 

 train of light, and finally exploded. The dura- 

 tion of its passage was estimated at five sec- 

 onds. Seen from New York its point of origin 

 was about east, at an elevation of 30, and its 

 termination al?out north 60 east, at an alti- 

 tude of 15. At Poughkeepsie its course was 

 from the south toward the east, making an 

 angle of about 30 with the horizon. At New 

 Haven it moved from a point somewhat west 

 of south to a point somewhat north of east, 

 and its altitude at the time of explosion was 

 about 80. At Hartford its course was from 

 south-southwest to east-northeast. Prof. Elias 

 Loomis, in a notice in the College Courant, 

 sums up the results of the imperfect data with 

 regard to this meteor as follows : 



"From these observations it is not possible 

 to assign the actual path with much precision, 

 but it is inferred that the meteor moved nearly 

 horizontally at an elevation of fifty miles above 

 the earth's surface, and the length of its visible 

 path was about two hundred miles. The point 

 where it exploded was over the Atlantic Ocean, 

 somewhat north and east of Boston. The time 

 of flight was estimated at five seconds, which 

 would indicate a velocity of forty miles per sec- 

 ond. Several observers have stated that the ex- 

 plosion of this meteor was followed by a sound 

 which resembled distant thunder. The dis- 

 tance of the meteor from New Haven at this 

 time was about one hundred and seventy miles, 

 and sound would require more than ten minutes 

 to traverse this distance. Any sound which 

 followed soon after the explosion must there- 

 fore be ascribed to some other cause than this 

 meteor." 



Mr. E.N. Smith, of Moriches, Suffolk County, 

 N. Y., sent the following interesting commu- 

 nication upon the subject to the American.t/bwr- 

 nal of Science: 



I have obtained the following facts, respecting the 

 meteor of May 20th, from two persons, Mr. and Mrs. 



Fling, residing at the time at Cutehogue, thirteen or 

 fourteen miles east of Eiverhead. Mrs. Fling com- 

 pared the light to the Drummond light which she 

 had seen in Broadway. The meteor passed from 

 southwest to northeast, parallel with the front of the 

 house (which she says points to the southeast), and 

 at an altitude half-way between the horizon and the 

 zenith. She thought the body of the meteor, which 

 sent off constant scintillations, was about the appar- 

 ent size of the moon. Mr. Fling thought it might 

 be a shade less. The color varied from reddish to 

 purple, though different in different parts and times. 

 In about three minutes after the passage of the meteor, 

 a terrific sound was heard. Not realizing the char- 

 acter of the meteor, Mrs. Fling said she first thought 

 it was an earthquake ; but, on second thought, con- 

 cluded it must have come from the meteor. It jarred 

 the whole house, doors, windows, etc., to the very 

 foundations. Kev._Thomas Owen^ half a mile east 

 of us, says he was just about retiring for the night, 

 when he heard a tremendous jarring sound, and 

 thought it must be a cannon fired from a ship in dis- 

 tress ; others corroborate the statement of great noise. 

 I have since conversed with Mr. and Mrs. Clark, very 

 worthy people in Centre Moriches, and their account 

 agrees, in all important particulars, with the former 

 by Mr. and Mrs. Fling. Taking the diameter at 30', 

 and the distance (from the time 3 m -) thirty-nine or 

 forty miles, the altitude above the earth must have 

 been twenty-eight miles ; and the diameter of the 

 body 1,843 feet. The velocity must have been very 

 great, probably equal to that of the noted meteor 

 which traversed Europe from northwest to southeast, 

 about 9i P. M., August 18, 1783, which it seemed to 

 resemble. The time of occurrence of the late meteor 

 was about ll h - 20 31 - p. M. (some say 111). 



The shower of meteors looked for, on the 

 morning of November 14th, was not seen 

 throughout the greater part of the United 

 States, owing to the thick weather. But at 

 Pensacola, Florida, and at a few other points, 

 where the sky was fortunately clear, a fine 

 exhibition of the phenomenon was witnessed. 

 Commander "William Gibson, United States 

 Navy, stationed at the Pensacola Navy Yard 

 at the time, gave the following graphic account 

 of what he saw, in a letter to the Superintend- 

 ent of the Naval Observatory at Washington : 

 NAVY YARD, PENSACOLA. November 15, 1869. 



SIB : The meteoric display or the night of the 13th 

 and 14th instant was seen here under favorable cir- 

 cumstances, and in great brilliancy, and I send you a 

 brief description of it, for the sake of calling atten- 

 tion to one or two of its features. 



The night was still and cloudless; and, after the 

 moon was down, the beauty and transparency of the 

 sky, with its broad belt of equatorial constellations 

 culminating in Orion, with Sinus and the planet 

 Jupiter, Capella, and Canopus, confronting each other 

 in opposite quarters, or "rival houses of the heav- 

 ens, and with a clearly-defined pyramid of zodiacal 

 light, shining wonderfully bright and reaching high 

 toward the zenith, were something remarkable, inde- 

 pendent of the showers of the shooting-stars. These 

 were observed in extraordinary numbers from 1.15 

 A. M. until lost in the dawn, swarming most between 

 the hours of three and four. It is difficult to give an 

 average of the number per minute. It varieH from 

 two or three to twenty or thirty, or more, and it was 

 never uniform for equal spaces of time, the star- 

 showers flashing and intermitting like the bursts and 

 pauses of the gusty rain. 



Their paths were dispersed pretty freely over the 

 whole heavens, but the principal point of divergence 

 was in the constellation Leo. Few or none were 

 observed to radiate from Perseus. ^"We saw every 

 variety of these "meteoric asteroids," from fine 



