(meteorobs) (Meteorobs)PROGRESS OF METEORIC ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA -1890

[drobnock]

Hi
Those that have seen the following,  I apologize. But for others who
have an interest in the development of meteor science, they may find the

following text of interest. The following is a discussion of the
development of meteor science in America up to 1890. A review of
theories and questions that have moved meteor observation to where we
are now with automated observations.

The attached passage is a discussion on what to call the fast moving
light in the sky - " Fiery Tears of St. Lawrence,"  " Fire-balls," "
Bolides," "Aerolites/ " Meteoroids."


From: PROGRESS OF METEORIC ASTRONOMY IN AMERICA.
METEORS. PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
BULLETIN VOL. XI, pp. 275-358. JOHN ROBIE EASTMAN
JULY, 1890

METEORS:

Those bodies which are usually designated as meteors, me-
teorites, and shooting-stars are known, to some extent, by every
intelligent person. The first name is usually applied to those
sporadic bodies which one can see occasionally on any clear
night; the second term is applied to iron or stony musses
that sometimes fall to the earth, while the last term is used
to designate those bodies which appear in such periodic
showers as those of November 13-14, August 6-10, etc., but
which, like the first named, are, almost without exception,
entirely consumed before they reach the earth.

These bodies have received, at various times, a great
variety of names, such as " Fiery Tears of St. Lawrence,"
" Fire-balls," " Bolides," "Aerolites/ " Meteoroids," etc., most
of which have been coined to suit the fancy or ambition of
some aspiring author. The only definite knowledge we have
of this class of bodies before they reach the surface of the
earth is obtained with the spectroscope, and the results from
observations with that instrument indicate that all these
bodies are similar in composition, and their spectra are the
same as that obtained from those masses that have reached
the surface of the earth before destruction.

There appears to be, therefore, no reason for using but two
names the one, meteor, for those bodies that are consumed
before they reach the earth ; and the other, meteorite, for the
solid iron or stony substances that succeed in storming our
atmospheric barriers, reaching the surface of the earth intact
and bringing our only material messages from the depths
beyond.

Sporadic meteors as well as meteorites move apparently
in all directions. Meteors that appear in showers seem to
emanate from pretty well defined points in the heavens, each
separate shower having its own radiant, and in most cases
the bodies are not condensed in a single compact mass, but
are scattered along the orbit in which they move.

This orbit has been determined for several of the showers
with considerable accuracy.

>From the testimony of the meteors themselves nothing is
known of their origin. The theories of a terrestrial or a
lunar volcanic origin are easily shown to be absurd, while
the so-called theories that place their origin in other por-
tions of the solar system are mere idle speculations.

See:

http://www.archive.org/stream/progressofmeteor00eastrich/progressofmeteor00eastrich_djvu.txt

George John Drobnock