[meteorite-list] Meteorite Books and Quotes

[Walter Branch]

Hello Everyone,   I am preparing another list of meteorite books (all at free shipping) and I thought the following passage was mildly interesting.  I will give a 10% discount to the first person who can tell me who wrote this and when he or she wrote it:   "On account of the halo which naturally surrounds an object of such mysterious origin, meteorites have been eagerly sought by collectors - so eagerly, indeed, that stones and irons have been divided and subdivided to a degree bordering on the absurd and far removed from scientific.  The desire on the part of collectors to secure representatives of the fullest possible number of falls has not only led them to bid prices high but has caused a stone - if only of moderate size - to be broken into bits so widely distributed that it has been impossible in later years to secure enough for study.  Catalogs of collections have been printed in which certain rare falls were represented by fragments weighing but 0.1 or 0.2 gram or a little larger than the point of an ordinary lead pencil.  Prices have soared accordingly and instances may be cited in which five to ten dollars a gram has been paid.  The small meteorite which fell in Kilbourn, Wisconsin (Plate 40), in 1911, and passed through a board in the roof of a barn, sold as high as seven dollars a gram, largely on this account, as it was a stone of a common chondritic type.  Obviously a meteorite has no actual value and these prices are not only wholly artificial and unscientific, but silly.  It should be added that this condition is due largely to the mere collector rather than the serious student.  Ambitious heads of departments on our public museums are, however, by no means blameless."   Okay, who was it?   Best wishes,   -Walter ----------------------------------------------- Walter Branch, Ph.D. Branch Meteorites 322 Stephenson Ave., Suite B Savannah, GA  31405 USA www.branchmeteorites.com