Meteorological observations and essays / By John Dalton.

  • John Dalton
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Meteorological observations and essays / By John Dalton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tract from his Journal follows. (Vide Transactions American Philosophical Society, vol. 6, page 28.) ‘About 3 A. M. I was called up to see the shoot- ing of the stars, as itis commonly called. The phenomenon was grand and awful; the whole hea- vens appeared as if illuminated with sky-rockets, which disappeared only by the light of the sun after day-break. The meteors, which at any one instant of time appeared as numerous as the stars, flew in all possible directions, except from the earth, towards which they all inclined more or less, and some of them descended perpendicularly over the vessel we were in, so that | was in constant ex- pectation of their falling among us.”—He adds, ‘“‘T have since been informed that the above phe- nomenon extended over a large portion of the West India islands, and as far north as Mary’s, in lat. 30° 42’, where it appeared as brilliant as with us off Cape Florida.” Humpotpt ascertained that these meteors were seen in various parts of South America, from the Equator northwards. Similar ones were seen at Nain, in Labrador, and in Greenland at the same time. On his return to Europe, he was astonished to find they had been seen, at the same time, in various parts of this continent, particularly in Ger- many, near Weimar. On perusing these accounts for the first time, last winter, (1833,) and knowing that I had a jour- nal at the time of these appearances, I was eager to find whether they had been noticed here; on