Paper: Davenport Daily Republican City: Davenport, Iowa Date: Sunday, January 25, 1903 Page: 4 (of 16)
A MONSTROUS METEOR
None Larger Has Fallen in England for Near a Century.
Meteoric stones are by no means unfamiliar things in the history of astronomical and physical science. They form a source of information regarding the constitution of other worlds than ours, and their chemical analysis affords a basis for the belief that a community of composition characterizes all the members of the solar system. Described in Nature by Mr. L. Fletcher, F.A.S., we have the account of the meteoric stone which fell at Crosshill, Crumlim, situated about ten miles west of Belfast, on Sept. 13, at 1:30 p.m., Irish time. It would seem that the Crumlin meteorite exceeds in size any stone which has fallen from the sky in Britain for 89 years. It is also larger than any stone which has fallen in England since 1795. A lapse of 21 years also represents the time since any meteorite had descended on the soil of Britian., and in Ireland itself no such visitant has been recorded for 37 years. A Mr. Waller on, whose farm the meteorite fell, says that the stone was hot when it landed, and felt hot for at least an hour there-after. The fall occurred about 10:30 a.m. It was accompanied by a noise compared to the bursting of a boiler. A cloud of dust showed where the stone had entered the ground, and by aid of a spade the meteorite was extracted from a depth of a foot and a half. A sulphurous odor was perceived in the near vicinity of the stone, and the noise made by the detonation, is is assorted, as heard at Lurgan, Antrim, Lisburn and Legoniel. The greatest distance was that of Lurgan, which is situated 13 miles from Crosshill.
These fragments from the sky which reach our earth represent only a remnent of the many such visitants that career through the heavens, especially at certain periods of the year. Everyone knows the "shooting stars," as they are called. They shoot athwart the heavens glowing with light engendered by the heat which results from the friction caused by their rapid passage through the air. Most of them are burned out long before they have a chance of reaching the earth's surface. When the mass of meteorite lasts out the friction, so to speak, it reaches the earth. We have many specimens of such stones in our museums. Some of them are of large size. It measures seven and one-half inches in width, and three and one-half inches in thickness. It is covered with what Mr. Fletcher calls the characteristic crust that forms on such bodies during their passage through the air. The likeness of chemical composition of meteorite with our own worldly substances is close, but it is noted that in the Irish stone there exists troilite, a photosulphide of iron which is not included in the products of our planets. Astronomical science postulates the evolution of all planets from a common origin and the composition of meteorites support this view. If the sun's heat is the product of blazing hydrogen gas - the gas used to inflate balloons, and formed one of the two gases whereof water is composed - and if other common chemican elements (iron included) are found to form part of the celestial orbs, the idea that all the planets have been developed from a common basis must certainly receive at least respectful consideration. - London Chronicle.
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