AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



Art. XXIII.— Fireball of January 13th, 1893. By H. A. 

 Newton. (With Plate III). 



1. On the evening of January 13th, 1893, Mr. John E. 

 Lewis of Ansouia, Conn., was engaged in photographing the 

 region of the heavens containing the place of Holmes's comet 

 in hopes of securing a picture of the comet. The camera 

 was strapped to the tube of his telescope, and inasmuch as his 

 telescope was without a clock movement he kept the stars in 

 place by giving by hand the proper right ascension motion to 

 the telescope. The plate was exposed for thirty-three minutes, 

 beginning at 7 h 19 m P. M. Mr. Lewis's eye was constantly at 

 the eyepiece of the telescope, so that he was unaware of the 

 passage of a bright meteor across the field of the camera until 

 he developed the plate. The next morning he learned that 

 the meteor, whose flight was thus accidentally photographed, 

 had been seen to cross the sky about 7 h 30 m on the evening of the 

 13th. He announced in the newspapers that he had secured 

 such a photograph and requested observations from those who 

 had been so fortunate as to see its flight. Many responses 

 came to Mr. Lewis and to me from various points in southern 

 New England and southeastern New York. Mr. Lewis has 

 kindly placed the photographic plate and all the letters received 

 by him in my hands for examination and discussion. 



2. The plate is 4 by 5 inches in size, and the meteor went 

 nearly centrally across it. The photographed portion of the 

 track was nearly 19° long. Near the center of the plate stars 

 of the 10th magnitude are shown, while near the margin those 



Am. Jocr. Scl— Third Series, Vol. XLVI, No. 273.— Sept., 1898. 

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