[meteorite-list] NPA 08-05-1927 Charles Wylie Secures Tilden, Il. Meteorite

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: The Daily Northwestern
City: Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Date: Friday Evening, August 5, 1927
Page: 9 (of 24)

HUNTS STRANGE VISITORS FROM REMOTE ETHER

University of Iowa Astronomer Charles C. Wylie Secures 46 Pound Specimen, 
One of Three That Struck the Earth Near Sparta, Ill., on July 13

     Iowa City, Ia. - (AP) - Tracing meteors through the sky and locating 
the fragments that finally reach the earth, in an effort to add to 
scientific knowledge of these mysterious travelers of the air, is one of the 
interesting duties of Charles C. Wylie, university of Iowa astronomer.  
Professor Wylie has traced scores of meteors, recovered numerous specimens 
and attained a high standing among astronomers through his success in 
analyzing these fragments.
     He recently obtained a forty-six pound fragment, one of the three that 
were found after a meteor struck the earth near Sparta, Ill., July 13.  
Another meteor that appeared in southern Minnesota, crossing northern Iowa 
and disappeared southeast of Burlington, into Illinois, was also 
investigated by Professor Wylie.
     Professor Wylie discusses the difficulties met by astronomers in 
running down these strange visitors in an article prepared for the 
Associated Press.
     "On the evening of Jan. 2, 1927, at a few minutes after 6 o'clock," 
Professor Wylie relates, "hundreds of people in Iowa and adjoining states 
had an experience which they will never forget.  Practically none had seen 
anything like it before, and few if any will see another such sight.
     "A farmer in southern Minnesota had stopped his car to clear away a 
troublesome snow drift.  Suddenly the country was lighted up brightly, and 
turning quickly he saw a ball of fire falling in the southeastern sky, 
leaving a trail which glowed for a few minutes.

LUMINOUS TRACK.

     "A woman at McGregor was entering a building when the surrounding 
darkness burst into white light.  Looking up she saw a luminous track across 
the sky.
     "At Marion a woman was pointing the Big Dipper to her children when a 
ball of fire flashed across the sky.
     "Near Salem a farmer's wife reported that 'a great light beamed, almost 
blinding for an instant'."
     Among hundreds of impressions collected by Professor Wylie, a number 
compared the light to a prolonged flash of lightning.  Several motorists 
thought the lights of another car had been turned squarely on them.  At 
Galva, Ill., a man thought the street lights had been turned on, but looking 
up saw "a brilliantly illuminated ball traveling so straight a course that 
it might have been sliding along a wire."
     First using the reports of direction, Dr. Wylie found that the meteor 
must have become visible over a point about twenty-five miles north of 
Waterloo and at a height of some eighty miles, passed nearly over Cedar 
Rapids at a height of some fifty-five miles, passed near Iowa City and 
crossed the Mississippi river north of Burlington at a height of slightly 
more than twenty miles.  This description agreed with reports from other 
states, he says.
     "But what happened after crossing the Mississippi cannot be stated so 
definitely," he said.  :The meteor was low enough to be well observed by the 
few reports available were somewhat indefinite or conflicting.

VELOCITY ENORMOUS

     "Limited evidence indicates that this meteor burst while still some 
fifteen miles high and if any pieces reached the earth they were too small 
to attract attention.  One of the interesting things about this meteor is 
the enormous velocity, some forty miles a second, with which it entered the 
atmosphere.  This shows it could not have been a portion of a comet, or of 
any member of the solar system.  It came from nearly the direction of the 
point toward which the sun, with the earth and other members of the solar 
system, is moving."
     The orbit traveled by meteors before entering the atmosphere is a 
problem which Dr. Wylie and other astronomers are working on.  Through this 
method, he says, many of the small meteors, ordinarily called shooting 
stars, are associated with comets, some of which are thought to be fragments 
strayed from the main portion of Halley's comet.
     Evidence for this and other brilliant meteors indicates to observers 
that they are not members of the solar system, but visitors from 
interstellar space.  Thousands of specimens are in museums, but little or 
nothing is known about the orbit in which they traveled before striking the 
earth.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

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The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list 
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is 
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.