i4,4i An Account of a Meteor^ 



Weston. From the various accounts which we have re- 

 ceived of the appearance of this body at different places, 

 we are inchned to beheve, that the time between the dis- 

 appearance and report, as estimated by Judge Wheel- 

 er, is too little, and that a minute is the least time which 

 could have intervened. Taking this, therefore, for the 

 time, and the apparent diameter of the body as only half 

 that of the full moon, its real diameter could not be much 

 less than 300 feet.* 



We novv^ proceed to detail the consequences which 

 followed the explosion and apparent extinction of this 

 luminary. 



We allude to the fall of a number of masses of stone 

 in several places, principally within the town of Weston. 

 The places which had been well ascertained at the peri- 

 od of our investigation, were six. The most remote 

 were about 9 or 10 miles distant from each other, in a 

 line differing little from the course of the meteor. It is 

 therefore probable that the successive masses fell in this 

 order, the most northerly first, and the most southerly 

 last. We think we are able to point out three principal 

 places where stones have fallen, corresponding with the 

 three loud cannon-like reports, and with the three leaps 

 of the meteor, observed by Mr. Staples. There were 

 some circumstances common to all the cases. There 

 was in every instance, immediately after! the explosions 

 had ceased, a loud whizzing or roaring noise in the air, 



* Note. ...From subsequent information it appears, that this 

 meteor was seen in the eastern part of Connecticut, in New-Jersey, 

 in the interior of the state of New-York, and as high up, at least, as 

 Rutland, in Vermont. 



It was stated by Professor Day, in a discourse before the Connect- 

 icut Academy, that a gentleman who was riding in Colchester in 

 Connecticut, which is about 50 miles east of Weston, saw this me- 

 teor distinctly ; it was passing within 15 or 20 degrees of the moon, 

 and appeared to him to be about one half as large as that luminary. 

 It was justly remarked by Mr. Day that, if at this distance, it had 

 this apparent diameter, its real diameter must have been 12 or 1300 

 feet, or, about a quarter of a mile ; but, as the apparent diameter 

 was not taken with an instrument, but by estimation, it was not sup- 

 posed that this conclusion was perfectly exact. It is evident, at least, 

 that the meteor must have been much higher, when it exploded, 

 than was at first supposed. * 



