Dear Mark and list members,
It's always interesting and amusing to read what people in the past
thought about the origin
of meteorites. Here some examples from 19th Century editions of
'Scientific American':
In 1848 C.U. Shepard believed in the terrestrial origin of meteorites.
Meteorites were believed to rain down from metallic meteoric dust clouds
in the upper atmosphere because of the influence of magnetic storms.
The dust clouds were thought to have formed from ashes and terrestrial
matter which had 'mechanically' been 'elevated' by volcanoes and
tornadoes.
http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v4/n12/pdf/scientificamerican12091848-94b.pdf
(Scientific American, 9 Dec 1848)
In 1876 Proctor believed that iron meteorites were ejected from a sun
during solar outbursts
whereas Moigno believed them to be remains of ancient 'used-up worlds'.
"It may be, as Mr. Proctor has suggested, that some of them,
the siderites es
pecially, have been ejected from our own or some other sun,
by some of those tremendous outbursts of solar energy
which we occasionally observe with our spectroscopes ; or
they may have originated, as Moigno argues, in the cracking
to pieces of some old and used-up world."
(from Scientific American, 19 August 1876 ;
http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v35/n8/pdf/scientificamerican08191876-119a.pdf
)
'Old worlds' indeed, but not 'used-up'...
Unfortunately there is one truly 'used-up world' in the solar system ...
our own.
Furthermore, 19th Century comparisons are amusing, like these ones:
white as chalk, black as coal aaaaand .... Orgueil is 'a mass of rather
coherent garden soil'
"The aerolite of Bishopsville, S. C., though covered with the
invariable black crust,
is internally almost as white as chalk, and as light as
pumice ; that of Kold Bokkeveld,South Africa, on the other
hand, resembles a piece of anthracite coal more than any
thing else; and that of Orgueil, a mass of rather coherent
garden soil."
Must be the most expensive 'garden soil' in the universe....
Unfortunately many (carbonaceous) meteorites end up becoming soil when
plowed under
in the fields because they couldn't be found quickly enough.
This might have happened to the potential Geislingen meteorites which my
German meteorite friends and me were eagerly trying to find in January ...
in vain. (Well, not 'in vain' actually because although we didn't find
meteorites, we found new friends and experienced cooperation and community
... thus immaterial gratification ... priceless !!!)
Too often meteorites are not found (on time) because important information
does not flow freely to those (not primarily driven by the 'profit
motive') enthusiasts who are willing to spend their time and energy on
finding the freshly fallen specimens before planet earth's aggressive
oxygen and humidity start their attack on the stony or iron 'aliens'.
It's always an unbearable thought that freshly fallen meteorites in
developed countries just rot away unnoticed because some people are not
willing to cooperate for a 'higher meteoritic goal' ... but that is
another never-ending story.
Have a nice Sunday while scanning the archives for interesting articles!
There is much more to be rediscovered...
Martin
Von: "Mark Grossman" <[email protected]>
An: <[email protected]>,
<[email protected]>
Betreff: Re: [meteorite-list] Scientific American Archives 1845-1909
available until November 30, 2011
Datum: Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:05:16 +0100
Thanks so much to both Martins for the kind words in the two messages
posted
this evening.
It's a pleasure doing the research and sharing the findings.
If anyone finds any interesting or special articles in Scientific American
that they would like to share, feel free to post a comment at the end of
the
Meteorite Manuscripts blog post.
Thanks again for the nice words. And if you're interested in the
Scientific
American articles, remember - the articles are only free until the end of
the month!
Mark
PS - I hope to be posting some manuscript letters again in the near
future.
Mark Grossman
Meteorite Manuscripts
http://meteoritemanuscripts.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/MetManuscripts
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Meteorite-Manuscripts/152949358073543?sk=wall
----- Original Message -----
From:
To: "Mark Grossman" ;
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2011 3:57 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Scientific American Archives 1845-1909
available until November 30, 2011
> Hello Mark,
>
> I think I can say this on behalf of many list members.
>
> Thank you once again for the valuable information you share with us.
>
> It is, as always, much appreciated!
>
> Keep up the good work!
>
> Martin
>
>
> Von: "Mark Grossman"
> An:
> Betreff: [meteorite-list] Scientific American Archives 1845-1909
> available
> until November 30, 2011
> Datum: Sun, 06 Nov 2011 02:21:33 +0100
>
> If you would like to learn more about free access to Scientific American
> articles, some of which are useful to those interested in the history of
> meteorites, see the Meteorite Manuscripts blog by clicking on one of the
> links below.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Grossman
> Meteorite Manuscripts
>
> http://meteoritemanuscripts.blogspot.com
> http://twitter.com/MetManuscripts
> http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Meteorite-Manuscripts/152949358073543?sk=wall
>
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