42 



NA TURE 



[March i i, 1909 



IRE METEORIC STREAK OF FEBRUARY 22. 



REPORTS continue to come in descriptive of this 

 remarkable appearance. It was distinctly visible 

 to gh. 30m., though it had become faint and diffused, 

 and could still be feebly glimpsed at loh. The 

 length, as given by a few observers, was 



Bournemouth ... 



Guernsey 



Brulon, Som. ... 



Petersfield 



Bournemouth ... 



Hereford 



Purley, Surrey 



Lyme Regis ... 



Petersfield 



Weston-Super-Mare 



Petersfield 



7 35 

 7 45 

 7 45 



7 55 



8 o 

 8 o 

 8 12 



8 15 

 825 

 8 30 

 8 55 



45 

 65 

 60 

 105 



100 

 no 

 120 

 S5 

 45 



At Bournemouth, 8h. 25m., the whole length, including 

 the bends, " was well over 180°. " 



The middle portions of the streak apparently moved 

 with greater celerity than the other parts. The drift 

 was decidedly to N.W., and this nearly conformed 

 with the direction of the wind, which was from the 

 E. or S.E. quarter. The rate of motion of the 

 streak is difficult to ascertain exactly, for there is 

 no doubt that its various sections varied in height 

 between about fifty-five and twenty-five miles, and 

 were affected in different degree by wind currents. 

 .'\ mean of the displacement observed in a number 

 iif cases gives seventy-five miles per hour as the rate 

 of velocity, while a few of the best drawings would 

 indicate a rather greater speed of eighty or ninety 

 miles per hour. 



The delineations and descriptions of observers are 

 very discordant in some cases, and will not admit 

 either of satisfactory comparison or explanation. It 

 is a pity that photographs could not have been 

 secured, but the rapid motion of the streak and its 

 increasing faintness prevented this being accom- 

 plished, though the attempt was made at some 

 places. 



Several observers noted flashes like very faint light- 

 ning during the early period of the projection of the 

 streak. Others allude to the fact that it exhibited 

 bright pulsations, as tliough the lingering embers 

 were fanned into brilliancy by the breeze. A few 

 of the most careful spectators state that they noticed 

 scintillations of the beam similar to the temporary 

 light-waves which affect the streamers of Aurorae. 



At the end of its westerly career the meteor appears 

 to have met some dense air strata, which effectually 

 barred further progress and directed it earthwards. 

 No doubt the force of its initial velocity must have 

 been nearly spent by its long and nearly horizontal 

 llight through the atmosphere. 



The meteor was directed from an apparent radiant 

 near |8 Leonis, situated so far from the Apex of the 

 earth's way that we should not expect the shower 

 to provide meteors with streaks. Ordinarily, it is 

 only the swifter class of objects, such as Leonids, 

 Perseids, and Orionids, which evolve phosphorescent 

 :ifter-glows, and which are so helpful to observers 

 in recording their flights accurately. The slower 

 meteors, such as February Leonids, usually leave 

 trains of yellow or red sparks of momentary dura- 

 tion, and this was a feature of the meteor of 

 February 22, but it also supplied the long-enduring 

 streak which formed its most striking characteristic. 

 In fact, many more observers were attracted by the 

 streak than by the meteor, for comparatively few 

 noticed the latter. This, however, is accounted for 

 by the short duration of the actual flight of the 



NO. 2054, VOL. 80] 



nucleus (about seven seconds) as compared with the 

 persistency of the after-glow. 



The meteor had a long way still to travel before 

 it could have reached the earth had it continued its 

 course westwards. Could it have withstood disruption 

 and dispersion, it would have fallen into the sea 

 about forty miles south of the Scilly Isles, and this 

 is about 120 miles E. of the point where it appears 

 to have collapsed, and its material to have Taeen 

 deflected southwards. W. F. Denning. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. 



ADEPUT.VTION of the Parliamentary Committee 

 of the Trade Union Congress waited upon 

 Mr. Runciman, President of the Board of Education, 

 last week to bring forward a resolution passed at 

 the Nottingham Congress, stating that no solution 

 of the educational problem would be satisfactory that 

 did not give free education from the elementary 

 school to the university, and demanding the imme- 

 diate abolition of fees in secondary schools and train- 

 ing colleges. It was urged by members of the depu- 

 tation that the fees at secondary schools were 

 becoming too high for working people to pay, and 

 that in some cases the rule as to the reservation 

 of 25 per cent, free places for pupils from public 

 elementar)' schools is not observed. In his reply, Mr. 

 Runciman expressed himself in sympathy with the 

 deputation, but was able to show that above half 

 the State-aided secondary schools provided in 1907-8 

 more than the stipulated 25 per cent, of free places, 

 and the great majority of the whole provided the 

 25 per cent. He also pointed out that every child 

 is not suitable to enter a secondary school, and that 

 it is necessary to have a fairly good standard of 

 examination for the children who wish to enter. 



.'Vs the views put forward by the deputation may 

 give rise to misconceptions, and as the position and 

 nature of secondary education in England are not 

 widely understood, it seems desirable to bring together 

 a few facts relating to them. 



By the Board of Education's regulations for 

 secondary schools, a uniform grant of 5/. is made 

 by the State annually for every pupil between twelve 

 and eighteen years of age, provided that the pupil 

 is not evidently unfit to profit by the education given. 

 The condition under which this grant is made is 

 that 25 per cent, of the places in the school must be 

 offered free to pupils who have for two years imme- 

 diately preceding been in attendance at public 

 elementary schools. An entrance examination is con- 

 ducted by the governing body of the secondary 

 school, but it must be qualifying and not competitive, 

 unless the number of applicants is greater than the 

 number of free places. The aim of the Board is 

 " to provide State-aided secondary education in the 

 degree to which, and at the points at which, it is reallv 

 needed; and to ensure free access to it for children 

 of every class according as the individual is intel- 

 lectually capable of receiving profit from it." 



With these aims most people will find themselves in 

 agreement, and the regulations of the Board show 

 how the desired object mav be attained. There 

 are now about 700 secondary schools in which 

 pupils from public elementary schools can claim free 

 places. Grammar schools have sold their birth- 

 right for the mess of pottage represented by the 

 capitation grant of 5/. ; and their doors are now 

 open freely to a number of pupils from primary 

 schools equal to one-quarter of the accommodation 

 available. The result is that, of the 105,000 children 

 attending State-aided secondary schools in . 1907, just 

 over 54 per cent, had previously attended public 



