----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 8:23
AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Books
and Quotes
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
