A 



iQS PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1745. 



Concerning ajiery Meteor seen in the Air on July \A, \745. By the Rev. Geo. 



Costard.* N°477, p- 522. 



Mr. C. coming from his living, just before he reached a place called Stanlake- 

 broad, and a little before 8 o'clock in the evening, was on a sudden surprised to 

 see a long stream of fire, of a colour resembling molten glass, and of a figure like 

 that in the margin, which shot down from a to b, in length about 20 

 degrees, and seemed immediately to run up again fi-om b to a; where it 

 turned to a sort of smoke, or rather to a fine lambent flame, like that of 

 an aurora borealis; which continued for some time in a sort of oblong 

 shape, but afterwards by degrees, changed successively into various other 

 shapes; becoming fainter and fainter, till it entirely vanished about Q o'clock. 



There was a fine gentle breeze all this time; but it did not appear to affect the 

 phenomenon so far as to make it change its place, which was to the eastward of 

 the north : unless perhaps this change of figure might, in some measure, be 

 owing to it. 



A Note by Dr. Mortimer the Secretary. — As I was returning home from the Royal Society to 

 Westminster, on Thursday, Dec. 16, 1742, at S"" 40™, p. m. being about the middle of the parade 

 in St. James's Park, I saw a light arise from behind the trees and houses in the s. by w. point, which 

 I took at first for a large sky-rocket ; but when it had risen to the height of about 20 degrees, it took 



a motion nearly parallel to the horizon, but waved in this manner, "~~~^ - ^ ^ ' — « 



and went on to the n. by e. point over the houses. It seemed to be so very near, that I thought it 

 passed over Queen's Square, the island in the Park, cross the Canal, and 1 lost sight of it over the 

 Haymarket. Its motion was so very slow, that I had it „ 



above half a minute in view; and therefore had time e 2>^ffi§S 



enough to contemplate its appearance fully, which was as 



in the annexed figure, a seemed to be a light flame, 



turning backwards from the resistance the air made to it. bb a bright fire like burning charcoal, 



inclosed as it were in an open case, of which the frame ccc was quite opaque, like bands of iron. 



At D issued forth a train or tail of light flame, more bright at d, and growing gradually fainter at e, 



so as to be transparent more than half its length. The head seemed about half a degree in diameter, 



the tail near 3 degrees in length, and about one eighth of a degree in thickness. — Orig. 



* Mr. Costard was born at Shrewsbury 1710, and educated at Wadham College Oxford, of which 

 he became a fellow and a tutor ; and he died at his vicarage at Twickenham, Jan. 10, 1782, in the 

 72d year of his age. Mr. Costard was a man of general learning; deeply read in divinity and astro- 

 nomy ; well versed in the Greek, and a perfect master of the Hebrew and other oriental languages. 

 His private character was amiable, and his correspondence with the literati was extensive, both at home 

 and abroad. And from some passages in his writings he appears to have been strongly attached to 

 the principles of public liberty. He had a great veneration for the Greeks and their literature ; and was 

 generally skilled in the learning of most of the ancient nations. Besides various publications on divi- 

 nity, &c. he was author of the History of Astronomy, 4to, 1767, with its application to geography, his- 

 tory, and chronology. His communications to the R. S. which are chiefly on astronomical subjects, are 

 contained in vols. 43, 44, 48 and 68 of the Philosophical Transactions. 



