An account of a surprizing meteor, seen in the air, March the 6th, 1715/16, at night. Containing, I. A description of this meteor, from the author's own observations. II. Some historical accounts of the like meteors before; with extracts from such letters, and accounts of this, as the author has receiv'd. III. The principal phænomena of this meteor. IV. Conjectures for their solution. V. Reasons why our solutions are so imperfect. VI. Inferences and observations from the premises / By William Whiston, M. A.

  • Whiston, William, 1667-1752.
Date:
1716
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of a surprizing meteor, seen in the air, March the 6th, 1715/16, at night. Containing, I. A description of this meteor, from the author's own observations. II. Some historical accounts of the like meteors before; with extracts from such letters, and accounts of this, as the author has receiv'd. III. The principal phænomena of this meteor. IV. Conjectures for their solution. V. Reasons why our solutions are so imperfect. VI. Inferences and observations from the premises / By William Whiston, M. A. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [=5] * ro or if Degrees above the Horizon. Out c of this Cloud proceeded feveral Streams, or c Rays of Light, like the Tails of fome Comets, c broad below, and ending in Points above. € Some of them extended almoft to the Tail of * Urfa Minor, and all were nearly perpendicular * to the Horizon; and it was as bright as if the { Full Moon had been rifing in the Cloud. But * what I wondered at moft, was the Motion of * the dark and lighter Parts, running ftrangely through one another in a Moment, fometimes * to the Eajiy and fometimes to the Weft. It 1 c continued after I firft faw it about a Quarter * of an Hour, often changing its Face and Ap- € pearance, as to Form and Light; fometimes !C broken, fometimes entire and long Rays of 1 Light in the clear Sky, quite feparate from, € and above the Cloud, and none below in the r Clouds. Mr. WhiftonV own Account of Three fuch Appearances feen by himfelf (ii.) About the Year 1700, when I lived at ILowefiofi in Suffolk, I faw one Evening,long after IDaylight was down, a kind of Twilight in the 'North, reaching about 20 Degrees on each fide, :but ftill and quiet without any thing remarkable. I then imagined the Town of great Yarmouth, which lay North from me at 7 Miles diftance, to have been on Fire ; but found my felf miftaken, land fo afterward concluded it to be this Aurora iBorealis. (12.), I faw a ftrange Meteor, of this kind, at Cambridge, about A. D. 1707. It was fo far as I (c^n now guefs, Northweft, and a confiderable P ? time