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Re: L'AIGLE AUCTION IN LONDON
Ammonite schrieb:
> Biot published a paper entitled "Relation D'Un Voyager Fait Dans Le
> Departement De L'Orne, Pour Constater La Realite D'Un Meteore Observe
> A L'Aigle," (roughly translated as "An account of a journey made for
> the Department of the Orne, to state the existence of a meteor
> observed at L'Aigle").
BIOT J.-B. (1803b) Relation d’un voyage fait dans le département de
l’Orne pour constater la réalité d’un météore observé à l’Aigle le 6
floréal an XI (Baudouin, Imprimeur de l’Institut National de France,
Thermidor, An XI, Paris, 47 pp.):
"Ils entendirent comme un coup de canon, ensuite un coup double plus
fort que le précédent, et celui-ci fut suivi d'un roulement qui a duré
environ dix minutes, et qui était accompagné d'un sifflement (...) Tous
les paysans furent très effrayés(...) Les plus grosses pierres ont été
lancées si violemment, qu'elles sont entrées dans la terre au moins à un
pied de profondeur. Elles sont noires extérieurement, et grisâtres
intérieurement: il semble qu'il y ait dedans une sorte de métal"
(Extrait du rapport de J.B. Biot à l'académie des sciences en 1803).
Translation (B. Pauli):
They heard something resembling the report of a cannon ball, then a
double report more violent than the preceding one, which was followed by
a rolling thunder lasting for about two minutes and which was
accompanied by a whistling sound (...) The farmers were all very
frightened (...) The largest stones had been hurled down so violently
that they penetrated the soil to a depth of at least one foot. Their
exteriors are black, their interiors grayish: there seems to be be some
sort of metal inside (Extract from Biot’s report to the Academy of
Sciences in 1803).
> Biot collected several stones himself, some of which he gave (or
> sold?) to the scientist Robert Ferguson. This particular meteorite is
> mentioned in a couple of letters written by Ferguson in 1811, copies
> of which are in the possession of Christie's.
Geoffrey, I think it was not Robert Ferguson (1637-1714) but Adam
Ferguson (1723-1816). Interestingly, Burke does not mention Mr so-and-so
Ferguson at all. Geoffrey, you might clear that up at Christie's
perhaps.
> Hope this is of interest to my fellow list members.
This i s of interest as you can see.
U.B. Marvin (1996) Invited Review: E.F.F. Chladni (1756-1827) and the
origins of modern meteorite research (Meteoritics 31-5, 1996, 545-588):
Meteoritics 31-5, 1996, 571-572: The Fall at L'Aigle, France, 1803
In 1803 April 26, at one o'clock in an afternoon of clear skies, a
fireball coursed northwestward out of a single high, gray cloud in the
vicinity of L'Aigle in Normandy. After three violent detonations, nearly
3000 stones fell into the fields with loud hissing noises. Thunderous
reverberations continued for the next ten minutes. Affrighted persons
who picked them up found the stones to be very warm and smelling of
sulfur. The stones were polygonal in shape, covered with black crusts,
and ranged up to 17 pounds in weight. Fourcroy obtained stones and
analyzed them in conjunction with Vauquelin. They found them to closely
resemble all other fallen stones. On June 19, Fourcroy (1803:304)
reported their results to the Institute and supported Chladni's
hypothesis of fallen stones.
To the best of my knowledge, U.B. Marvin is the first and only person
who mentions and shortly discusses something contradictory about the
dispersion ellipse of the L’Aigle stones. Here is what you usually find
in the literature:
(a) eine Feuerkugel, die sich schnell von Südosten nach Nordwesten
bewegte ...
a fireball moving at high speed from the southwest to the northeast ...
(b) Die größten Steine sind am südöstlichen Ende der Ellipse gesammelt
worden, die kleinsten am nordwestlichsten, die von mittleren Dimensionen
in der Mitte
The largest stones were collected at the southeastern end of the
ellipse, the smallest stones at the northwestern end of the ellipse, the
medium-sized stones in the middle ...
(c) Die größten Steine bis fast 9 Kilogramm Einzelgewicht fielen im
Südosten, die leichteren im Nordwesten von L’Aigle
The largest stones of up to 9 kg each fell to the southeast, the smaller
ones to the northwest of the town of L’Aigle ...
(d) a fireball coursed northwestward out of a single high, gray cloud
(e) showing the meteorite strewn field as an ellipse measuring 10 x 4
km, with its long axis trending SE to NW, the direction of the fireball
(f) Biot called the stones "Laiglites" and noted that the largest
specimens, which were reported as the first to fall, were found near the
southeastern end of the ellipse.
WHAT’S (OBVIOUSLY OR SEEMINGLY) WRONG? - GO FIGURE!
I’m going to post a follow-up contribution with some minutes’ delay. If
you wish to solve the problem on your own, do not (yet) read my
follow-up posting which I’ll call ‘L’Aigle - Solution’. If you are not
inclined to solve problems, please, read first and figure then.
Best wishes, Bernd
References: