|
by
Judith Kane
In March of 2004, engineer and physicist Robert Wood told a conference
of the Aerospace Corporation and the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics that his review of 19th-century astronomical observations
bolsters an old theory that the calamitous Chicago fire began when Biela’s
Comet broke up and rained white-hot debris over an area of the Midwest
that was already parched by drought conditions. Wood believes that the
debris not only started the Chicago fire but also ignited a number of
more devastating blazes that burned in areas north of the city on the
same night, including a fire in Peshtigo, WI, that still ranks as the
deadliest fire in American history.
First sighted in 1772, the comet was named for Wilhelm von
Biela, who calculated its orbit around the sun in 1826 and discovered
that it returned at regular intervals of 6.6 years. During the comet’s
1846 pass, astronomers noted that it had broken into two large pieces.
The position of the fragments was recorded during subsequent orbits, until
the comet failed to appear in 1866.
The comet was never seen again but, in early 1872, when it
was scheduled to return, a meteor shower radiated from the part of the
sky where it would have appeared. Meteor showers of diminishing intensity
continued at regular intervals for the remainder of the 19th century,
leading astronomers to believe that the meteors marked the death of Biela’s
Comet.
Based on his analysis of the positions of the fragments during
the comet’s final passes, Wood now concludes that the comet broke
into pieces after a close encounter with Jupiter’s asteroid belt
in 1845. He also thinks that Jupiter’s gravity affected the trajectory
and speed of the fragments again during the comet’s penultimate orbit,
sending the smaller of the two fragments on a path toward Earth.
Wood theorizes that the main body of the fragment crashed
into one of the Great Lakes on October 7, 1871, and that peripheral fragments
and debris, including small pieces of frozen methane, acetylene, and other
highly combustible chemicals, exploded from the friction of entering the
Earth’s atmosphere and ignited the Chicago fire and dozens of other
fires that burned simultaneously in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Fires
Across the Midwest
Although most people have heard about the fire that destroyed Chicago’s
downtown area, claiming 250 lives and leaving 100,000 residents homeless,
few know about the other fires that burned concurrently across the tri-state
area and as far away as Minnesota, northern Ohio, and southern Ontario.
Fires also blazed in Peshtigo, WI, a town located hundreds of miles north
of Chicago. There, the fire jumped over the waters of Green Bay and burned
both sides of the inlet town. The fire spread to consume approximately
1.5 million acres of land, destroying several smaller, nearby communities.
Across Lake Michigan, the towns of Manistee and Holland also
burned to the ground and, during the same period, fires also threatened
Lansing, Muskegon, South Haven, Menominee, Sturgeon Bay, Saginaw, Grand
Rapids, and Wayland. Flames blackened the outskirts of Big Rapids and
a steamship passing the Manitou Islands that evening even reported that
the islands were all on fire.
In all, more than four million acres of forest, prairie, and
farmland were destroyed and as many as 2,500 people lost their lives.
Fire department officials say that the fires occurred during the same
24-hour period; that all were very hot and fast-moving, raging out of
control within minutes; and that no cause was ever determined for any
of them.
The Comet Theory
The comet theory, first suggested in 1882, has often been dismissed by
scientists, who say that meteorites cannot sustain sufficient heat from
their entry into the Earth’s atmosphere to ignite a fire on the ground.
Proponents of the theory, however, insist that the fires must have been
kindled by fiery fragments from the dying comet and argue that it cannot
be a coincidence that so many unexplained fires started within such a
short time and over such a wide area.
Wood, who says that the orbital parameters of the rogue comet
have never before been taken into consideration, cites eyewitness reports
of spontaneous ignitions, lack of smoke, and “great balls of fire”
or “fire balloons” that fell from the sky and exploded over
the trees. He believes that reports by Chicago firemen that buildings
“burned blue” may be evidence that the Chicago fire was caused
by the methane that is commonly found in comets.
Systems design engineer and Munsing resident Ken Rieli suggests
additional evidence to support Wood’s conclusion, including a 58-pound
carbonaceous chondrite meteorite that he found on the Port Sanilac shores
of Lake Huron several years ago. A huge impact crater was also found by
geologists in the early 1990s, nearly 200 feet beneath the surface of
Lake Huron. Meteorite-like rock was also discovered at the same depth
in Lake Huron by crews drilling a water pipeline.
Reili also says that the fires burned in a cone-shaped, north-to-south
pattern, emanating from the shores of Lake Huron and fanning out in a
V-shaped trajectory across the lower peninsula of Michigan (the area that
suffered the worst of the fires), to Chicago and Peshtigo. He says that
the pattern is identical to the ballistic pattern of a shotgun cluster
of pellets, suggesting that there were hundreds or thousands of pieces
of debris. This would make Lake Huron “ground zero” for the
1871 astral bombardment.
If correct, the comet theory may finally vindicate Mrs. O’Leary’s
cow, long been blamed for starting the Chicago fire by kicking over a
kerosene lantern in her barn.
from
issue #9
|
|
