Hi, Mike,
For 20 years, I lived in and owned a business in
Bunker Hill, IL, just 9 miles down the road from
Benld. The Benld stone is the first authenticated
to have struck an automobile (even if it was in the
garage at the time), and it's one of the handful of
Illinois meteorites. Illinois -- all that flat land and
only eight lousy Illinois meteorites. Why is that?
One of them is an iron bead found in a burial
mound (Havana). One of has never been seen
since it was first described; we know only the
year of the fall in a town name that doesn't exist.
The meteorite was real, though (South Dixon).
That leaves six, several of which are very small:
Marengo, a 68 gram stone in the Dupont Collection,
and Bloomington, a 67.3 gram stone divided between
the Field and the planetarium in Rock Island. That
leaves four Illinois meteorites you could theoretically
collect a piece of. The chances are mostly theoretical,
though.
I've been to Benld several times to investigate
the possibility of finding another stone. I've located
the neighborhood where it fell to a two-block accuracy,
but it was built up to flat land in the 1930's with
fill dirt over uneven land that had been the site of
an iron foundry.
Even worse, the fill was unconsolidated, and any
stone falling fast enough to penetrate a Ford would
have buried itself 6 feet or more into the Earth if it
had hit the ground. That soil is full of rusty iron
scrap, so you can leave your metal detector at home!
The area south of the fall site is both rocky and
swampy with multiple streams and creeks. Most
unpromising ground for a meteorite hunt imaginable.
Nevertheless, I walked around for a few days looking
for a 60-year-old H5. (If you don't look...)
The collection data I cited is from the 2000
edition of the NHM (UK) "Catalogue of Meteorites."
Possibly a little out-of-date, if there has been
trading since, but I can't imagine the Field giving
anybody the tiniest piece of Benld.
Sterling K. Webb
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Galactic Stone & Ironworks" <[email protected]>
To: "Sterling K. Webb" <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:16 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Wanted : Micros of the following
meteorites
Hi Sterling!
I stand corrected. LOL
It's such an obscure fall that I am surprised anyone noticed. :)
BTW, where do you get your collection info? (just curious)
Your chances of finding a micro of Benld are close
to zero, I'm afraid. 88 grams at Tempe; 4 grams at the
National Museum; 18.6 grams in the Dupont collection;
and 200 milligrams in the Gifhorn. Main mass at the Field.
Best regards,
MikeG
On 4/14/09, Sterling K. Webb <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi, Mike, List,
You have the name of one of your "wanted"
September 29th meteorites wrong. You list
"BENID," and the actual name is BENLD. I wanted
to be sure there was no real BENID meteorite,
a desert location maybe. Googling revealed a lot
of hits on the spelling BENID in surprising places!
(You know who you are.)
There is NO Benid meteorite. The name of that
little Illinois town where it dropped through the
garage roof and perforated an old Ford from roof
to seat to floor pan, on September 29, 1938 at
9:00 am, is BENLD.
Rightly you might say, "What the heck is a
Ben L D?" Well, the town started as a roaring
coal mine camp and tent city, grew to foundries
and shacks, then speakeasies, mobsters and
wh***s, and is now a quiet little Midwestern
picture postcard that looks like nobody there
ever was so rambunctious as to even cuss there.
What is a Ben L D? The town is named (modestly)
after the mine owner that started it -- Ben L. Dorsey,
so -- BENLD. He had another mine and another town
already named "Dorsey," so he used the other end of
his name for this one.
If you got the name wrong, don't feel bad. The
number of respected and venerated sources of data
that make the same mistake is quite large. Some of
the publications of the Field Museum, who holds
the entire stone, get it wrong!
Your chances of finding a micro of Benld are close
to zero, I'm afraid. 88 grams at Tempe; 4 grams at the
National Museum; 18.6 grams in the Dupont collection;
and 200 milligrams in the Gifhorn. Main mass at the Field.
Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Galactic Stone & Ironworks" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 3:21 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Wanted : Micros of the following meteorites
Hi List,
I am looking for meteorites that fell on November 12 or were found
on
November 12. (my birthday)
I am also looking for meteorites that fell or were found on
September
29 - my wife's birthday.
A search of the Met Bulletin shows the following candidates :
November 12 :
Dhofar 961
Dhofar 733
Verkhne Tschirskaia
Trenzano
Kamsagar
Kirbyville
Isthilart
September 29 :
Benid
Naoki
I realize some of these are rare historicals, lunars, or other types
that may carry a steep price tag. So I am looking for micros in the
$20 price range, give or take a few bucks.
I am also open to trades - I currently have 80 localities in
collection, plus trinitite, impactites, tektites, semi-precious
stones, and minerals.
Contact me offlist at - [email protected]
Thanks for looking and clear skies!
MikeG
--
.........................................................
Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)
Member of the Meteoritical Society.
Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.
Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and
http://www.glassthrower.com
..........................................................
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
--
.........................................................
Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)
Member of the Meteoritical Society.
Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.
Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and
http://www.glassthrower.com
..........................................................
______________________________________________
http://www.meteoritecentral.com
Meteorite-list mailing list
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