46 THE METEOR OF DECEMBER 21, 1876. 



through the atmosphere, this would give the distance of the meteor from 

 "Valparaiso as forty to fifty miles. It appears to have been subject to nu- 

 merous minor explosions in its visible flight and as its surface became more 

 rapidly heated than the interior by friction in passing through our atmos- 

 phere. The Indiana observations indicate that it was almost entirely dis- 

 sipated into fragments before it ceased to be visible. The last portions 

 JDrobablj^ fell to the earth in New York State ; but none of them may be 

 large enough to constitute what we call a "good find." It appears probable 

 that the meteor was less largel}^ composed of iron than is the case with 

 meteorites that are found in large masses, as an earthy consistence is most 

 favorable to such disintegration as is testified to by the majority of observers, 

 of the meteor under notice, 



Indianapolis Account. — A remarkable meteor was observed in Kansas-., 

 Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio on the 21st inst., which gave forth a. 

 brilliant light and exploded with a loud noise, like the sound of a cannon or 

 a heavy clap of thunder. As seen at Indianapolis, it was followed by a. 

 train of"smaller meteors, estimated at nearly one hundred. Its color changed', 

 from yellow to green and crimson. A low, hissing noise was heard when it 

 was directly overhead, and a rumble like a train of cars followed its 

 passage. 



According to the best authorities meteors are small planetary bodies,, 

 partly disseminated, partly grouped in annular zones, which revolve ia 

 elliptical orbits round the sun. When these small planetary bodies come 

 within the sphere of the earth's attraction they obey its influence, and. 

 darting down, give rise to the phenomena of shooting stars and meteoric 

 stones. As these bodies, while obeying the earth's attraction, traverse our 

 atmosphere with planetary velocity they would, no doubt, cause a terrible 

 bombardment, and from their vast numbers render our planet absolutely 

 uninhabitable if their very speed had not been made the means of neutral- 

 izing their otherwise disastrous effects: for, raised to incandescence by the 

 atmospheric friction engendered by their enormous velocity of from eighteen. 

 to thirty-six miles per second, by far the greater portion of the aerolites, 

 are dissipated by heat, and a small number only reaches the surface of the- 

 earth in a solid form. 



Flammarion accounts for the light displayed in the movement of bolides 

 or solid meteors as being entirely due to the heat produced by the compres- 

 sion of the air, and for their explosions and the falling of aerolites to the- 

 earth, by the unequal pressure upon different portions of the body. " Attribr 

 uting to the bolide a speed of four and one-half miles per second, — by no 

 means an exagerated estimate, M. Haidinger calculates the resisting pres- 

 sure which it meets with from the air at more than twenty-two atmos- 

 pheres. Such a pressure evidently tends to crush the body which is exposed 

 to it, and if this body in its more or less irregular shape and constitution 

 offers portions of itself which are more opposed than the others to the ac- 

 tion of this pressure, these portions may give way and become suddenly 

 detached from the bolide." 



Mr. E. i\ Greg, published some years since in the American Journal of 

 Science a pamphlet giving an arrangement of meteorites based on theirr 



