Title: brilliant detonating fireball of January 25, 1894 Authors: Denning, W. F.
A very murky condition of sky, with occasional rain, appears to have prevailed over a considerable part of England on the night of 1894 January 25, and the only celestial objects visible were Jupiter and two or three of the brighter stars shining very dimly through the clouds. At about 10h 1m, in the Midland Counties, the dark atmosphere was instantaneously illuminated with a light perfectly dazzling in its intensity, and people who noticed it thought for a moment that the full Moon had suddenly come into view. On glancing upwards, however, they immediately detected the real cause in the form of a large pear-shaped fireball rolling across the sky from the direction (as observed at many places) of N.W. to S.E., and scattering behind it a bright tail of sparks. Those who obtained the most complete view of the object describe it as small at first, like an ordinary shooting star, but after traversing about one-third of its course, it appears to have suddenly burst out into a startling size and brightness, and afterwards dividing into two parts. As it disappeared the section of its track following the nucleus was beaded with fragments decreasing in size from the foremost. The colour of the latter was variously described as blue and green, and several observers compare it with the electric light ; the tail and hinder parts of the nucleus appear to have been yellow merging into red. From one to four minutes after the meteor had disappeared alarming detonations were heard at Worcester, Droitwich, Birmingham, Alvechurch, Malvern, Ross, Stroud, Cheltenham, ad numerous other places in the same district. Houses were shaken, windows and furniture were rattled violently, and there was a perceptible vibration which many people quite naturally mistook for an earthquake shock.
