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Show THOUSANDS OF METEORITES FALL EVERY HOUR. Meteors., or shooting tars as they are more generally called, have from I he beginning of things been bombarding bom-barding the world at a rate estimated by the highest authority of many thousands au hour, of which, however, howev-er, an average of only five or six are visible to the naked eye during tho same period of time Fortunately, owing to our protecting envelope of air, very few of these missiles reach us. In size, meteors vary from a few ounces to muny pounds in weight, and it only very occasionally that one Is of wufneient "dimensions to survive the passage of eighty to one hundred hun-dred miles through an atmosphero increasing In density as the earth Is approached. The speed at which they enter the atmosphere, calculated calcu-lated at not less than thirty-five miles a second, generates such Intense In-tense heat by friction that the iron of which the meteor principal consists, con-sists, is Immediately reduced to an ir.candesceut vapor, which is tho luminous train so frequently seen In 1 the heavens on a clear night. Tho vapor readily cools, and condenses in form of these minute particles, which assume the spherical form as does shot during its fall liom the top of the tower. Finally, the littlo spheres are scattered by Hip winds and currents cur-rents in the upper regions, and gradually grad-ually descend In their millions as an invisible but never-ending shower. From the September Strand Maga-;.ln. |