Early morning, about 2 AM, on Nov. 12, 1799 Andrew Ellicott, who led his crew to survey the southern US border, recorded the hours-long shower of shooting stars, falling stars, shooting meteors or meteor shower off Florida. The "phenomenon was grand and awful, the whole heavens appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets" and he feared some would fall on the ship. The winds reversed direction and the temperature dropped 30 degrees to 56. Humboldt saw the show while researching in South America and with Ellicott's descriptions, past sightings and another in 1833, Humboldt was able to "conjecture that at that particular period the earth was passing through a ring or belt of minute planetary bodies." Upcoming meteor showers HERE
Andrew Ellicott Douglass (1867-1962) Andrew Ellicott’s great-grandson is given the credit on many online sites, even though he was born almost 70 years after 1799.
From the source - Ellicott's journal, November 12, 1799 --
"12th. About two o’clock in the morning I was called
up to see the shooting of the stars (as it is vulgarly termed), the phenomenon
was grand and awful, the whole heavens appeared as if illuminated with sky
rockets, flying in an infinity of directions, and I was in constant expectation
of some of them falling on the vessel. They continued until put out by the
light of the sun after day break. This phenomenon extended over a large portion
of the West India islands and was observed as far north as St. Mary’s, where it
appeared as brilliant as with us. During
this singular appearance, the wind shifted from the south to the north, and the
Thermometer which had been at 86 [degrees] for four days past, fell to 56.
Many ingenious theories have been
devised to account for those luminous and fiery meteors, but none of them are
so satisfactory to my mind as the conjecture
of that celebrated chemist M. Lavoisier, who supposes it probable that the
terrestial atmosphere consists of several volumes, or strata of gaz or elastic
vapour of different kinds, and that the lightest and most difficult to mix with
the lower atmosphere will be elevated above it, and form a separate stratum or
volume, which he supposes to be inflammable, and that it is at the point of
contact between those strata that the aurora borealis, and other fiery meteors
are produced."
The Journal of Andrew Ellicott…determining the boundary between the United States and the possessions of his Catholic Majesty in America… Phila: 1814 (written 1803) p248-249
From the source
Account of an ertraordinary flight of meteors (commonly called shooting
of stars) communicated by Andrew Ellicot, Esq. as extracted from his Journal in
a voyage from New-Orleans to Philadelphia.
Read 16th January, 1801
“NOVEMBER 12th 1799, about three o'clock, A. M. I. was called up to see
the shooting of the stars (as it is commonly called.) The phenomenon was grand
and awful, the whole heavens appeared as if illuminated with sky-rockets, which
disappeared only by the light of the sun after day break. The meteors, which at
any one instant of time appeared as numerous as the stars, flew in all possible
directions, except from the earth, toward which they all inclined more or less;
and some of them descended perpendicularly over the vessel we were in, so that
I was in constant expectation of their falling among us. My thermometer which
had been at 86° of Farenheits scale for four days, fell to 56° about 4 o'clock
A. M. and nearly at the same time the wind shifted from the South to the N. W.
from whence it blew with great violence for three days without intermission. We
were in latitude 25° N. and S. E. from Kay Largo, near the edge of the Gulph
Stream.” I have since been informed that the above phenomenon extended over a
large portion of the West India islands and as far North as Mary's in latitude
30°42' where it appeared as brilliant as with us off Cape Florida.
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 1809
"A remarkable display of falling
stars, seen by Humboldt [1769-1859] when travelling in South America, was thus described by
him:--"Towards the morning of the 13th November, 1799, we witnessed a most
extraordinary scene of shooting meteors. Thousands of bolides and falling stars
succeeded each other during four hours. Their direction was very regular from
north to south. From the beginning of the phenomenon there was not a space in
the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon which was not
filled with bolides or falling stars. All the meteors left luminous traces, or
phosphorescent bands, behind them, which lasted seven or eight seconds," Mr. Ellicott, an agent of the United States,
thus describes the same phenomenon, as seen by him from the sea between Cape
Florida and the West-India Islands :-- [see above]
The periodical appearance of
falling stars on the same day of the year, all radiating from a point in the
direction of the earth's motion, led Humboldt to conjecture that at that
particular period the earth was passing through a ring or belt of minute
planetary bodies, which were then drawn within the sphere of the earth's
attraction,--a conjecture since pretty generally adopted. He also conjectured
that there was, owing to the earth's or other planetary disturbance, a gradual
retardation of the November phenomenon, owing to the change of the points where
the ring of meteoric bodies intersected the earth's course. He sought for
records of falling stars in ancient histories.
The shower of incandescent asteroids on November 14th is often much more abundant than the preceding. In 1799, 1833, and 1866, the meteors were so numerous that they were described as showers of rain, especially on the first two dates. For several hours the sky was furrowed with falling stars. ... Andrew Ellicot, who made the drawing we reproduce [above, with ship], described the phenomenon as stupendous and alarming (November 12, 1799, 3 A.M.). The same occurred on November 13, 1833. The meteors that scarred the Heavens on that night were reckoned at 240,000. These shooting stars received the name of Leonids, because their radiant is situated in the constellation of the Lion."
The shower of incandescent asteroids on November 14th is often much more abundant than the preceding. In 1799, 1833, and 1866, the meteors were so numerous that they were described as showers of rain, especially on the first two dates. For several hours the sky was furrowed with falling stars. ... Andrew Ellicot, who made the drawing we reproduce [above, with ship], described the phenomenon as stupendous and alarming (November 12, 1799, 3 A.M.). The same occurred on November 13, 1833. The meteors that scarred the Heavens on that night were reckoned at 240,000. These shooting stars received the name of Leonids, because their radiant is situated in the constellation of the Lion."
The Science of Astronomy Camille Flammarion [1888]
NY: 1915 - "On Falling stars and Meteorites" by the Rev. Walter Mitchell from the Journal of the Transactions of The Victoria Institute. 1866-67. also images of showers
©2023 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten History of of Ellicott City and Howard County, Md.
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