FALL OF A FIREBALL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9645, 21 January 1903, Page 2

FALL OF A FIREBALL.

(Per Press Association.: OHRiSTOIIUIUJJi, tuis. day. At 11.30 a.m. yesterday a fin-ball fell mi ii farm at Olioka. For a time il wuised consternation. There was a, disLiuet smell of hair or woo! sing-, ing, with \i trace of .sulphur fumes, out any attempt to difccovtr the track of the *l);<ll were fittitkss. It wits accompanied by a loud Mtuml as of great rushing wind. Those who saw it say the light was as dazzling as that of the sun. BLENHEIM, this day. Tht.' fireball which ftdl at Olmkii yeMerday »vas seen by a settler at Onaniatutu. lie describes it as a body equal m brightness to the sun, and tailing across the sky m a westerly direction. It wa.s p-ar-shaped, except that the small end tapered to a point and it was uppermost. The bal was travelling at an enormous rate, and .seemed v, reach the horizon m two or thri"j Mjcnnds. Recent violent atmospheric disturbances m Australia, have drawn, attention to the so-called fireballs, and Sir Norman Lockyer lias made a statement on the subject. Fireballs, he said, were an electrical phenomenon, generally described as globular lightning. During the eruptions of Mont Pelee, m Martinique, and Soufrieiv, m St. Vincent, similar fireballs were constantly seen. They are not of rare occurrence, and at the' observatory erected on the summit of Pike's Peak", m the United States, fireballs were continually falling. For some time, the building was protected by copper netting, but ultimately had to be abandoned owing to the frequency of these globes of fire. Scientific records show that the falling of these fireballs has often resulted m damage to lif eand property. The Warren Hastings, a ship of the line just commissioned at Portsmouth, was struck on the masts with, three electrical bulls following each other m quick succession m 1809. The steamer Pa than, had her masts and yards covered with globes of fire m the Mediterranean m 1891. A party of surveyors were on the summit of the Bohul Mountain m the Caucasus m 1890 when a. huge violet ball, surrounded by rays apparently two yards long, struck the top of the peak. Others followed, and the summit was covered with electric lights. One member of the party was injured. There are several instances of electric balls bursting indoors. In 1711 one exploded among some people m the porch of a Devonshire church, and four burst m the chancel, filling it with smoke and flame. In 1809, says Mr J. Munro m "The Romance of Electricity," one entered a drawing room at Newcastle-on-Tyne and exploded into fragments. In 1881 an electric ball entered a wooden dwelling at Mont Dore, m Auvergne, and exploded, setting the house on fire, with the result that a child was burnt to death and another inmate dangerously injured.