Evening Star Newspaper, February 23, 1930, Page 95

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 23, TO. - —_— "DESTROYED by Falling Starsr 'Meteorites, Speeding 7S¥ L% £ 2 Thirty Miles Per - - 3{' Second, MayHave % .' v Erased Trans- ‘atlantic Planes, Dirigible Dix- mude, Collier Cy- clops and Training Ship Kobenhavn, Suggests Gen. Fred- eric Chapel, Noted French Astronomer. BY MYRON R. HUFF. ID a meteorite, traveling at the well-nigh incredible speed of 30 ’ The fate of the Danish trading bark Koben‘ havn, which left Montevideo a little more than a year , .. for th ago and vanished completely, is one of the greatest sea mysteries. Bird, Bertaud and the . Hon. :fi:w:«h‘m. mldrednl’;‘rm'l s above the surrounding plain. Meteorite frag- Honolulu-questing craft, the Sir John Carling, s 5 : ments have been found all about, and it is and Roald Amundsen’s giant seaplane? believed the mother mass of metal lies buried Did “falling stars,” as the rank and file term the metallic fragments with which the earth constantly is being pelted, possibly account for the loss of the French Zeppelin Dixmude, the United States Navy collier Cyclops and the ““Yes,” says Gen. Prench astronomer and meteorologist, who for years has studied the phenomena of meteors and meteorites. “It is common knowledge among scientists,” says Gen. Chapel, “that from 70 to 4,000 meteorites plunge each year to our earth. If we could check accurately how many fall observed, the number reach a much higher figure. Is it not possible some of the missing sky and sea craft were wiped out by these aerial visitors?” The French expert goes further. He asserts numerous mysterious explosions on land, forest fires, even bad weather, may he due to the whizzing fragments coming to us from disintegrating plenets untold millions of miles distant. “RED—HUI‘ meteorites,” asserts this noted Frenchman, “literally sizzle through space. It is entirely probable their passage sets up electrical disturbances in the compara- tively thin envelope of atmosphere surrounding our earth. Such disturbances may cause atmospheric changes and attendant bad weather. “As for the power of meteorites, regardless of Coon size, o destroy earthly obiects they may strike, wars ;‘mh:h';e”u it has been calculated that a meteorite weigh- meteorite ever falling ing but 2 ounces possesses the potential force of a 500-ton train as it strikes the terrestial sphere at a speed as high as 30 or 40 miles per second.” Have there been instances, one asks, of 4,000 feet across, 550 feet deep and surrounded by a limestone “lip” 1 tragedy described what happened. A “falling star” screamed in a wide parabola to earth. It struck the road at a point where, 2 moment before, the girl had been observed walking. Her mangled body was found sprawled in the - ryecords a similar incident in 1847, when a house in Braunau, Bohemia, was shattered by a “falling star,” which came to rest on a bed #n which three small children were sleeping. Three years ago what unguestionably was a glant meteorite fell in a densely wooded district of Western Siberia. It exploded upon Janding, the detonation being heard many miles. Investigators found & smoking area 3 . L 4® mfles wide and 7 in length from which every % N % 33 Rttt raeante were Tound st about.” The French dirigible Dixmude ' were found all about. renci 1, i , which disappeared i Then there is the famed Canon Diablo, n . : 5 “hw“fi?:!w.mwfiofl(@pesmy.w._ el i s T