Janesville Daily Gazette
Janesville, WI
Friday, July 27, 1860
Page: 1
From the Spingfield (Mass.) Republican, July 23.
The Great Double Meteor
Those who were so fortunate as to be up and out at 10 o'clock on Friday evening witnessed a meteoric display of unusual brilliancy and beauty. If it had been properly advertised, like the eclipse, it would have received more general and appreciative attention. A meteor of peculiar form and remarkable splendor moved across the sky from north-west to south-east, at that hour, which, judging from descriptions giving it at points widely distant, must have been a very great size. All observers agree in supposing that it passed very near the earth, but the fact that it was seen at distant points at the same moment and presented everywhere the same appearence, indicates that the eye was deceived by its size and brightness, and that it probably moved at a great elevation above the surface of the earth. We have account of it from correspondents at Greenfield, Holyoke, Northampton and Westhampton, agreeubg substantially with the account we find of it in the papers of its appearance in Hartford, New Haven, Boston, New York, Albany and Philadelphia.
As noticed at Springfield, the meteor appeared of a light blue color in the northwest, of so decided a color as to give a blue tinge to the features and to the smooth surface of the river. It passed rapidly across the heavens towards the south-east, at an elevation of about 45 degrees, continuing to grow brighter and to change to a bright red as it approached. Just before it reached the meridian it appeared to separate into two portions, throwing off at the same time brilliant sparks, which continued on with the large fragments,forming a splendid train. The entire time of transit across th heavens is variously estimated at from half a minute to two minutes. Our Holyoke correspondent, who saw the meteor from a high hill west of that village, describes the parts as appearing to take the form of cones, the apex of one following the base of the other. The light of the meteor when nearest appeared to be nearly equal to the full moon.
At some places people thought they heard a hissing sound from the meteor as it passed, and some describe the first cone as shooting fire balls from its small end into the base of the other, which passed through the second cone and followed on its train behind; but both the hissing and these remarkable pyrotechnics may have been imaginary or very much assisted by the imagination. Some describe the meteor as being stationary for an instant before the explosion which separated it into two cones.
At some point, it was seen of a bright orange color,instead of red; other descibe it as closely resembling red hot iron. At Bedford, N. Y., it is described as resembling "two halfs of fire or reversed spear heads, one behind the other, connected by a link of fire something like a chain-shot, and followed by a steady train of disjointed, broken bars of light or elongated sparks; the last ball gave out sparks of fire, most of them following the train, one or two of the diverged, and were distinctly visible for some seconds." At Philadelphia it is described as "several bodies of a greenish hue; connected with a belt of flame; a long streamer of fire was in its wake." All agree that it moved mroe slowly than ordinary meteors, and that its progress was on that account very majestic and imposing. Of its actual hight none of the account give us the means of judging, and as it has probably quenched inself in the water of the Atlantic, its fragments are not likely to be recovered to real any portion of its wonderful story.
(From the Albany Evening Journal, July 23).
The meteor of Friday night was seen everywhere throughout this state and throughout New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is in fact chronical in nearly every exchange paper that has reached us since. It was certainly visible over a tract a thousand miles in length and fire hundred in width, and perhaps over a still larger one. Its size and distance cannot be computed with any accuracy untill we know the most distant points at which it was visible. At is was in full view in Boston and Newport, it must also have been seen from the Ocean. We shall have to await the arrial of the vessels from sea before knowing how far East it was visible. How far West, South and North it could be seen, we shall soon learn from the mails. All sorts of wild statements are put forth, one authority asserting that it was not two hundred feet high, another several thousand miles.
When the extreme points at which it was observed are known, its heigh and size can be computed. The exact height of the meteor may not, at first thought, seem important, yet in reality it involves the whole theory as to the nature of these phenomena. The commonly received scientific opinion is that they are solid bodies moving in space, which take on fire by coming in contact with the earth's atmosphere and are either consumed or else extinguished by passing out of it. But this theory requires that all meteors shall be within fifty miles of the earth, since the atmosphere extends no higher. If meteors are proved to be more than fifty miles high, some other theory must be devised to account for them. The present case, therefore, affords an excellent opportunity to test this question.
All these desciptions concur as to the appearance of the meteor, which seems to have repsented precisely the same aspect wherever seen. There is a discrepancy, however, as to its final disappearance, some avowing it to have been silent, others that it was accompanied by an explosion. This point is worthy of careful examination. The precise time of its observation at its different points, if compared, may throw some light on its distance and speed. Scientific men will do well to make the most of this meteor, as one of such magnitude and affording such facilities for investigation, hardly occurs twice in a lifetime.
From the Cleveland Herald.
We gave accounts of the meteor as it went on its fiery way last Friday evening. It evidently was bearin earth-ward as it went east. At this point it was, when first seen, apparently emerging from a dense cloud, and was a ball of fire; then it gave out a distinct, well defined tail, and as it passed along showed variegated colors. It was sufficiently luminous to cause objects to cast shadows, for persons walking had their attention attracted upward by suppposing there was a flight of a rocket or other pyrotechnic display. But as seen from this point there was no explosion, and no giving off of fragments.
Its transit here was, as near as can be ascertained, at quater past nine o'clock; at Buffalo at half past nine; at and near New York the accounts generally say it appeared a few minutes before ten. Allowing thirty minutes as different of time between this and New York, there was an acutal difference of five, ten or fifteen minutes.
