Re: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth?
Hi, Chris You have to ask? An 80-foot high meteorite covering 0.5 acre (100' x 200')? Which was originally a 22 meter iron sphere? That object, at the slowest entry speed (12 km/s), gets you a 1 MegaTon (TNT) impact and a 1650-foot crater, 352 feet deep! I think SOMEBODY would have noticed. Coshocton, Ohio, just LOVES meteorite stories! Last one in 02-15-07, another in 2004. Mark Bostick's site shows old ones in 1939, 1930, 1925, 1916. Meteoric Tall Tales seem to a strong Coshocton tradition... Or at least a tradition of Coshocton newspapers, a proven circulation booster, perhaps? Maybe they're jealous of the New Concord meteorite in the next county over. Sterling K. Webb -- - Original Message - From: chris aubeck [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:35 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth? Was there a meteorite in this location, at that time? Best, Chris 1859 07 06 Coshocton Progressive Age [Ohio] July 6, 1859 Great Natural Phenomenon. From the Oswego Palladium. On Wednesday (yesterday) morning [June 29] the inhabitants of the towns of Boylston and Redfield, in this county, were startled by the occurrence of a most remarkable phenomenon -- the descent from the heavens of an immense meteoritic mass. The body struck the earth between the hours of three and four A.M., with a crash that was truly terrific, and the shock was sensibly felt and people aroused from their sleep at a distance of five miles from the scene. The body fell upon the farm of Horace Sanger, situated on the line of Boylston and Redfield, striking in a meadow and partially on the highway. It is estimated by our informant to cover half an acre of land. The earth was torn up in a terrible manner, and large fragments were thrown a distance of two-thirds of a mile. The mass is very irregular in shape, and rises at some points to sixty to eighty feet in height, and is supposed to be imbedded in the earth many feet. The surface generally has the appearance of iron ore. The excitement occasioned by the event among the inhabitants was intense, and the crash is said to have been terrific beyond description. Many supposed that the final winding up of terrestrial affairs had truly arrived. MR. HADLEY'S STATEMENT. I was awakened about three o'clock on Wednesday morning, by the room in which I slept being filled with light, and immediately heard a rushing sound like the coming of a great wind. This did not last above a few seconds after I was awake, when an explosion followed of which I can give no description -- it was terrific. The whole house shook as if a hundred cannon had been fired under the windows; quite a number of panes of glass were broken out of the windows, and the plastering of the room I was in came tumbling about me. The light, which was so brilliant that I could plainly see every object in the room, was at once extinguished. The window of my room is on the opposite side of the house from the place where the meteor fell, so that I can only judge of its direction. The light seemed to come from some body moving very rapidly and from south to north, and seemed to increase rapidly during the brief space that preceded the explosion. The aerolite struck the earth in some timber land belonging to Mr. Sanger, in a thinly inhabited portion of the town. We believe Mr. Hadley's is the nearest dwelling. It seems to have been an almost spherical body of, as near as we can judge from the fragments remaining, about seventy-five feet in diameter. Its course was from southwest to northeast, and descended at an angle of not more than thirty degrees from the horizon, which is proved by its track through the heavy hemlock trees before it touched the earth. The trees are cut through as a cannon ball would cut through a hedge, leaving a clear track. The velocity must have been immense. The earth is torn up for several rods, and the huge trees are splintered and piled up like brush. One large hemlock, at least four feet in diameter, near whose roots the meteor struck, was thrown bodily for eighty yards, crushing the surrounding trees like pipe stems. Fragments of a huge sandstone boulder which lay in its course were thrown in all directions, and one weighing half a ton was found on the road three-fourths of a mile away. __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth?
Hi Sterling, Well, it wasn't because of the details but the date and place. I believe I have traced the folkloric development of this story over time, over the following thirty years in fact, until it became a UFO tale. But I wanted to know whether it had grown out of some actual fall report, as many of these stories did. Still, you've answered my question, I think! Cheers, Chris On 3/6/07, Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, Chris You have to ask? An 80-foot high meteorite covering 0.5 acre (100' x 200')? Which was originally a 22 meter iron sphere? That object, at the slowest entry speed (12 km/s), gets you a 1 MegaTon (TNT) impact and a 1650-foot crater, 352 feet deep! I think SOMEBODY would have noticed. Coshocton, Ohio, just LOVES meteorite stories! Last one in 02-15-07, another in 2004. Mark Bostick's site shows old ones in 1939, 1930, 1925, 1916. Meteoric Tall Tales seem to a strong Coshocton tradition... Or at least a tradition of Coshocton newspapers, a proven circulation booster, perhaps? Maybe they're jealous of the New Concord meteorite in the next county over. Sterling K. Webb -- - Original Message - From: chris aubeck [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:35 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth? Was there a meteorite in this location, at that time? Best, Chris 1859 07 06 Coshocton Progressive Age [Ohio] July 6, 1859 Great Natural Phenomenon. From the Oswego Palladium. On Wednesday (yesterday) morning [June 29] the inhabitants of the towns of Boylston and Redfield, in this county, were startled by the occurrence of a most remarkable phenomenon -- the descent from the heavens of an immense meteoritic mass. The body struck the earth between the hours of three and four A.M., with a crash that was truly terrific, and the shock was sensibly felt and people aroused from their sleep at a distance of five miles from the scene. The body fell upon the farm of Horace Sanger, situated on the line of Boylston and Redfield, striking in a meadow and partially on the highway. It is estimated by our informant to cover half an acre of land. The earth was torn up in a terrible manner, and large fragments were thrown a distance of two-thirds of a mile. The mass is very irregular in shape, and rises at some points to sixty to eighty feet in height, and is supposed to be imbedded in the earth many feet. The surface generally has the appearance of iron ore. The excitement occasioned by the event among the inhabitants was intense, and the crash is said to have been terrific beyond description. Many supposed that the final winding up of terrestrial affairs had truly arrived. MR. HADLEY'S STATEMENT. I was awakened about three o'clock on Wednesday morning, by the room in which I slept being filled with light, and immediately heard a rushing sound like the coming of a great wind. This did not last above a few seconds after I was awake, when an explosion followed of which I can give no description -- it was terrific. The whole house shook as if a hundred cannon had been fired under the windows; quite a number of panes of glass were broken out of the windows, and the plastering of the room I was in came tumbling about me. The light, which was so brilliant that I could plainly see every object in the room, was at once extinguished. The window of my room is on the opposite side of the house from the place where the meteor fell, so that I can only judge of its direction. The light seemed to come from some body moving very rapidly and from south to north, and seemed to increase rapidly during the brief space that preceded the explosion. The aerolite struck the earth in some timber land belonging to Mr. Sanger, in a thinly inhabited portion of the town. We believe Mr. Hadley's is the nearest dwelling. It seems to have been an almost spherical body of, as near as we can judge from the fragments remaining, about seventy-five feet in diameter. Its course was from southwest to northeast, and descended at an angle of not more than thirty degrees from the horizon, which is proved by its track through the heavy hemlock trees before it touched the earth. The trees are cut through as a cannon ball would cut through a hedge, leaving a clear track. The velocity must have been immense. The earth is torn up for several rods, and the huge trees are splintered and piled up like brush. One large hemlock, at least four feet in diameter, near whose roots the meteor struck, was thrown bodily for eighty yards, crushing the surrounding trees like pipe stems. Fragments of a huge sandstone boulder which lay in its course were thrown in all directions, and one weighing half a ton was found on the road three-fourths of a mile
Re: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth?
Hi, Chris, An interesting folkloric problem: do folktales evolve (or possibly devolve) from the seed of an actual event? Or the misconceptions about an actual event? I suggested the New Concord, Ohio meteorite: it fell only 15 miles away from Coshocton, on May 1, 1860, and killed a horse, was witnessed, and probably generated a lot of talk with its 227 kilos of space rock! (New Concord is the birthplace of John Glenn, BTW.) In the newspaper articles archived by Mark Bostick, there are a pageful about New Concord: http://www.meteoritearticles.com/znpnewconcord.html One says: A meteoric shower, which appears to have extended over the greater part of Eastern Ohio, fell on Tuesday last. Another newspaper says the pieces were found up to 50 miles apart, and another reported the event as an major earthquake which was accompanied by the fall of four meteoric stones. (Formed by earthquake lightning, I suppose...) The other twilight zone feature is the date: your article predates the New Concord event! Looking through the index of Mark's archive, it's remarkable how many Ohio newspapers are listed. Maybe they just liked meteorite stories or maybe there are more surviving old newspapers in Ohio. The Smithsonian has many clippings about meteorites in the papers of C. U. Shepard, who once had the largest American meteorite collection: http://siarchives.si.edu/findingaids/FARU7283.htm You'd have to go there and get them to let you look at the clippings, though... It may be relevant that 1859 is the year that Evans submitted the sample (Imilac) of the Port Orford GIANT METEORITE!! announced the previous year. I use capitals because that's the way it was presented by Evans, as a major event (worthy of more funding). It appears from your transcription that the Coshocton newspaper is quoting a story from the Oswego (NY) Palladium. I found no 1859 meteorite story on-line from The Palladium, however. One of Mark's articles from 1859: http://www.meteoritearticles.com/znp08151859.html says, We have a lively recollection of the Oswego meteor hoax. It would have required a larger stone than that was represented to have been... and this mention of the Oswego Meteor Hoax in the NYTimes: http://www.meteoritearticles.com/znp06221859.html I can't find any further description of the Oswego meteor hoax by Googling. Perhaps you have found a copy of it. The reference to the size of the stone suggests the exaggerated size of your report. I think you've found a text of the Oswego meteor hoax. (Oswego was also the target or source of a hoaxed snow picture just this year, February, 2007). Or it could be an independent hoax inspired by Oswego. But certainly your clipping belongs in the archive of great old time meteor hoaxes. Sterling K. Webb --- - Original Message - From: chris aubeck [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:10 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth? Hi Sterling, Well, it wasn't because of the details but the date and place. I believe I have traced the folkloric development of this story over time, over the following thirty years in fact, until it became a UFO tale. But I wanted to know whether it had grown out of some actual fall report, as many of these stories did. Still, you've answered my question, I think! Cheers, Chris On 3/6/07, Sterling K. Webb [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, Chris You have to ask? An 80-foot high meteorite covering 0.5 acre (100' x 200')? Which was originally a 22 meter iron sphere? That object, at the slowest entry speed (12 km/s), gets you a 1 MegaTon (TNT) impact and a 1650-foot crater, 352 feet deep! I think SOMEBODY would have noticed. Coshocton, Ohio, just LOVES meteorite stories! Last one in 02-15-07, another in 2004. Mark Bostick's site shows old ones in 1939, 1930, 1925, 1916. Meteoric Tall Tales seem to a strong Coshocton tradition... Or at least a tradition of Coshocton newspapers, a proven circulation booster, perhaps? Maybe they're jealous of the New Concord meteorite in the next county over. Sterling K. Webb -- - Original Message - From: chris aubeck [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:35 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] The large meteorite of 1859: anyone know if thishas a grain of truth? Was there a meteorite in this location, at that time? Best, Chris 1859 07 06 Coshocton Progressive Age [Ohio] July 6, 1859 Great Natural Phenomenon. From the Oswego Palladium. On Wednesday (yesterday) morning [June 29] the inhabitants of the towns of Boylston and Redfield, in this county, were startled by the occurrence of a most remarkable
