New-York tribune. [volume], May 28, 1922, Page 3, Image 57

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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METEORS, THE BARRAGE FIRE
THE SKTES
By BOYDEN SPARKES
lllustration by Albert Levering
THF. people of tidewater Virginia were enormously disturbed
on the night of May 1 1 by a meteorite thal swept leisurely
acres- their skies leaving a wake 0f orange-colored tire. as
though some giant dwelling in space had flicked a cigarette
batt :nt0 our un'verse
Just before it was due to smash out of existonco the major por
tion 0f the population of Blackstot.e. Ya.. there was a frightful re?
port. a? if h11 the thunderclaps of an entire summer had sounded
together. The meteorite had exploded. its mass shattered into par
ticles that fell harmlessly to thc earth. Since the beginning of history
Huge crater of
Meteorite Mountain,
Arizona
.-,-:<> ."as heen no recordcd instance of a hu?
man being or
other animal
being struck
down by an ob
served fall of a
meteorite. Re
ligious - minded
persons might
be inclined to
attribute this to
Divine Will, but
more carthly
minded persons,
such as insurance
actuaries. pos
scssed of the sta
tistics appiicable
to the. problem.
w-ou!d be more
likely to lay it to
? the law of aver
ages. As a mat
t e r of fact,
Lloyds of Lon?
don, who will
checrfully insure
a p r o s p e c tive
parent against
twins. might be
expected to write a million-dollar accident
po!i.-y against this form nf death and not
charge more than ten cents annually plus
the cosi of the paper and ink in the receipt.
But, even so, some one, some day. sonic
where, ;s troing to cain distinction through
': ?'-' ' rm of extinction?that is if there is
enouj . 1 his spirit left after the encounter
to sei .-. ouija-board message to tthe Missing
Persons' Bui'cau.
rding to Professor Kdniund Otis Hovey,
curator of geology at the American Museum
of Natural History. there are records of only
? 685 meteorites which are represented in
:;- and private cabinets. Others are
. led in the earth, of course, but they
never havo been found. Contrasted with this
'??? ted number is thc estimate of astronomers
anel other scientiste that between ten and a
hundred miliion meteorites enter the atmos?
phere of the earth every day and through
cremation by friction against the air are dls
? .: of as i ffectually as dust that is absorbed
by a vacuum cleaner.
In the recently published "Outline of
Sci< re," edited by J. Arthur Thompson, it is
said that meteoritc-s in so-called "empty space"
swarm like fishc.s in the sea. Like the fishes,
moreover, they may be solitary or gregarious.
The solitary bit of cosmic rubbish is the mete?
orite. A ?'.social" $!-roup of meteorites is the
essential part of a comet. The nucleus, or
bright central part of the heud of a comet,
ci nsists of a swarm, sometimes thousands of
miles wide. of these pieces of iron or stone.
Th swarm has Come under the sun's gravita
: influence, and is forced to travel rour.d
i*. From some dark region of space it has
slowly into our system. It is not then
;-. omel for 3* has no tail. But as the crowd
v7 tr.. teorites approach the sun the speed in?
creases.
They g.ve off fire vapor-like matter and the
fierce flood of light from the sun sweeps this
vapor cut into an ever lengthening tail. What?
ever way the comet is traveling the tail always
' points away from the sun.
Prof. Chamherlain, one of the most wideiy
rr:o:ed students of infinity, once wrote that
''n-.eteoriles have rather the characteristics of
the wreckage of some earlier organization than
cf the rErentage of our planet^-ry . ystem."
Which is a scientific manner of saying that he
believes the ether to Be choked with the rem
nants of exploded worlds rather than that the
planets of this little corner of the universe
that is called the solar system grew, as a tiny
fflowball started downhill grows, by accretion.
Those craters on the moon revealed even by
the telescopes that are rated at five cents a
iook by the street-corner astronomers who
o""*3 them may have been made by meteorites
splashing into the surface* of our relatively
*ear planetary neighbor, although there are
other theories to account for these broken,
bobble-like markings. But this much scien
hst8 can te'.l us: the reason the earth is not
Fitted with millions and millions of projectiles
Trom the outermost ends of space is that cush
":?n of air that envelopes it.
Q"r Atmosphere Saves Us
'he. Trouble of Dodging
Some three hundred miles ahead of the
"''-'? '<?- he spins along on her orbit, meteor
es ""? the pathway enter thc atmosphere. The
s much like drawing the head of a
-*r' ? ng a rough surface. When a mete?
orite of sufficient size is within eighty miles
c* the surface of the earth, it normally?on
-ke side away from the sun?night time?be
cornes visible as a "shooting star." Millions
*W millions of them, of course, are so small
ftey rio not flash sufficient light to attract the
w?ntion of those other bits of cosmic dust
jwnraonly spoken of as mankind. When the
ight of a "shooting star" seems to go out,
that
>a usually the point where the fused and
^, .... s,^...v ........ ?-_ -
ei7 surface of the mass and its cold heart
*vp put such a Btrain on its structure that
^e'e is an explosion of its parts. But for
**? Working* of that natural law, life on earth
ou]r* *-,e ]j.K(? experiencing a Brobdingnagian
an<- unending artillery barrage.
Meteorites, according to Professor Hovey,
?'e Senerally divided into three classes ac
injr to their mineral composition. First
er? are "Biderites," or iron meteorites, com
posed principally of an alloy of iron and nickel.
Second, there are "siderolites," or ironstone
meteorites. These are a nickel sponge or
meah, the interstices filled with stony sub
stance. Third, there are "aerolitea" or stone
meteorites, but which nevertheless usually
have grains of iron and nickel scattered i'n
their mass.
These are the aubstancea that have been
found in meteorites which are also found in
the earth: nickel-iron, olivine, chrysolite, pyr
oxenes, feldspar, diamond, graphite, hydro
carbons, cohenite, pyrrhotite, tridymite, chrom
ite, magnetite, osbornite, lawrencite and glass.
But certain other substances have been
found in thcsc bodies that have never heen en
countered elsewhere in the arth. These have
been named raaskelynite, schreibersite, mois
sanite, troiHte, daubreelite and oldhamite, each
substance, obviously, taking the name of its
discoverer. It is these new substances that give
the constantly waged seareh for new me.teoric
bodies such a glamor of fascination. A sci
entist is always lured to make further investi
gations by the hope that sometime he wil] en
counter a substance, perhaps a philosopher's
stone, that may explain our very existence,
and the lay mind. at least, likes to toy with the
idea that there may turn up the fossilized re?
main* of some form of life that has existed
elsewhere than here on earth.
The heaviest weighing meteoric mass known
10 have landel on earth is Ahnighito, an iron
meteorite weighing more than thirty-aix and a
half tons, which was brought from Cape York.
Greenland, by Admiral Robert E, Perry. ln the
same "fall" were two other heavy bodies that
were named by the natives who discovered them
"the dog" and "the woman". For generations
these metal masses furnished thc Greenland
ers with material for their knives and other
hunting weapons. All three of these are to be
seen in thc foyer of the American Museum
of Natural History.
A Meteor Heavy Enough
To Shatter a Skyscraper
Ahnighito. or the "tent" to employ the Eng?
lish equivalent, had it reached earth this year
instead of ten thousaind or more years might
have shattered the Woolworth Building or sunk
the Majestic "spurios versenkt."
When it was suggested to Professor Hovey
recently that meteorites offer a reasonable ex
planation of the faiiure of some ships to reach
port he was at first amused and skeptical. but
tiien he sobered and agreed:
"It might happen. It. might happen, true
enough."
Strangely enough meteorites have a favorite
aiighting place in North America. and it is
more than likely that there are acres of the
ocean that exert an attraction for these wan
derers equal to this region of the southern
Appalachians,' where the stalcs of Kentucky.
Virginia, Tcnncssee, North Carolina, Georgia
and Alabama adjoin. A circde with a radius
of 300 miles drawn about Mt. Mitchell, North
Carolina, as a center will include nearly half
of the known meteorites of North America.
Twenty-five of these, or nearly half of the
known "falls" of the continent, are observed
"falls," and it would seem possible at first that
many of the meteorites in this area might
have come from a single shower. This would
reduce the number, but the writer has made
a careful study of the history of each meteor?
ite and its geographic relation to those of sim?
ilar character without finding any support for
such a view. Not only does the area contain
a large number of observed "falls," but the
"finds" embrace a variety of type3 larger than
any known to be produced by a single shower.
As regards population in the area conditions
are only moderately favorable, since the area
is not very thickly settled. Meteorites are su
perabundant in this area. This seems to leave
little doubt that some force tends to bring
about their conccntration here. It is note
worthy that this region includes the highest
summits of the Appalachians. and this suggests
either the presence of an extra gravitational
force or that a purely obstructive effect has
been exerted by the high peaks. Studies-of the
gravitational effects of mountain masses in?
dicate no force seemingly sufficient to affeet
the fall of a meteorite, though some such force
may exist. Magnetic influences may also he
suggested. Next to the massing of meteorites
about the southern Appalachians (the Black?
stone, Va., fall of May 11 may be included in
this area by stretching the radius of a trifle),
the most striking grouping seems to be within
the borders of Kansas.
Meteorites nearly always take the name of
the town nearest which thev fall. Out in Ar
S2
i7,ona. near ( anyon Diablo, is Meteorite Moun?
tain, and scientists expect that eventually
there will he uncovered there the largest mete?
orite that ever struck the earth. This 60
called mountain is really a butte, 200 or 300
feet in height, rising from a plain. It is ten
miles south of Canyon Diablo station on the
Santa Fe Railroad. Climbing the rock-strewn
sides of this interesting hill brings one to th.e
edge of a bowl-shaped depression in the earth
that is 600 feet deep and a mile across. Here,
according fo Indian tradition and thc theory of
scientists, a giant meteorite, as large in cir
cumference as the rim of thc bowl, struck the
earth in ages past. Thc Moki Indians whose
homes are near hy, have kept alive f< r count
less generations tbe story of the fall of a blaz
mg star ages ago, appalling the savages who
were dazzled by its fierce light and shaken by
the trembling of the earth. lt' tiie theory of
the scientists is correct, the great mass plung
ing itself into the earth forced up the edges of
the crater just as embossings appear when a
pebble is dropped into soft mud. Strata of rock
were displaced and clouds of steamingdust and
sand were sent into the air, only to fall back as
a grave covering for the great body. A shaft
more than 200 feet deep has been sunk into tlie
rentev ot' th.e crater by a mining company that
decided that profitable operations might be con
ducted if the main body of the meteorite could
he reached. They pushed their work all tim
harder when it was discovered that iron frag
ments contained diamond.-. There is still a
vast amount of research work to he done at
Cauyon Diablo, and until it is finished none can
say what cosmic secrets are hidden in that
great dish.
New York State was the target for a mete?
orite just about the time the Civil War was
brewing. Th.e only portion of this heavenly
visitor ever found is now in the possession of
the state at Albany. It is a stone and weighs
four ounces, though the parent body undoubt?
edly weighed a great many tons before it was
consumed hy fire or shattered by an explosion,
This meteorite is known to scientists as "Beth?
lehem." The story of its encounter with
the earth is preserved in one old account as
follows:
"On the morning of August 11, 1859, a'
seven o'cloek and twenty minutes or there
abouts, thermometer T.'l , air still and the sun
shining brightly, a meteoric body of great
size and hrilliance was observed throughout a
large portion of western New England and
?!astern N'ew York, which. exploding violently,
ihrew down to the earth at least one fragment
of its mass in the vicinity of Albany. New
York.
New York State Jarred
By Meteor in 1959
"The main facts connected with this inter?
esting phenomenon collected from numerous
and widely separated observers are as follows:
"By observers, generally, north of Albany,
the meteor is described as appearing in thc
southeast at an elevation of from 453 to 60?;
thence it passed rapidly to the south and dis
appeared a littie west of south at an elevation
of from 10' to 15'. It? course throughout its
visible range was marked by a heavy train or
trail of smoke which continued visible for
some time after the meteor itself had disap
peared; and at two or three points in its course
large volumcs of smoke were observed to form
as if the result of successive explosions.
"To observers, generally. south of Albany
(20 miles or more distant) the meteor was first
seen in the northeast and disappeared to the
northwest; a fact which indicates the path of
the body to have been nearly coincident with
the parallel of Albany.
A few minutes after the disappearance
of the meteor. the lapse of time being
variously estimated hy differently located ob?
servers at from 30 seconds to two minutes. two
or three loud and successive explosions or re?
ports were heard. accompanied by prolonged
echoes and a violent concussion. These sounds
have been compared hy some to sharp and
heavy peals of thunder, to the report attending
ihe explosion of a powder mill or steam boiler
and also to the rumbling of heavy carriages
on a bridge.
"The estimates formed of its fize aro ex
ceedingly discrepant, some observers compar
ing it to the sun. or full moon, and others to
a skyrocket or the luminous hail projected
from a Roman candle. All agree, however,
that ita appearance, even in full sunshine, waa
exceedingly bright and dazzling, the light be?
ing at the same time of a reddish color. So
bright, indeed, was it, at Stafford, Vermont, a
locality nearly 100 milea north of the prob?
able point of explosion, that the distance was
estimated at. not exceeding one half mile from
the point of observation.
A Meteor That Arrived
ln a Thunderclap
"A single fragment only of the meteor is
positively known to have fallen. This wa?
found in Bethlehem, Albany County, X. Y.,
and at a point about ten miles west of Albany.
The circumstances connected with the phe
nomenon related by the person who noticed it
ave aa follows:
"While standing in the enclosure adjoining
his house his attention and that of his family
was attracted by a loud sound overhead, which
somewhat resembled thunder; and a few min?
utes after a stone struck the southeast side of a
wagon house. and bounding off rolled into the
grass. A dog lying in the doorway started up
and ran to the place where the stone fell. When
picked up immediately after it was found to
be quite warm and possessed considerable
sulphurOus odor. The fragment in question was
small, about the size of a pigeon's &cr^, and
irregularly shaped. Nearly three-fourths of its
superficies was covered with a black, non
lustrous, evidently fused crust, while the ro
mainder presented the appearance of a fresh
fracture, and was of a light gray color, and of
a granular or semi-crystalline texturc. Its
com position was apparently siliceous and not
metallic. This specimen was bought by the
regents of the State of New York and is now
depesited in the state cabinet at Albany. Other
fragments are reported to have fallen in th-?
vicinity of the Hudson, but careful inquiry has
thus far failed to discover them.
"From the above facts it seems evident that
the meteor* of August 11 was of immense size,
probably of tons weight, and that it exploded
violently at no great distance above lhe sur?
face of the earth."
As was said, Lloyds probably would insure
any one for a million against death by getting
hit by a meteorite, for the price of a ride on a
bus, but still they better net write too many
policies of that kind, for some time the earth
may go shouldering into a mass with such
force as to rive asunder this planet and the
widows and orphans of their policyholders
might swamp them.
Still, as we said, they'll probably take a long
chance on it if they are asked.
lt has never happened?giant meteors pick out desert wastes?but it might