The wonders of the world

by John Loraine Abbott

AEROLITES.

These phenomena, otherwise entitled meteoric stones, have been ascertained, by recent observations, to be connected with the bolides, or fire-balls, described above. Scoriaceous masses have frequently been either actually seen to fall at the time of the disappearance of the latter, or have been found soon after on the surface of the earth. Most of the stones which have fallen from the atmosphere, have been preceded by the appearance of luminous bodies, or meteors. These meteors burst with an explosion, and then the shower of stones falls to the earth. Sometimes the stones continue luminous till they sink into the earth; but most commonly their luminousness disappears at the time of their explosion. These meteors move in a direction nearly horizontal, and seem to approach the earth before they explode.

The stony bodies, when found immediately after their descent, are always hot. They commonly bury themselves some depth under ground. Their size differs, from fragments of a very inconsiderable weight, to masses of several tuns. They usually approach the spherical form, and are always covered with a black crust; in many cases they smell strongly of sulphur. The black crust consists chiefly of oxyd of iron; and from several accurate analyses of these stones, the following important inferences have been drawn: that not any other bodies have as yet been discovered on our globe which contain the same ingredients; and that they have made us acquainted with a species of pyrites not formerly known, nor anywhere else to be found.

The ancients were not unacquainted with these meteoric stones, a shower of which is reported by Livy to have fallen at Rome under the consulate of Tullus Hostilius, and another under that of C. Martius and M. Torquatus. Pliny relates that a shower of iron (for thus he designates these stones) fell in Lucania, a year before the defeat of Crassus, and likewise speaks of a very large stone which fell near the river Negos, in Thrace. In the chronicle of Count Marcellin, there is an account of three immensely large stones having fallen in Thrace, in the year 452 before the advent of Christ.

To proceed to more modern and well authenticated instances of the fall of aerolites. On the seventh of November, 1492, a little before noon, a dreadful thunder-clap was heard at Ensisheim, in Alsace, instantly after which a child saw a huge stone fall on a field newly sown with wheat. On searching, it was found to have penetrated the earth about three feet, and weighed two hundred and sixty pounds, making its size equal to a cube of thirteen inches the side. All the contemporary writers agree in the reality of this phenomenon, observing that, if such a stone had before existed in a plowed land, it must have been known to the proprietor. The celebrated astronomer Gassendi relates an instance of an aerolite descent of which he was himself an eye-witness. On the twenty-seventh of November, 1627, the sky being clear, he saw a burning stone fall on Mont Vasir, in the south-east extremity of France, near Nice. While in the air, it seemed to be about four feet in diameter, was inclosed in a luminous circle of colors like a rainbow, and in its fall produced a sound like the discharge of cannon. It weighed fifty-nine pounds, was very hard, of a dull metallic color, and had a specific gravity considerably greater than that of marble. In the year 1672, two stones fell near Verona, in Italy, the one weighing three hundred, the other two hundred pounds. This phenomenon was witnessed in the evening, by three or four hundred persons. The stones fell, with a violent explosion, in a sloping direction, and in calm weather. They appeared to burn, and plowed up the ground. Paul Lucas, the traveler, relates that when he was at Larissa, a town of Greece, near the gulf of Salonica, a stone weighing seventy-two pounds, fell in the vicinity. It was observed to come from the northward, with a loud hissing noise, and seemed to be enveloped in a small cloud, which exploded when the stone fell. It looked like iron dross, and smelt of sulphur. In September, 1753, several stones fell in the province of Bresse, to the west of Geneva: one in particular fell at Pont de Vesle, and another at Liponas, places nine miles distant from each other. The sky was clear, and the weather warm. A loud noise, and a hissing sound, were heard at those two places, and for several miles round, on the fall of these stones, which exactly resembled each other, were of a darkish, dull color, very ponderous, and manifesting on their surface that they had suffered a violent degree of heat. The largest weighed about twenty pounds, and penetrated about six inches into the plowed ground; a circumstance which renders it highly improbable that they could have existed there before the explosion. This phenomenon has been described by the astronomer Delalande, whose strict inquiries on the spot enabled him to testify the truth of the circumstances he relates. In the year 1768, three stones were presented to the French Academy of Sciences, which had fallen in different parts of France; one at Luce, in the Maine; another at Aire, in Artois; and the third in Cotentin. They were all externally of the same identical appearance; and on the former of them a particular report was drawn up by Messrs. Fougeraux, Cadet and Lavoisier. This report states, that on the eighteenth of September, 1768, between four and five in the afternoon, there was seen, near the above village of Luce, a cloud in which a short explosion took place, followed by a hissing noise, but without any flame. The same sound was heard by several persons about ten miles from Luce; and, on looking up, they perceived an opaque body describe a curve in the air, and fall on a piece of green turf near the high road. They immediately ran to the spot, where they found a kind of stone, half-buried in the earth, extremely hot, and weighing about seven pounds and a half.

In the particular instance now to be cited, very distinct traces were left to show the progress of aerolites through the air. During the explosion of a meteor near Bordeaux, on the twentieth of August, 1789, a stone, in diameter about fifteen inches, fell through the roof of a cottage, and killed a herdsman and some cattle. Part of this stone is now in the Greville museum, and part in the museum of Bordeaux. On the twenty-fourth of July, 1790, between nine and ten at night, a shower of stones fell near Agen, in Guienne, near the south-west angle of France. First a luminous ball of fire was seen traversing the atmosphere with great rapidity, and leaving behind it a train of light which lasted about fifty seconds; soon after this a loud explosion was heard, and sparks were seen to fly off in all directions. This was soon after followed by the fall of stones, over a considerable extent of ground, and at various distances from each other. These were all alike in appearance, but of many different sizes, the greater number weighing about two ounces, but many a vast deal more. Some fell with a hissing noise, and entered the ground; but the smaller ones remained on the surface. The only damage done by this shower of stones was, that they broke the tiles of several houses, in falling on which they had not the sound of hard and compact substances, but of matter in a soft, half-melted state. Such as fell on straws adhered to them, and could not be readily separated; a manifest proof that they were in a state of fusion.

On the eighteenth of December, 1795, several persons near the house of Captain Topham, in Yorkshire, heard a loud noise in the air, followed by a hissing sound, and soon after felt a shock, as if a heavy body had fallen to the ground at a little distance from them. In reality, one of them saw a huge stone fall to the earth, at the distance of eight or nine yards from the place where he stood. When he first observed it, it was seven or eight yards above the ground; and in its fall it threw up the mold on every side, burying itself twenty-one inches in the earth. This stone on being dug up, was found to weigh fifty-six pounds. On the seventeenth of March, 1798, a body, burning with an intense light, passed over the vicinity of Ville Franche, on the Saone, near Lyons, accompanied by a hissing sound, and leaving behind a luminous track. This phenomenon exploded with a great noise, about twelve hundred feet from the ground, and one of the splinters, still luminous, having been observed to fall in a neighboring vineyard, was traced. It was about a foot in diameter, and had penetrated twenty inches into the ground. On the fourth of July, 1803, a ball of fire struck a public house at East Norton, in Oxfordshire. The chimney was thrown down, the roof partly torn off, the windows shattered to atoms, and the dairy, &c., converted into a heap of rubbish. It was of considerable magnitude, and, on coming in contact with the house, exploded with great noise, and a very oppressive sulphureous smell. Several fragments of stones were found on the spot, having a surface of a dark color, and varnished, as if in a state of fusion, with numerous globules of a whitish metal, combining sulphur and nickel. The indentures on these surfaces render it probable that the ball was soft when it descended; and it was obviously in a state of fusion, as the grass was burned where the fragments fell. The motion of the fire-ball, while in the air, was very rapid, and apparently parallel to the horizon.

The latest remarkable fall of aerolites in Europe, of which there is a distinct account, was in the vicinity of Laigle, in Normandy, early in the afternoon of the twenty-sixth of April, 1812. A fiery globe of a very brilliant splendor, which moved in the air with great rapidity, was followed in a few seconds by a violent explosion, which lasted five or six minutes, and was heard to the extent of more than thirty leagues in every direction. Three or four reports, like those of a cannon, were followed by a discharge resembling a fire of musketry, after which a dreadful rumbling was heard like the beating of a drum. The air was calm, and the sky serene, with the exception of a few clouds, such as are frequently observed. The noise proceeded from a small cloud of a rectangular form, the largest side being in a direction from east to west. It appeared motionless all the time the phenomenon lasted; but the vapor of which it was composed was projected momentarily from the different sides by the effect of the successive explosions. This cloud was about half a league to the north-north-east of the town of Laigle, and was at so great an elevation, that the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league distant from each other, saw it at the same time over their heads. In the whole canton over which this cloud hovered, a hissing noise, like that of a stone discharged from a sling, was heard; and a multitude of meteoric stones were seen to fall at the same time. The district in which they fell forms an elliptical extent of about two leagues and a half in length, and nearly one in breadth; the greatest dimension being in a direction from south-east to north-west, forming a declination of about twenty-two degrees. This direction, which the meteor must have followed, is exactly that of the magnetic meridian; which is a remarkable fact. The number of these stones was reckoned to exceed three thousand; and the largest of them weighed nearly twenty pounds. They were friable some days after their fall, and smelt strongly of sulphur. They subsequently acquired the degree of hardness common to this kind of stones.

While, in Europe, these phenomena thus strongly confirmed the long exploded idea of the vulgar, that many of the luminous meteors observed in the atmosphere, are masses of ignited matter, an account of one of precisely the same description was received from the East Indies. On the nineteenth of December, 1798, at eight in the evening, a large fire-ball, or luminous meteor, was seen at Benares, and at several places in its vicinity. It was attended by a loud rumbling noise; and, about the same time, the inhabitants of Krakhut, fourteen miles from Benares, saw the light, heard what resembled a loud thunder-clap, and, immediately after, the noise of heavy bodies falling around them. Next morning the mold in the fields was found to have been turned up in many spots; and unusual stones of various sizes, but of the same substances, were picked from the moist soil, generally at a depth of six inches. One stone fell through the roof of a hut, and buried itself in the earthen floor.

From these multiplied evidences it is proved that, in various parts of the world, luminous meteors have been seen moving through the air with surprising rapidity, in a direction more or less oblique, accompanied with a noise, commonly like the whizzing of cannon-balls, followed by explosion, and the fall of hard, stony, or semi-metallic masses in a heated state. The constant whizzing sound; the fact of stones being found, like each other, but unlike all others in the vicinity, at the spots toward which the luminous body, or its fragments, had been seen to move; the scattering or plowing up of the soil at those spots, always in proportion to the size of the stones; the concussion of the neighboring ground at the same time; and especially, the impinging of the stones on bodies somewhat above the earth, or lying loose on its surface; all these are circumstances perfectly well authenticated in these reports, proving that such meteors are usually inflamed hard masses, descending rapidly through the air to the earth.