Kosmos I
Udkast til en physisk Verdensbeskrivelse.

53 the rattling of a great Cart running over Stones, which continued about the time of a Credo He concludes from the apparent Velocity it went on with at Bctio- dia, at above 50 Miles Distance, that it could not be less swift than 160 Miles in a Minute of Time, which is above Ten times as swift as the dinrnal Rotation of the Earth under the Equinoctial, and not many times less than that wherewith the annual Motion of the Earth about the Sun is performed. To this he adds the Magnitude thereof, which appeared at Bononia bigger than the Moon in one Diameter, ano above half as big again in the other; which with the given Distance of the Eye , makes ils real lesser Diameter above half a Mile, and the other in proportion. This supposed, it cannot be wotidred that so great a Body moving with such an incredible Velocity through the Air, though so much rarifled as it is iu its upper Regions, should occasion so great a hissing Noise, as to be heard at such a Distance as it seems this was. But 'twill be much harder t< conceive, how such an impetus could be impressed on the Body thereof, which by many Degrees exceeds that of any Cannon Ball; and how this impetus shou’d be determined in a Direction so nearly parallel to the Horizon; and what sort ofSub- stance it must be, that could be so impelled and ignited at the same time: there being no Vulcano or other Spiraculum of subterraneous Fire in the N. E. parts of the World, that we ever yet beard of, from whence it might be projected-. .,1 have much considered this Appearance, and think it one of the hardest things to aecound for, that I have yet met with in the Phamo- mena of Meteors, and am induced to think that it must be some Col- lection of Matter form’d in the Æther, as it were by some fortuitous Concourse of Atoms , an that the Earth met with it as it past along in its Orb, then hut newly formed , and before it had conceived auy great Impetus of Descent towards the Sun. For the Direction of it was exactly opposite to that of the Earth, which made an Angle with the Meridian at that time (the Sun being in about 11 Degrees of Aries) of 67 Gr. that is, its Course was from W. 8. W. to E. N. E. where- fore the Meteor seem’d to move the cortrary Way: And besides fal- ling into the Power of the Earth’s Gravity, and losing its Motion from the Opposition of the Medium, it seems that it descended towards the Earth, and was extinguish’d in the Tyrrhene Sea, to the W. 8. W of Leghorn. The great Blow being heard upon its first Immertion into the Water, and the ratling like the driving a Cart over Stones being what succeeded upon its quenching; something like wich is always ob- served upon quenching a very, hot Iron in Water. These Frects beiug past dispute, l would be glad to have the Qpinion of the Learned