Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/442

 430 METEOR ular periods, and move with great rapidity across the sky, exhibiting sometimes a dazzling brilliancy, greater than that of the sun at noonday, as is remarked by Humboldt of one seen at Popayan in 1788. A luminous train follows them, and their path has been known to remain brilliant for several minutes after they have disappeared. Admiral Krusenstern, indeed, in his "Voyage," describes afire ball the train of which shone for an hour after the body had disappeared, scarcely moving during this time. They send forth vivid scintillations and present various bright colors, and the same meteor is differently described as seen from different places. Often they divide into two or more bodies which move along togeth- er, and sometimes they explode with a report like heavy thunder. They are of various ap- parent sizes, occasionally exceeding that of the moon. On Feb. 6, 1818, one was seen in Eng- land about 2 P. M. descending vertically and shining with a light equal to that of the sun. Dr. E. D. Clarke, who described this in the " Annals of Philosophy," vol. xi., p. 273, was of opinion that meteorolites fell from this body ; and in Lincolnshire it was reported that a hiss- ing noise accompanied it, and a trembling of the earth was felt like the shock of an earth- quake. The records of fire balls seen in the evening are very numerous. They appear at no particular season, and are limited to no par- ticular portions of the earth, though most of the observations have been recorded in Europe. In 1623 one was seen over Germany, and de- scribed by Kepler. In 1676 one passed over Italy from the direction of Dalmatia about two hours after sunset, and disappeared toward Corsica. At Leghorn it was heard to explode, and fragments from it fell into the sea. Its height was estimated by Montanari at 38 m. Halley describes in the " Philosophical Trans- actions," No. 360, a meteor of extraordinary brilliancy which appeared over England in 1719 about 8i P. M. It suddenly illuminated the streets of London, causing the stars to disap- pear, and the moon, which before was shining brightly, to be hardly visible. The eye directed toward it could scarcely bear its brilliancy. It moved like a falling star at a height estimated at 60 to 70 m., and with a velocity of 300 to 350 m. in a minute ; through Devon and Corn- wall and on the opposite coast of Brittany a loud explosion was heard proceeding from it. On Aug. 18, 1783, at 9 P. M., another very remarkable meteor of this character was seen over a large part of Europe from the north of Ireland to Rome. It crossed the zenith at Edin- burgh, appearing single and well defined, of a greenish shade, and with a tail ; but at Green- wich it had the appearance of two bright balls with other luminous bodies following it. Its height was estimated to be above the limits of the atmosphere, its speed more than 1,000 m. a minute, and its diameter more than a mile. Cavallo describes its bursting and the noise of the explosion, which was 10 minutes in reaching the earth. Bowditch describes, in the " Memoirs of the American Academy," a meteor seen Nov. 21, 1819, at Danvers, Mass., and in Baltimore, Md., the diameter of which appeared to be half a mile. Its direction was S. 44 W., and its height, at first 38 m., was soon reduced to 22 m. Two minutes after its disappearance a rumbling noise was heard which lasted longer than a minute. On the evening of July 20, 1860, about a quarter before 10 o'clock, a me- teor passed over the state of New York, from the west, being seen on Lake Erie, and soon afterward at Buffalo, Albany, New York city, New Haven, Newport, R. I., and New Bedford, Mass. At the south it was visible in the state of Delaware. By many observers it was at first supposed to be a display of rockets or of Roman candles; and all had the impression that its elevation was only a few hundred feet. From a vessel off Sandy Hook it appeared to fall into the sea at a short distance. First appearing as a single body, it was observed to separate into two balls, which kept along together, emitting sparks and what appeared to be flames. A table of meteors and meteoric showers given in Izarn's Lithologie astrono- mique includes one of iron in Lucania, 54 B. 0. ; one of mercury (!) in Italy, of unknown date; a fall of about 1,200 stones, one of which weighed 160 Ibs. and another 60, at Padua in 1510; sulphurous rains at Copenhagen in 1646 and in the county of Mansfeld in 1658, and a shower of sulphur at Brunswick in October, 1721; a shower of fire at Quesnoy, Jan. 4, 1717; one of sand lasting 15 hours in the At- lantic, April 6, 1719; and extensive showers of stones at Aden, July 24, 1790, and in France, May 15, 1864. (See AEROLITE.) Falling stars resembling small bolides are often seen on a clear night shooting at the rate of four or five an hour across the sky. These are termed " sporadic " meteors, in contradistinction to the "periodic," which at certain periods ap- pear often in vast numbers like showers of fire. Displays of this kind are recorded as occur- ring in October, 902; Oct. 19, 1202; and Oct. 21, 1366 (O. S.). Each time the stars are said to have been in motion all night, falling like locusts, and in numbers which no one could count. More modern occurrences of this phe- nomenon were observed on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1787, in southern Germany; and after midnight of Nov. 12-13, 1799, as described by Humboldt and Bonpland, in Cumana. The same phenomenon was also observed as far south as the equator, and over North America, even to Labrador and Greenland, and on the other side of the Atlantic in Germany. From the bearing and course of the meteors at dif- ferent points, their elevation was computed to be 1,419 m. In 1818 meteoric displays of great brilliancy were seen on the same night of Nov. 12-13, in England, and again in 1822 at Potsdam in Brandenburg. In some of the exhibitions about this period a deposit of dust was observed upon the surface of the water,