falling to the earth, as the great Iowa meteor of February 12, 1875, must have weighed about 5,000 pounds.
Even what has been gathered thus far permits us to rank this meteor among the best observed and richest in meteorites on record. Such are the meteors of Pultusk, Poland (January 30, 1868); Knyahinya, Hungary (June 9, 1866); Orgueil, France (May 14, 1864); Guernsey County, Ohio (May 1, 1860); Parnallee, India (February 28, 1857); and L'Aigle, France (April 26, 1803).
Thinking that so remarkable a meteor and so rich a shower of meteorites deserve the attention of the readers of The Popular Science Monthly, we offer a short description of them, and shall close with a few suggestions in regard to the origin of these bodies, and their place in the grand history of cosmos.
I. The Great Iowa Meteor.[1]—The great Iowa meteor consisted of an elongated, pear-shaped mass of the most dazzling whiteness. The bulk of this mass was about 2,000 feet long and 400 feet in diameter; the narrow white trail was about 4,000 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. This body was posteriorly enveloped by a much less brilliant trail, shading from orange inside to greenish outside, and extending about nine miles along the described path of the meteor. Persons in the track of the meteor saw a brilliant circular disk of white light, surrounded by an orange to greenish halo, the dim light of which was constantly traversed by narrow bands of brilliant white, running from the central disk in irregularly-curved lines toward the circumference. As this body, increasing in brilliancy and apparent magnitude, was rapidly approaching, both men and animals were overcome with fear.
The meteor, when by striking the atmosphere of the earth it became visible, was at an altitude of 150 miles vertically above the little village of Pleasantville, about midway between Kirksville and Milan, in Northern Missouri. Descending at an angle of about 45° toward the earth's surface, it moved a little east of north, gradually deviating more and more toward the east, so as to describe a curve,[2] the concavity of which is turned eastward. This track of the meteor passed a couple of miles east of Centreville and Moravia in Appanoose County, Iowa; almost directly over Eddyville on the Des Moines River; crossed almost diagonally the northeastern (Prairie) township of Keokuk County; passed one and a half mile east of Marengo in Iowa County, and finally exploded over a point three miles southwest of the little station of Norway on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, over the boundary-line of Benton and Iowa Counties, at an altitude of about ten miles.
- ↑ The facts in regard to the meteor we have collected from the very full and reliable "Account of the Detonating Meteor of February 12, 1875. By C. W. Irish, C. E., Iowa City, Iowa, Daily Press Job-Printing Office, 1875."
- ↑ The total length of the orbit is 210 miles; the time during which the meteor described this orbit was about ten seconds: hence the velocity was about 21 miles a second.
