32 ■ REPORT — 1861. 



No. 4. — 1. One of the most interesting falls of meteorites, and for a longtime 

 the only one of metallic iron which had been witnessed, took place at 

 Hraschina, near Agram, on May 26th, 1751. At a meeting of the Imperial 

 Academy of Vienna, April 14th, 1859, M. Haidinger produced the Latin 

 document referring to ic (wliich had never been published), and the original 

 German translation ; also a second document, lately discovered in the Impe- 

 rial Cabinet of Minerals at Vienna, accompanied by two plates representing 

 the phenomena as observed at Szigetvar (or Gross- Sziget), 75 miles east 

 of Hraschina. At a meeting held on February 3rd, 1860, he presented a 

 third document, discovered in the archiepiscopal library at Agram, describing 

 the same phenomena as seen atBiscupcez, near Warasdin, 17i miles north, a 

 little east of Hraschina. 



Prof. Haidinger also drew attention to the meteor seen on May 26, 1751, 

 between 6 and 7 p.m., west of Gross-Sziget. It was first observed as a flash 

 of light, without noise ; immediately afterwards it resembled a tortuous chain, 

 extending directly west, terminating in the middle heiglit of the air as a fire- 

 ball, leaving a long tail. On arriving in the lower strata it resembled an 

 enormous sparkling fireball, with a chain-like tail in the higher regions, the 

 last traces of whicli faded away at about 10 p.m. At Biscupecz ic was 

 observed as a small cloud from which some noise emanated, and which after- 

 wards disappeared*. 



Two pieces of iron fell to the east of Hraschina, one of 71 lbs. penetrating 

 4 feet 6 inches into the ground, at present preserved in the Imperial Cabinet 

 of Vienna; the other of 16 lbs., which had been distributed partly at the 

 place of its fall, and afterwards at Presburg, every vestige of which is lost. 

 From the computations of various observations it appears to have passed from 

 Neustadt to Hraschina, or from north to south from 4-8° 35' to 40° 6' 2"; and 

 from west to east from 28° 18' to 34°, east of Ferro. 



No observations were taken of its velocity ; but its height before its fall at 

 Hraschina, viewed from Szigetvar, was from 30° to 35° — equal to about 43 to 

 52^ miles. Prof. Haidinger remarked upon the vast diff'erence between the 

 apparent size of the meteor and its solid contents. A body 15 inches in 

 diameter at 75 miles distance is invisible; yet the meteor is pictured as if of the 

 size of the sun. The appearance of the chain indicates the time when the 

 solid portions became visible ; they are, however, only the paths of the lumi- 

 nous bodies; and that they do not form straight lines is very natural, if we 

 take into consideration the flat shape of the meteorite, which must have been 

 tossed from side to side by the resistance of the air. If the rapid compres- 

 sion of the air is sufficient to annul the cosmical velocity, it certainly can pro- 

 duce the elimination of light — the fiery phenomena. These two points esta- 

 blished, as a natural consequence two phenomena result, which belong to 

 the character of fiery meteors. The solid nucleus of a meteor is not a globe ; 

 it passes undoubtedly through the resisting medium with its centre of gravity 

 foremost, producing, on account of the unequal distribution, a rotation of its 

 mass, which increases in rapidity, whilst the velocity of its motion diminishes 

 in a direct ratio. 



The report of the Hraschina meteor was heard as far as Warasdin, which, 

 taking Hraschina as a centre, gives an area of nearly 1000 square miles over 

 Avhich the sound was audible. 



The Hraschina iron was the first in M'liich the highly crystalline structure 

 of meteoric iron was observed, and Haidinger gives an account of the cir- 

 cumstances under which the discovery was made. Alvis von Widmannstiit- 

 ten, a highly educated and thorough iron-master, had a plate of the mass cut 

 * See American Journal of Science, 2nd series, vol. xxxii. No. 91, July 1801. 



