From look to look, contagious through the crowd
The panic runs, and into wond’rous shapes
The appearance throws: armies in meet array,
Thronged with aerial spears and steeds of fire;
Till the long lines of full-extended war
In bleeding fight commixt, the sanguine flood
Rolls a broad slaughter o’er the plains of heaven.
As thus they scan the visionary scene,
On all sides swells the superstitious din.
Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks
Of blood and battle; cities overturned,
And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk,
Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame;
Of sallow famine, inundation, storm;
Of pestilence, and every great distress;
Empires subversed, when ruling fate has struck
The unalterable hour: even nature’s self
Is deemed to totter on the brink of time.
Not so the man of philosophic eye,
And aspect sage; the waving brightness he
Curious surveys, inquisitive to know
The causes, and materials, yet unfixed,
Of this appearance beautiful and new.—THOMSON.
The nature of those splendid phenomena of the heavens which are embraced
under the general term meteors, can not be so well elucidated as by an
extract from the travels of Messrs. Humboldt and Bonpland to the
equinoctial regions of the new continent. The sublime wonders described
by the former of these travelers were witnessed by them at Cumana, a
city of Venezuela, in South America.
“The night of the eleventh of November, 1779, was cool and extremely
beautiful. Toward the morning, from half after two, the most
extraordinary luminous meteors were seen toward the east. M. Bonpland,
who had risen to enjoy the freshness of the air in the gallery,
perceived them first. Thousands of bolides (fire-balls) and falling
stars, succeeded each other during four hours. Their direction was very
regular, from north to south. They filled a space in the sky extending
from the true east thirty degrees toward the north and south. In an
amplitude of sixty degrees the meteors were seen to rise above the
horizon at east-north-east, and at east to describe arcs more or less
extended, falling toward the south, after having followed the direction
of the meridian. Some of them attained a hight of forty degrees; and all
exceeded twenty-five or thirty degrees. There was very little wind in
the low regions of the atmosphere, and this blew from the east. No trace
of clouds was to be seen. M. Bonpland relates, that from the beginning
of the phenomenon, there was not a space in the firmament equal in
extent to three diameters of the moon which was not filled at every
instant with bolides and falling stars. The first were fewer in number,
but as they were seen of different sizes, it was impossible to fix the
limit between these two classes of phenomena. All these meteors left
luminous traces from five to ten degrees in length, as often happens in
the equinoctial regions. The phosphorescence of these traces, or
luminous bands, lasted seven or eight seconds. Many of the falling stars
had a very distinct nucleus, as large as the disk of Jupiter, from which
darted sparks of vivid light. The bolides seemed to burst as by
explosion; but the largest, those from one degree to one degree and
fifteen minutes in diameter, disappeared without scintillation, leaving
behind them phosphorescent bands (_trabes_) exceeding in breadth fifteen
or twenty minutes, or sixtieth parts of a degree. The light of these
meteors was white, and not reddish, which must be attributed, no doubt,
to the absence of vapors, and the extreme transparency of the air. For
the same reason, under the tropics, the stars of the first magnitude
have, at their rising, a light evidently whiter than in Europe.
“Almost all the inhabitants of Cumana were witnesses of this phenomenon,
and did not behold these bolides with indifference; the oldest among
them remembered, that the great earthquakes of 1766 were preceded by
similar phenomena. The fishermen in the suburbs asserted, that the
fire-work had begun at one o’clock; and that, as they returned from
fishing in the gulf, they had already perceived very small falling stars
toward the east. They affirmed at the same time, that igneous meteors
were extremely rare on those coasts after two in the morning.
“The phenomenon ceased by degrees after four o’clock, and the bolides
and falling stars became less frequent; but we still distinguished some
toward the north-east, by their whitish light, and the rapidity of their
movement, a quarter of an hour after sunrise. This circumstance will
appear less extraordinary, when I state that in full daylight, in 1788,
the interior of the houses in the town of Popayan was highly illumined
by an aerolite of immense magnitude. It passed over the town when the
sun was shining clearly, about one o’clock. M. Bonpland and myself,
during our second residence at Cumana, after having observed on the
twenty-sixth of September, 1800, the immersion of the first satellite of
Jupiter, succeeded in seeing the planet distinctly with the naked eye,
eighteen minutes after the disk of the sun had appeared in the horizon.
There was a very slight vapor in the east, but Jupiter appeared on an
azure sky. These facts prove the extreme purity and transparency of the
atmosphere under the torrid zone. The _mass_ of diffused light is so
much less, as the vapors are more perfectly dissolved. The same cause
that weakens the diffusion of the solar light, diminishes the extinction
of that which emanates either from a bolis, Jupiter, or the moon, seen
on the second day after her conjunction.
“The researches of M. Chladni having singularly fixed the attention of
the scientific world upon the bolides and falling stars, at my departure
from Europe, we did not neglect during the course of our journey from
Caraccas to the Rio Negro, to inquire everywhere, whether the meteors of
the twelfth of November had been perceived. In the savage country, where
the greater number of the inhabitants sleep out in the air, so
extraordinary a phenomenon could not fail to be remarked, except when
concealed by clouds from the eye of observation. The Capuchin missionary
at San Fernando de Apura, a village situated amid the savannas of the
province of Varinas, and the Franciscan monks stationed near the
cataracts of the Orinoco, and at Maroa, on the banks of the Rio Negro,
had seen numberless falling stars and bolides illumine the vault of
heaven. Maroa is south-west of Cumana, and one hundred and seventy-four
leagues’ distance. All these observers compared the phenomenon to a
beautiful fire-work, which had lasted from three till six in the
morning. Some of the monks had marked the day upon their ritual; others
had noted it by the nearest festivals of the church. Unfortunately, none
of them could recollect the direction of the meteors, or their apparent
hight. From the position of the mountains and thick forest which
surround the missions of the cataracts and the little village of Maroa,
I presume that the bolides were still visible at twenty degrees above
the horizon. On my arrival at the southern extremity of Spanish Guiana,
at the little fort of San Carlos, I found a party of Portuguese, who had
gone up the Rio Negro from the mission of St. Joseph of the Maravitains,
and who assured me, that in that part of Brazil, the phenomenon had been
perceived, at least as far as San Gabriel das Cachoeiras, consequently
as far as the equator itself.
“I was powerfully struck at the immense hight which these bolides must
have attained, to have been visible at the same time at Cumana, and on
the frontiers of Brazil, in a line of two hundred and thirty leagues in
length. But what was my astonishment, when at my return to Europe, I
learned that the same phenomenon had been perceived, on an extent of the
globe of sixty-four degrees of latitude, and ninety-one degrees of
longitude; at the equator, in South America, at Labrador, and in
Germany! I found accidentally, during my passage from Philadelphia to
Bordeaux, in the memoirs of the Pennsylvanian society, the corresponding
observations of Mr. Ellicott (latitude thirty degrees, forty-two
minutes;) and, upon my return from Naples to Berlin, I read the account
of the Moravian missionaries among the Esquimaux, in the library of
Göttingen. Several philosophers had already discussed at this period the
coincidence of the observation in the north with those at Cumana, which
M. Bonpland and I had published in 1800.
“The following is a succinct enumeration of facts. First, the fiery
meteors were seen in the east, and the east-north-east, to forty degrees
of elevation, from two to six hours at Cumana, (latitude ten degrees,
twenty-seven minutes, fifty-two seconds, longitude sixty-six degrees,
thirty minutes;) at Porto Cabello, (latitude ten degrees, six minutes,
fifty-two seconds, longitude sixty-seven degrees, five minutes;) and on
the frontiers of Brazil, near the equator, in the longitude of seventy
degrees west of the meridian of Paris. Secondly, in French Guiana,
(latitude four degrees, fifty-six minutes, longitude fifty-four degrees,
thirty-five minutes,) the northern part of the sky was seen all on fire.
Innumerable falling stars traversed the heavens during an hour and a
half, and diffused so vivid a light, that those meteors might be
compared to the blazing sheaves shot out from fire-works. Thirdly, Mr.
Ellicott, an astronomer in the United States, having terminated his
trigonometric operations for the rectification of the limits on the
Ohio, being, on the twelfth of November, in the gulf of Florida, in the
latitude of twenty-five degrees, and longitude eighty-one degrees, fifty
minutes, saw, in all parts of the sky, ‘as many meteors as stars, moving
in all directions: some appeared to fall perpendicularly; and it was
expected every minute that they would drop into the vessel.’ The same
phenomenon was perceived upon the American continent as far as the
latitude of thirty degrees, forty-two minutes. Fourthly, in Labrador, at
Nain (latitude fifty-six degrees, fifty-five minutes) and Hoffenthal
(latitude fifty-eight degrees, four minutes,) and in Greenland, at
Lichtenau (latitude sixty-one degrees, five minutes) and New Herrnhutt,
(latitude sixty-four degrees, fourteen minutes, longitude fifty-two
degrees, twenty minutes,) the Esquimaux were frightened at the enormous
quantity of bolides which fell during twilight toward all points of the
firmament, some of them being a foot broad. Fifthly, in Germany, M.
Zeissing, vicar of Itterstadt, near Weimar, (latitude fifty degrees,
fifty-nine minutes, longitude nine degrees, one minute east,) perceived,
on the twelfth of November, between the hours of six and seven in the
morning, when it was half after two at Cumana, some falling stars, which
shed a very white light. Soon after, toward the south and south-west,
luminous rays appeared from four to six feet long: they were reddish,
and resembled the luminous track of a sky-rocket. During the morning
twilight, between the hours of seven and eight, the south-west part of
the sky was seen, from time to time, strongly illuminated by white
lightning, which ran in serpentine lines along the horizon. At night the
cold increased, and the barometer rose.
“The distance from Weimar to the Rio Negro, is eighteen hundred sea
leagues; and from Rio Negro to Herrnhutt, in Greenland, thirteen hundred
leagues. Admitting that the same fiery meteors were seen at points so
distant from each other, we must also admit, that their hight was at
least four hundred and eleven leagues. Near Weimar, the appearance like
sky-rockets was seen in the south and south-east; at Cumana, in the east
and in the east-north-east. We may therefore conclude, that numberless
aerolites must have fallen into the sea, between Africa and South
America, to the west of the Cape Verde islands. But, since the direction
of the bolides was not the same at Labrador and at Cumana, why were they
not perceived in the latter place toward the north, as at Cayenne? I am
inclined to think, that the Chayma Indians of Cumana did not see the
same bolides as the Portuguese in Brazil, and the missionaries in
Labrador; but, at the same time, it can not be doubted, and this fact
appears to me very remarkable, that in the new world, between the
meridians of forty-six degrees and eighty-two degrees, between the
equator and sixty-four degrees north, at the same hour, an immense
number of bolides and falling stars were perceived; and that those
meteors had everywhere the same brilliancy, throughout a space of nine
hundred and twenty-one thousand square leagues.
“The scientific men who have lately made such laborious researches on
falling stars and their parallaxes, consider them as meteors belonging
to the furthest limits of our atmosphere, between the region of the
=aurora borealis= and that of the lightest clouds. Some have been seen,
which had not more than fourteen thousand toises, or about five leagues
of elevation. The highest do not appear to exceed thirty leagues. They
are often more than a hundred feet in diameter; and their swiftness is
such, that they dart, in a few seconds, over a space of two leagues.
Some of these have been measured, the direction of which was almost
perpendicularly upward, or forming an angle of fifty degrees with the
vertical line. This extremely remarkable circumstance has led to the
conclusion, that falling stars are aerolites, which, after having
hovered about a long time in space, take fire on entering accidentally
into our atmosphere, and fall toward the earth.
“Whatever may be the origin of these luminous meteors, it is difficult
to conceive any instantaneous inflammation taking place in a region
where there is less air than in the vacuum of our air-pumps; and where
(twenty-five thousand toises high) the mercury in the barometer would
not rise to twelve-thousandths of a line. We have ascertained the
uniform mixture of atmospheric air to three-thousandths nearly, only to
an elevation of three thousand toises: consequently, not beyond the last
stratum of fleecy clouds. It might be admitted, that, in the first
revolutions of the globe, gaseous substances which yet remain unknown to
us, may have risen toward that region, through which the falling stars
pass: but accurate experiments, made upon mixtures of gases which have
not the same specific gravity, prove that we can not admit a superior
stratum of the atmosphere entirely different from the inferior strata.
Gaseous substances mix and penetrate each other with the least motion;
and a uniformity of their mixture would have taken place in the lapse of
ages, unless we suppose in them the effects of a repulsive action
unexampled in those substances which we can subject to our observations.
Further, if we admit the existence of a particular aerial fluid in the
inaccessible region of luminous meteors, falling stars, bolides, and the
=aurora borealis=, how can we conceive why the whole stratum of those
fluids does not at once take fire, but that the gaseous emanations, like
the clouds, occupy only limited spaces? How can we suppose an electrical
explosion without some vapors collected together, capable of containing
unequal charges of electricity, in air, the mean temperature of which
is, perhaps, twenty-five degrees below the freezing-point of the
centigrade thermometer, and the rarefaction of which is so considerable,
that the compression of the electrical shock could scarcely disengage
any heat? These difficulties would in great part, be removed, if the
direction of the motion of falling stars allowed us to consider them as
bodies with a solid nucleus, as cosmic phenomena (belonging to space
beyond the limits of our atmosphere) and not as telluric phenomena
(belonging to our planet only.)
“Supposing that the meteors of Cumana were only at the usual hight at
which falling stars in general move, the same meteors were seen above
the horizon in places more than three hundred and ten leagues distant
from each other. Now, what an extraordinary disposition to incandescence
must have reigned on the twelfth of November, in the higher regions of
the atmosphere, to have furnished, during four hours, myriads of bolides
and falling stars, visible at the equator, in Greenland, and in Germany.
“Mr. Benzenberg judiciously observes, that the same cause, which renders
the phenomenon more frequent, has also an influence on the largeness of
the meteors, and the intensity of their light. In Europe, the nights
when there are the greatest number of falling stars, are those in which
very bright ones are mixed with very small ones. The periodicalness of
the phenomenon augments the interest which it excites. There are months,
in which M. Brandes has reckoned in our temperate zone, only sixty or
eighty falling stars in one night; and in other months their number has
risen to two thousand. Whenever one is observed, which has the diameter
of Sirius or of Jupiter, we are sure of seeing so brilliant a meteor
succeeded by a great number of smaller meteors. If the falling stars be
very frequent during one night, it is very probable that this frequency
will continue during several weeks. It would seem that, in the higher
regions of the atmosphere, near that extreme limit where the centrifugal
force is balanced by gravity, there exists, at regular periods, a
particular disposition for the production of bolides, falling stars, and
the =aurora borealis=. Does the periodicalness of this great phenomenon
depend upon the state of the atmosphere? or upon something which the
atmosphere receives from without, while the earth advances in the
ecliptic? Of all this we are still as ignorant as men were in the days
of Anaxagoras.
“With respect to the falling stars themselves, it appears to me, from my
own experience, that they are more frequent in the equinoctial regions
than in the temperate zone; more frequent over the continents, and near
certain coasts, than in the middle of the ocean. Do the radiation of the
surface of the globe, and the electrical charge of the lower regions of
the atmosphere, which varies according to the nature of the soil, and
the positions of the continents and seas, exert their influence as far
as those hights, where eternal winter reigns? The total absence even of
the smallest clouds, at certain seasons, or above some barren plains
destitute of vegetation, seems to prove, that this influence can be felt
at least as far as five or six thousand toises high. A phenomenon
analogous to that of the twelfth of November, was observed thirty years
before, on the table-land of the Andes, in a country studded with
volcanoes. At the city of Quito, there was seen, in one part of the sky,
above the volcano of Gayambo, so great a number of falling stars, that
the mountain was thought to be in flames. This singular sight lasted
more than an hour. The people assembled in the plain of Exico, where a
magnificent view presents itself of the highest summit of the
Cordilleras. A procession was already on the point of setting out from
the convent of St. Francis, when it was perceived that the blaze of the
horizon was caused by fiery meteors, which ran along the skies in all
directions, at the altitude of twelve or thirteen degrees.”
The bolides, or fire-balls, and falling stars, so striking an example of
which is given above, are of all sizes, from a small shooting-star of
the fifth magnitude, to a cone or cylinder of two or three miles in
diameter. They differ in consistency as much as in dimensions, and in
color as much as in either. Occasionally, they are a subtile, luminous
and pellucid vapor; and sometimes a compact ball, or globe, as though
the materials of which they are formed, were more condensed and
concentrated. Not unfrequently they have been found to consist of both,
and consequently to assume a comet-like appearance, with a nucleus or
compact substance in the center, or toward the center, and a long, thin,
pellucid or luminous main, or tail, sweeping on each side. They are
sometimes of a pale white light; at others, of a deep igneous crimson;
and, occasionally iridescent and vibratory. The rarer meteors appear
frequently to vanish on a sudden, as though abruptly dissolved or
extinguished in the atmospheric medium, their flight being accompanied
by a hissing sound, and their disappearance by an explosion. The most
compact of them, or the nuclei of those which are rarer, have often
descended to the surface of the earth, and with a force sufficient to
bury them many feet under the soil; generally exhibiting marks of
imperfect fusion and considerable heat. The substance is, in these
cases, for the greater part metallic; but the ore of which they consist
is not anywhere to be found, in the same constituent proportions, in the
bowels of the earth. Under this form the projected masses are
denominated aerolites, or meteoric stones.
It may not be uninteresting to preface a succinct account of the most
surprising of these meteors, by a notice of the hypotheses which have
been imagined concerning them; however justly the learned Humboldt may
have concluded, in the words of the extracts given above, that we are
still “as ignorant on this subject as men were in the days of
Anaxagoras.” Sir J. Pringle contended, with other philosophers, that
they are revolving bodies, or a kind of terrestrial planets. Doctor
Halley conjectured them to consist of combustible vapors, accumulated
and formed into concrete bodies on the outskirts, or extreme regions of
the atmosphere, and to be suddenly set on fire by some unknown cause; an
opinion which, with little difference, has been since entertained by Sir
W. Hamilton and Dr. King. Dr. Blagdon regarded them altogether as
electrical phenomena. M. Izarn believed them to consist of volcanic
materials, propelled into the atmosphere in the course of explosions of
great violence. M. Chladni supposed them to be formed of substances
existing exteriorly to the atmosphere of the earth and other planets,
which have never incorporated with them, and are found loose in the vast
ocean of space, being there combined and inflamed by causes unknown to
us. Lastly, another and rather wild hypothesis is, that the whole, or at
least the more compact division of these meteors, are made up of
materials thrown from immense volcanoes in the moon. This hypothesis,
which was started by M. Olbers, in 1795, has been since very plausibly
supported by the celebrated Laplace, but does not apply to the smaller
and less substantial meteors, named shooting-stars. Hence these
philosophers derive the latter phenomena from some other cause, as
electricity, or terrestrial exhalations; and observe, in support of the
distinction they find it necessary to make, that shooting-stars must be
of a different nature from fire-balls, since they sometimes appear to
ascend as well as to fall. This observation has been especially dwelt on
by Messrs. Chladni and Benzenberg, both of them favorably noticed, as
accurate observers, by Humboldt.
By far the most plausible and satisfactory theory, however, is one
somewhat like that of Dr. Halley, which may be illustrated thus. If a
stick of wood, after being covered over night in the hot ashes, so as to
become in part or wholly charred, be taken out in the morning, and waved
back and forth in the air, every one has noticed that it will send forth
sparks by hundreds and thousands. Now the more modern theory as to these
aerolites, or falling-stars, is, that they are thrown off from small,
opaque, planetary bodies, revolving in space, which when they come
within the atmosphere of the earth, are heated from their rapid motion
through it, and throw off small heated portions, like the sparks from
the waving brand. And this theory is confirmed by the fact, that, of
late years, these meteoric showers have been annual, and always at about
the same period of the year, as if the earth was then passing in that
part of her orbit where she meets with the planetary bodies spoken of,
and they come in contact with her atmosphere. In the volumes of the
“American Journal of Science,” may be found abundant facts on this
subject, and also the various theories started to account for the facts.
On the twenty-first of March, 1676, two hours after sunset, an
extraordinary meteor was seen to pass over Italy. At Bononia, its
greatest altitude in the south-south-east, was thirty-eight degrees; and
at Sienna, fifty-eight degrees toward the north-north-east. In its
course, which was from east-north-east to west-south-west, it passed
over the Adriatic sea, as if coming from Dalmatia. It crossed all Italy,
being nearly vertical to Rimini and Savigniano, on the one side, and to
Leghorn on the other: its perpendicular altitude was at least
thirty-eight miles. At all the places near its course it was heard to
make a hissing noise as it passed, like that of artificial fireworks. In
passing over Leghorn, it gave a very loud report, like that of a cannon;
immediately after which another sort of sound was heard, like the
rattling of a deeply loaded wagon passing over the stones, which
continued for several seconds. The professor of mathematics at Bononia,
calculated the apparent velocity of this surprising meteor at not less
than one hundred and sixty miles in a minute of time, which is above ten
times as swift as the diurnal rotation of the earth under the
equinoctial, and not many times less than that with which the annual
motion of the earth about the sun is performed. It there appeared larger
than the moon in one diameter, and above half as large again in the
other; which, with the given distance of the eye, made its real smaller
diameter above half a mile, and the larger one in proportion. It is,
therefore, not surprising, that so great a body, passing with such an
amazing velocity through the air, however rarefied it may be in its
upper regions, should occasion so loud a hissing noise as to be heard at
such a distance. It finally went off to sea toward Corsica.
Two luminous meteors of great magnitude were noted at Leipsic within the
space of six years. On the twenty-second of May, 1680, about three in
the morning, the first of these was seen, to the great terror of the
spectators, descending in the north, and leaving behind it a long white
streak where it had passed. As the same phenomena was witnessed in the
north-north-east at Haarburg, and also at Hamburg, Lubeck and Stralsund,
all of which places are about a hundred and fifty English miles from
Leipsic, it was concluded that this meteor was exceedingly high above
the earth. The second meteor was still more terrific. On the ninth of
July, 1686, at half past one in the morning, a fire-ball with a tail was
observed in eight and a half degrees of Aquarius, and four degrees
north, which continued nearly stationary for seven or eight minutes,
with a diameter nearly equal to half the moon’s diameter. At first, its
light was so great that the spectators could see to read by it; after
which it gradually disappeared. This phenomenon was observed at the same
time in several other places, more especially at Schlaitza, a town
distant from Dantzic forty English miles toward the south, its altitude
being about six degrees above the southern horizon. At Leipsic it was
estimated to be distant not more than sixty English miles, and to be
about twenty-four miles perpendicular above the horizon, so that it was
at least thirty miles high in the air.
A very extraordinary meteor, which the common people called a flaming
sword, was first seen at Leeds, in Yorkshire, on the eighteenth of May,
1710, at a quarter after ten at night. Its direction was from south to
north: it was broad at one end, and small at the other; and was
described by the spectators as resembling a trumpet, moving, with the
broad end foremost. The light was so sudden and intense, that they were
startled at seeing their own shadows, when neither sun nor moon shone
upon them. This meteor was, in its course, seen not only in Yorkshire
and Lancashire, but also in the counties of Nottingham and Derby,
notwithstanding which, each of those who observed it, although so many
miles distant from each other, fancied it fell within a few yards of
him. In disappearing, it presented bright sparklings at the small end.
A blazing meteor was, on the nineteenth of March, 1719, seen in every
part of England. In the metropolis, about a quarter after eight at
night, a sudden powerful light was perceived in the west, far exceeding
that of the moon, which then shone very bright. The long stream it gave
out appeared to be branched about the middle; and the meteor, in its
course, turned pear-fashioned, or tapering upward. At the lower end it
came at length to be larger and spherical, although not so large as the
full moon. Its color was whitish, with an eye of blue of a most vivid,
dazzling luster, which seemed in brightness very nearly to resemble, if
not to surpass, that of the body of the sun in a clear day. This
brightness obliged the spectator to turn his eyes several times from it,
as well when it was a stream, as when it was pear-fashioned and a globe.
It seemed to move, in about half a minute or less, about the length of
twenty degrees, and to disappear about as much above the horizon. Where
it had passed, it left behind a track of a cloudy or faint
reddish-yellow color, such as red-hot iron or glowing coals have: this
continued more than a minute, seemed to sparkle, and kept its place
without falling. This track was interrupted, or had a chasm toward its
upper end, at about two-thirds of its length. No explosion was heard;
but the place where the globe of light had been, continued for some time
after it was extinct, of the same reddish-yellow color with the stream,
and at first sparks seemed to issue from it, such as proceed from
red-hot iron beaten out on an anvil.
It was agreed by all the spectators in the capital, that the splendor of
this meteor was little inferior to that of the sun. Within doors the
candles did not give out any light; and in the streets, not only all the
stars disappeared, but the moon, then nine days old, and high near the
meridian, the sky being very clear, was so far effaced as scarcely to be
seen: it did not even cast a shade, where the beams of the meteor were
intercepted by the houses; so that, for a few seconds of time, there was
in every respect, a resemblance of perfect day.
The perpendicular hight of this surprising meteor was estimated at
sixty-four geometrical miles; and it was computed to have run about
three hundred of these miles in a minute. It was seen, not only in every
part of Great Britain and Ireland, but likewise in Holland, in the
western parts of Germany, in France and in Spain, nearly at the same
instant of time. The accounts from Devonshire, Cornwall, and the
neighboring counties, were unanimous in describing the wonderful noise
which followed its explosion. It resembled the report of a large cannon,
or rather of a broadside at some distance, which was soon followed by a
rattling noise, as if many small arms had been promiscuously discharged.
This tremendous sound was attended by an uncommon tremor of the air; and
everywhere in those counties, not only the windows and doors of the
houses were sensibly shaken, but, according to several of the reports,
even the houses themselves, beyond the usual effect of cannon, however
near.
On the eleventh of December, 1741, at seven minutes past one in the
afternoon, a globe of fire, somewhat larger than the horizontal full
moon, and as bright as the moon appears at any time when the sun is
above the horizon, was seen at Peckham, in Surrey, in a south-south-east
direction, moving toward the east with a continued equable motion, and
leaving behind it a narrow streak of light, whiter than the globe
itself, throughout its whole course. Toward the end it appeared less
than at the beginning of its motion; and within three or four seconds
suddenly vanished. Its apparent velocity was nearly equal to half the
medium velocity of the ordinary meteors called falling or shooting
stars; and its elevation, throughout the whole of its course, about
twenty degrees above the horizon.
On the eighteenth of August, 1783, an uncommon meteor was seen in
several parts of Great Britain, as well as on the continent. Its general
appearance was that of a luminous ball, which, rising in the
north-north-east, nearly of a globular form, became elliptical, and
gradually assumed a tail as it ascended. In a certain part of its course
it underwent a remarkable change, which might be compared to bursting,
and which, it ought to be observed, has been since frequently noticed in
the passage of the aerolites, or meteoric stones, particular mention of
which will be made hereafter. After this it no longer proceeded as an
entire mass, but was apparently divided into a great number, or cluster
of balls, some larger than others, and all carrying a tail, or leaving a
train behind. Under this form, it continued its course with a nearly
equable motion, dropping or casting off sparks, and yielding a
prodigious light, which illumined all objects to a surprising degree;
until, having passed the east, and verging considerably to the
southward, it gradually distended, and was at length lost to the sight.
The time of its appearance was sixteen minutes past nine in the evening,
mean time of the meridian of London, and it continued visible about half
a minute.
This beautiful meteor having been seen in Shetland, and in the northern
parts of Scotland, ascending from the north, and rising like the planet
Mars, little doubt was entertained of its course having commenced beyond
the furthest extremity of Great Britain, somewhere over the northern
ocean. Having passed over Essex and the straits of Dover, it probably
entered the continent not far from Dunkirk, where, as well as at Calais
and Ostend, it was thought to be vertical. Still holding on its course
to the southward, it was seen at Brussels, at Paris, and at Nuits in
Burgundy; insomuch that there was sufficient proof of its having
traversed thirteen or fourteen degrees of latitude, describing a track
of at least one thousand miles over the surface of the earth; a length
of course far exceeding the extent of what had been then ascertained of
any similar phenomenon.
During the passage of this meteor over Brussels, the moon appeared quite
red, but soon recovered its natural light. The results of several
observations give it an elevation of more than fifty miles above the
surface of the earth, in a region where the air is at least thirty
thousand times rarer than here below. Notwithstanding this great
elevation, the fact of a report having been heard some time after it
disappeared, rests on the testimony of too many witnesses to be
controverted. It was compared to the falling of some heavy body in a
room above stairs, or to the discharge of one or more large cannon at a
distance: this report was loudest in Lincolnshire and the adjacent
counties, and also in the eastern parts of Kent.
Supposing the transverse diameter of this meteor to have subtended an
angle of thirty minutes when it passed over the zenith, and that it was
fifty miles high, it must have been almost half a mile across. The tail
sometimes appeared ten or twelve times longer than the body; but most of
this was train, and the real elongation behind seems seldom to have
exceeded twice or thrice its transverse diameter; it consequently was
between one and two miles in length. Now if the cubical contents be
considered, for it appeared equally round and full in all directions,
such an enormous mass must afford just matter of astonishment, when the
extreme velocity with which it moved is considered. This velocity,
agreeably to the observations of Sir William Herschel and several other
astronomers, could not have been less than twenty miles in a second,
exceeding that of sound above ninety times, and approaching toward that
of the earth in her annual orbit. At such a rate it must have passed
over the whole island of Great Britain in less than half a minute, and
would, in the space of less than seven minutes, have traversed the whole
diameter of the earth!
On the fourth of October, of the above year, 1783, two meteors were seen
in England. The first, at three in the morning, on account of the early
hour, was witnessed by but few spectators, who represented it as rising
from the north to a small altitude, and then becoming stationary with a
vibratory motion, and an illumination like daylight: it vanished in a
few moments, leaving a train behind. This sort of tremulous appearance
has been noticed in other meteors, as well as their continuing
stationary for some time, either before they begin to shoot, or after
their course is ended. The second of these meteors appeared at
forty-three minutes past six in the evening, and was much smaller, and
also of much shorter duration, than the one seen in August. It was first
observed to the north, like a stream of fire, similar to that of the
common shooting-stars, but large; and having proceeded some distance
under this form, suddenly burst out into that intensely bright bluish
light, peculiar to such meteors, which may be most aptly compared to the
blue lights of India, or to some of the largest electrical sparks. The
illumination was very great; and on that part of its course where it had
been so bright, a dusky red streak or train was left, which remained
visible about a minute, and was thought by some gradually to change its
form. Except this train, the meteor had not any tail, but was nearly of
a round body, or, perhaps, somewhat elliptical. After moving not less
than ten degrees in this bright state, it became suddenly extinct,
without any appearance of bursting or explosion.