A Professor, A President and a Meteor

On December 14, 1807, the sound of a thundering explosion launched a meteor shower of large rocks over the farming fields of Weston, CT.

The celestial event attracted the attention of Benjamin Silliman, a chemistry professor at Yale University. Silliman interviewed eye witnesses, scientifically analyzed the rock samples and determined that meteors came from outer space, which launched the study of rigorous science in our country. 

“Despite the influence of science-oriented statesmen like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, most people put more stock in astrological almanacs than Yale professors," Carl Hays wrote of the times in his Booklist review of Cathryn J. Prince's account of the incident and its aftermath,"A Professor, A President and a Meteor."

Prince got the idea for her third book when she covered the bicentennial of the Weston Fall -- a "fall" is what the meteorite was originally called -- and wrote articles about it for The Weston Forum and The Christian Science Monitor.

Soon after, the freelance journalist and adjunct professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University felt compelled to expand this story beyond its original 1,200 words.

Prince spent time in the Yale University archives researching the meteor and Benjamin Silliman. 

"I really couldn't stop thinking about him, about what Weston was like during that time period, and what the political, cultural and scientific landscape for the newly formed United States was like,” she told About Town.

Prince said she realized that the time period was an important turning point for American science, and for the country.

The book documents the primitive state of American science at the time. Silliman’s analysis of the meteor samples contradicted popular superstitions that meteors were ominous astral prophecies or the residue from volcanic eruptions on the moon. 

His position took on political tones when his scientific credibility was pitted against President Thomas Jefferson's opposing viewpoints on the source of meteorites.

Prince interviewed numerous scientists, including Dr. Karl Turekian, Sterling Professor of Geology and Geophysics and curator of meteorites and planetary science at Yale University.

Turekian said Silliman's discovery that meteorites are from out of space, not from volcanoes or from clouds raining down rocky debris, is the basis of modern science.

"All we know now has slowly been built on that,” he said.

Prince discussed "A Professor, A President and a Meteor" on Thursday evening Jan.,13, at the  as part of the Authors on Stage program, co-sponsored by .

"Of course this book isn't about science so much as it is a book about a time when this nation stood at a crossroads,” she told the audience.

"It isn't simply about a falling rock," she said. "Rather it is about how that falling rock became a catalyst for young America to move forward and push ahead -- gaining its place in the world."           

Prince is also the author of "Burn The Town and Sack the Banks: Confederates Attack Vermont!" and "Shot From The Sky: American POW's in Switzerland."

"I get up at 5 a.m. every day to write,” Prince said. “When I'm in the middle of a book, I'm known to get up around 4:30. In fact, for my second book I was up at 4 a.m."

Her next book, she said will be related to World War II. 

Prince lives in Weston, CT with her husband and two children. She is a regular contributor to both Wilton Patch and New Canaan Patch.