METEORS BLAMED

Gisborne Times, Volume LXX, Issue 11124, 6 February 1930, Page 7

METEORS BLAMED

mystery”* “accidents' '

.Meteois may be to blamo for mysterious aeroplane. accidents, strange explosions, forest lT.es, and even bad weather, a, noted French authority, General Frederick Chapel, retired, : Mas', affirmed in a-‘ special interview with Jhe Associated Press (says tho. San Francisoo “Chronicle.”) He is the author of several voiks ou meteors > and astronomy," and evolved his theory from investigation of many queer occurrences. Red-hot meteors, or (falling stars’ lie thinks, probably set up electrical disturbances as they sizzle-through space. To illustrate tlieir power holms. calculated that a.. little'vtwoounee meteor, the size of a lazol nut, wbulfl .travel thirty miles a second when approaching .earth and 1/a vo the force- of - a SCO-ton *.ntin.

Meteors, says the General, are so numerous ■ that they ■;" often-'ffbrih ‘‘bombardments.” Most of,them, go into space or hit 6thW planets, 1 but op earth enough arrive to) dip sc accidents, such as that at Budapest recently when a Hungarian girl was killed by a meteor on, her waylto.a wedding. in, such fashion,, the •• General reasons, aeroplanes may I'iave been struck down or ships destroyed. He suggests also that- meteors might explain many oilier phenomena. such as the recent, explosion at ’Toni of an .army magazine .that-.blew up without any apparent .cause