128 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



"From 1.5 1.10 214 in 5 mins. 



"From 1.10 1.11 100 ., in 1 



"From 1.11 1.13 206 in 2 



" The falls now became so incessant that it icas impossible to 

 count numbers fast enough, ten to a dozen falling stars being at 

 intervals all visible at once. 



"This rapid fall continued visible for 16 minutes, when the 

 sky, which had been clear from midnight, became obscured with 

 heavy rains, and rain fell sharply for some ten minutes. 



"At 1.50 it cleared up a little; stars were still falling, but 

 not so rapidly. 



" From 1.50 to 1.54 over 83 were observed, when the sky 

 again became overcast, and a little rain again fell, clearing up at 

 2.20, when stars were still falling. 



"From 2.20 to 2.35, 73 fell in 15 minutes; the sky again 

 became cloudy, clearing up at 3.15, when very few, some two or 

 three per minute, were falling ; and after 5 o'clock none were 

 observed. 



" About 25 per cent, of the shooting stars were exceedingly 

 brilliant, burning with an intense orange-yellow colour, the 

 larger ones marking their track with an intense blue or greenish- 

 blue streak, which, in some instances, exceeded a length of 60 

 in space. These streaks were apparently always widest at the 

 middle point of their observable course. 



" With the exception of a very small 

 number (not 2 per cent.) which appeared 

 erratic, the radiant point was near the star 

 , in the constellation Leo, at about 25 

 north declination, and at about 9 hours 50 

 minutes right ascension. 



" A few of the meteors appeared to burst, 

 leaving a cloudy haze, and from one espe- 

 cially, that fell at 1.14, passing westward, 

 nearly through our zenith, and disappearing 

 at about 45 above the horizon, the smoke 

 or vapour was visible for fully three minutes 

 after it exploded. 



" A child, who had been aroused to look at 

 the display from a window looking west- 

 ward, remarked that it was like the feathers 

 in a display of rocket fireworks, ' only,' he 

 said, ' they went the wrong way.' " 



The change of something of a solid nature 

 into the vaporous condition, or rather per- 

 haps into the finest dust, is thus dis- 

 tinctly alluded to, and the production of 

 what appeared to be smoke or vapour (like 

 that from an ordinary firework) is recorded 

 by this observer. 



Subsequently, Mr. Alexander Herschel delivered a lecture on 

 the same shower before the members of the Royal Institution, 

 and stated that the height of some of those meteors had been 



TOY FOR EXHIBITING THE EFFECT 

 OP METEORS. 



seen, called " detonating meteors," which have exploded with a 

 loud noise, as well as producing a magnificent emission of light. 

 Such meteors have been called "fire-balls." Occasionally a small 

 stony mass remains as the result of the rushing flame and ea- 

 plosion, which is like the loudest thunder ; and it is satisfactory 

 to know that out of ten millions of shooting stars seen from the 

 Earth, barely one case of a fallen substance is recorded. It has 

 been stated by Mr. Herschel that he observed the sodium line 

 in the train of a "fire-ball meteor," which he submitted to 

 spectrum analysis. And it will be noticed in the account given 

 by the observer at Cowes, that the colour of the light of at least 

 one quarter of the meteors was " an intense orange-yellow 

 colour," the larger ones marking their track with an intense 

 blue or greenish-blue streak. This change of colour of the 

 track from intense orange-yellow colour to an intense blue or 

 greenish-blue is probably due to the same cause tha.t produces 

 the beautiful changes of colour when burning magnesium wire is 

 moved in a circular form around the face, as described in our 

 last paper. The meteor, like the magnesium, could not be in 

 every part of the track at the same time, and the train of light 

 produced a like change of colour whilst it faded away from 

 the vision. As this subject is proceeded with, it will be found 

 that after staring at any brilliant train of coloured light, the 

 original colour does not remain upon the visual nerve, but 

 changes, as in the experiment of the mag- 

 nesium wire; therefore, the meteor itself 

 might consist of matter yielding a yellow 

 or orange-yellow light only, and the track 

 of blue light was probably an optical and 

 illusory effect. 



Thus, then, it is shown that a meteor is a 

 " shooting star ' ' or fire-ball, so long as it 

 moves in the highest regions of the air and 

 does not fall to the Earth as a solid mass, 

 but in the state of fine dust. If, however, 

 the wandering matter from space, like the 

 famous Kaaba stone at Mecca, is of larger 

 bulk and weight, and does fall in a solid mass 

 to the Earth, then it is called a meteorite or 

 aerolite, of which a fine collection has been 

 brought together by Mr. Maskelyne, at the 

 British Museum. They are 237 in number. 

 Of these " meteorites " 80 consist of 

 masses of meteoric iron, called " aero- 

 siderites;" 10 have a composition partly 

 of stone and partly of iron, and are termed 

 " siderolites ; " 147 are stones, and to these 

 the term "aerolites" is now exclusively 

 applied. 



All these meteorites vary in weight from ounces to tons, 

 whilst meteors, such as those that formed the shower in Novem- 

 ber, 1866, are estimated in grains. The difference between a 



ascertained to be about fifty miles, and he mentioned the appear- meteor and a meteorite is, therefore, only one of bulk and 



ance of others which were as near the Earth as four and five 

 miles. The periodical meteoric showers, he said, are conceived 

 to be composed of streams of meteoric bodies moving in sepa- 

 rate orbits, the width of such a stratum of meteors being equal 

 to two or three times the diameter of the Earth. The meteors 

 observed on the 14th of November last were visible at the Cape 

 of Good Hope a quarter of an hour before they were seen in 

 this country ; the cause of which he explained to be owing to the 

 inclination of the globe to the zodiac, and the consequent arrival 

 of the meteors at the southern portion before they could be 



weight, and in all possibility, as suggested by Mr. Sorby (who 

 has so carefully examined some of the meteorites with the 

 microscope), may have been produced from metals in a nebulous 

 or gaseous state, like the vaporous condition of metallic matter 

 in the photosphere of the Sun. 



A very good imitation of the effect of a meteor may be shown 

 by the simple toy devised by the Rev. Mr. Pilkington, in which 

 a circular disc of cardboard, perforated with a series of holes 

 concentric with each other, is moved by a wire attached to a 

 handle : the wire is not fixed tightly in the centre, but so arranged 



visible in the north. He stated that it has been observed that i as to enable the operator to give various motions. The holes are 



each periodical stream of meteors is accompanied by a comet, 

 bhe orbit of which has been calculated and the times of its 

 return estimated. With reference to the probable course of 

 luminous meteors in the material substance of the zodiacal light, 

 the speculations offered were of the vaguest kind. Mr. Herschel 

 said that attempts to explain the nature of the zodiacal light 

 have hitherto failed to present a theory that would bear investi- 

 gation, and the one that he advanced was that the light is 

 emitted from an immense number of small solid particles sur- 

 rounding the Sun in the form of an elongated spheroid, or double 

 cone, and that the meteors are constructed from these particles. 

 He said this theory had the advantage over others of not having 

 been hitherto proved to be fallacious. 



The November meteors were noiseless, but others have been described in our next paper. 



from about a quarter to an eighth of an inch in diameter : the 

 centre hole is left colourless ; the first ring of holes, green ; 

 the second, violet ; and the third, crimson ; and the colours are 

 obtained by pasting coloured gelatine, such as that used in 

 crackers and bon-bons, behind the apertures. 



By giving the handle various movements in a circular, per- 

 pendicular, horizontal, or diagonal direction, a, variety of tracks 

 of coloured light can be obtained. This simple contrivance is 

 an excellent illustration of persistence of vision, and will enable 

 our readers to understand a more complicated contrivance 

 called the astrometroscope, an instrument for producing com- 

 plicated forms on the disc with the oxy -hydrogen light, by the 

 various movements of star-like figures, and which will be 



