Thursday, December 4, 2008

from Glasgow Mechanics' Magazine, 1826

(page 255)

Luminous Phenomenon observed between Paisley and Glasgow—It gives us much pleasure to observe, in Dr. Brewster's journal, that Mr. Murray has been gratified by the sight of a luminous globe, while he was going from Paisley to Glasgow. It was of an elliptical form, and somewhat stationary in its situation; after some time, it discharged sparks and this was subsequently repeated; from the re-action of the earth, Mr. Murray says it moved from north to south, maintaining the direction of the horizontal plane. The sparks were star-like, bright, silvery, and void of any chromatic tint. This Meteor, which was interesting and beautiful, Mr. Murray thinks was wholly dependent on an Electro-Magnetic principle; the night had been wet and tempestuous, and the whole day had discovered the clouds of the distant sky of a horizontal parallelism. It is a pity Mr. Murray has not published the exact day on which this Meteor appeared, in case it should have escaped the notice of the philosophers of the west, who think the “14th instant” of a Quarterly Journal not so precise as they could wish.

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