350 M. Haidinger on the Phenomena attending 



discharges from heavy ordnance. The ground shook under the 

 observer's feet, as was corroborated by three other gentlemen in 

 company with Dr. S., who likewise heard the four detonations. 



I have received some other observations concerning the same 

 phenomenon ; but I consider Dr. Scheffczik's observation most 

 valuable, from the excellent account it gives of the first approach 

 of the " star-like" luminous body, and of its subsequent pro- 

 gression. 



Scarcely any fall of aerolites has ever been so exactly and 

 fully observed as that which fell at New Concord, Muskingum 

 Co., Ohio, on May 1st, 1860*. Professor Evans, of Marietta 

 College, Ohio, calculated several elements of the orbit. The 

 meteor, first seen as a fiery globe at a horizontal distance of 

 20 to 30 (English) miles, appeared like the full moon. An 

 altitude of 40 miles, derived from other observations, would give 

 to it a real diameter of |ths of a mile. It moved from S.E. to 

 N.W. The final velocity was about 4 miles a second. Nearly 

 thirty stones, of about 700 lbs. total weight, were found to have 

 fallen ; the largest of them, weighing 103 lbs., is now in the 

 Museum of Marietta College. All these stones taken together 

 would fall far short of the apparent size of the meteor, as is the 

 case with many other observations of a similar nature, especially 

 with that of Agram in Croatia, May 26th, 1751, where two 

 masses of native iron, the one of 71 lbs., the other of 16 lbs., 

 were the only material residuum of a meteor whose apparent 

 diameter was scarcely under 3000 feetf ! At first the New Con- 

 cord stones were warm, so that particles of the moist ground on 

 which one of them had fallen, soon dried up, at least in the case 

 of one weighing 71 lbs. 



Its greatest heat was not more than that which the stone 

 would have had if exposed for some time to the natural heat of 

 the sun's rays. The largest of the stones (103 lbs.) was found 

 about three weeks after the fall, beneath the root of an oak tree. 

 It had gone through another root in an oblique direction, and 

 had penetrated to the depth of nearly 3 feet into a hard argil- 

 laceous ground : no mention is made of its probable temperature 

 at the time of falling. Those who witnessed the fall, only per- 

 ceived that the stones were " black," they did not mention the 

 appearance of any fireball J. At the moment of the fall they 



* See Silliman's American Journal, vol. xxx. for July 1860. 



t See " Der Meteorstein-Fall v. Hrashina bei Agram, 26 Mai, 1751," by 

 "W. Haidinger, Proceedings of the Vienna Imperial Academy, Class of 

 Mathematics and Natural Sciences, 1859, vol. xxxv. p. 361 (283). 



X " No one of the many persons who saw the stones fall, and who were 

 in the immediate vicinity at the time, noticed anything of the luminous 

 appearance described by those who saw it from a distance." — Silliman's 

 aournah 



