16 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. JANUARY, 1 9 1 1
TEE PELAHATCHIE XETEOR, WHICH PASSED OVER CENTRAL XISSISSIPPI IN THE FORENOON OF OCTO- BER 17, 1010.
By FRANK MONTGOMERY, Observer, Meridian, Miss.
A meteor of unusual size and brilliance was seen in
central Mississippi a few minutes after 9 o'clock in the morning on October 17, 1910. There was not a cloud
in the sky, and the sun was shining brightly at the time.
If it had occurred at night, there is no doubt that its
gorgeous hrilliance would have beggered all description.
Probably a meteor has never been observed in Missis-
sippi that was seen by more ppople or attracted such gensral attention. Many thousands witnessed it from
places within a radius of 50 to 75 miles from Pelahatchie,
Miss. No such phenomenon had ever before been seen by most of these people, and it struck terror to the hearts
oi many.
It was seen by a number of people at Meridian, which is 75 miles from the scene of the explosion. Reliable
eo le who had the best view of it say that the meteor
%sei was visible several seconds, when suddenly there
seemed to b- an explosion, but the main mass a peared
where the explosion occurred for probably 15 minutes
longer. This is possible, from the fact that at Meridian the wind was blowing from the northeast at the time
with a velocity of only 5 miles an hour.
From answers to numerous letters of inquiry I have
selected those from Mr. J. J. Wilson of Pelahatchie,
Miss., and Rev. W. J. Dawson of Morton, Miss., upon
which to base the following descri tion:
of west from Pelahatchie, and probably about 20' above the horizon, and traveled in an easterly direction with
an inclination to the south, antl vanished into space at
'an elevation of about 25' above the eastern horizon.
Its general path seemed t o be tangent to the earth, but
the object appeared to make slight vertical curves, sug-
gesting that when a meteor comes in contact with our
to o on in. its course. The trail of smoke a f ong its
pat a was visible for nearly half an hour, and at, the place
The meteor first appeared in the R eavens a little north
1
atmosphere it tends to undulate after the manner of a
stone thrown along the surface of still water.' It moved across the heavens a t a tremendous velocity and kept
up a continuous bombardment of fragments for several
miles on each side of its path. The meteor itself was visible only a few seconds, but the strange shooting and
hissing sounds made by its flight and that of the frag-
ments that broke from it could be heard for several
minutes. I n a pearance it resembled a small compact
whit ish haze.
I have been unable to secure sufficiently accurate data for angular measurements from which to compute its elevation from the earth; but it appears that the
meteor vanished into space some little time before any
of the fragments reached the earth. Tha velocity of these fragments was so great that some were found buried 6 or 8 inches in the ground. All the fragments that have been found ara small, ranging in weight from
a few ounces to nearly 2 pounds. Some of them are
fairly regular in outline. One piece that weighed IO
ounces was 3 inches long and 2 inches thick and nearly
oval in shape. Their surfaces are fairly smooth antl
much blackened by heat, while the interior of all the
specimens found is of a quite uniform silver-gray color.
A portion of one fragment was sent to the University
of Mississippi, and a qualitative chemical analysis reveals
principally iron, silica, and calcium, with a trace of
cloud of very b P ack smoke, merging outward into a thin
manganese. Several very small pieces are in the possession of (this
office, three of which were selected for the accompany- ing photograph, which magnifies the specimens ti.0
diameters. The one to the left shows the smooth
blackened exterior surface, while the middle one shows the bright interior, but fails to reveal the numerous
glittering particles that are present in the specimen.
The one to the right presents a section at right angles
to the surface to show how thin a surface film was
oxidized while passing through the air.
1 Perhaps due to the irregular form of the meteOr.-EDITOR.
Fragments of the meteor that passed over Pelahatchie Miss. on October 17 1910. The left-hand fragment shows the blackened exterior, the middle one the brlght metallic inter&, while the one 'to the right is 8 WOES section to show the thinneaa of the blwkened surface fllm.