W. P. Jenney — Great Nevada Meteor of 189 % 431 



Art. XL. — The Great Nevada Meteor of 189 % • by Walter 



P. Jenney. 



Mr. Henry C. Cutting, of San Lorenzo, California, relates 

 that in the winter of 1893-4 he was living in Candelaria, 

 Nevada, and witnessed the explosion of a great meteor, which 

 passed directly over the town, about 10 p. m., Feb. 1st, 1894. 

 The night was clear and tranquil, and the stars were shining 

 brightly. The meteor came from the west, exploded with a 

 blinding flash of light, followed after a short interval by the 

 sound of the explosion, and finally passed out of sight to the 

 east. Mr. Cutting does not recall that any one at Candelaria 

 claimed to have seen the meteor before the flash — the first 

 notice was the intensely bright light illuminating the whole 



Candelaria is situated on the eastern slope of a high hill 

 which shut off any view of the meteor, coming as it did from 

 the west, until it was nearly overhead. Mr. Cutting was in 

 his house, when there came a terrific explosion so that the 

 house shook with the air-wave ; he thought that a powder 

 magazine had exploded, and ran out of doors. He states that 

 he saw a bright light overhead in the star-lit sky, and heard 

 a roaring sound that reverberated like thunder, but more metal- 

 lic, which lasted for two to four minutes, dying away in a 

 vibration like the sound given off by a telegraph wire when 

 struck. The blinding flash first seen was so intense that the 

 whole landscape was lighted up, and the sagebrush on hills 

 several miles distant could be distinctly seen ; within houses 

 with shutters tightly closed, the illumination was so strong 

 that the most minute objects were visible. 



Different observers compared notes respecting the interval 

 that elapsed between the first flash and the sound of the explo- 

 sion, and agreed that it was nearly thirty seconds. Assuming 

 that the explosion took place vertically over the town, this 

 would place the meteor at the moment of explosion at a height 

 of six and one-half miles above the surface of the earth. When 

 Mr. Cutting got out of the house, nearly all of the people in 

 Candelaria were in the streets ; there were 75 to 100 China- 

 men, living in Chinatown, who were terribly frightened. After 

 the meteor passed, the Chinamen set off firecrackers to scare 

 the devil away. Some thought that the meteor fell a few 

 miles to the east, and several parties went out to Summit 

 Springs in search of it, but it was never found. 



Observers at Silver Star* did not note the sound of the 

 explosion, and the operator at Benton,* when called up by 



* Small towns near Candelaria. 



