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Re: Meteor crater iron spheroids

Dear Bob & list,
	From 1947 through 1949, I believe, Nininger & his son-in-law, Huss,
searched the crater with gigantic magnets, gathering these Ni iron
spheroids. Based on the quantity gathered and the area searched,
Nininger estimated 98% of the mass of the meteorite vaporized upon
impact. These spheroids where put through a series of screens ov various
courseness, thereby being separated into AT LEAST three different
catagories. For years, I have sold "large" and "small" Nininger speroids
(seperately, of course) in capsules in a magnifer box at $8 each. (these
are NOT good "money makers" as the preparation, cost of boxes and lable
making makes the very "labor intensive").
	A few years ago, I ran into a dealer who had a "medeum" size - they
were marked with numbers I ASSUME referred to the number of holes in the
screen per squar inch. Of course, I jumped on this opportunity to get
all 3 vials, even though they were somewhat costly, since I wanted to
compare them to the ones I had, which I had obtained from a private
collector who had gotten them from Huss before his death (but after
Nininger's death).
	They are VERY interesting when observed under a microscope - I think of
them as "the world's smallest iron meteorites" which is not perfectly
acurate, as they are actually the percipitation of the vaperized mass.
But they sure are tiny little cuties.
	Those interested can read about this work by Nininger in his
outstanding autobiographical FIND A FALLING STAR, which, while out of
print, is still RELATIVELY easy to get and inexpensive.
	Best wishes, Michael
---
Bob King wrote:
> Perhaps many of you on this list are aware of this -- forgive me if so -- but others may not be. On a trip last year to Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ I checked out the gift shop and noticed they were selling bags of "Authentic Cosmic Meteor Dust." For $5 you get a "kit" containing an approx. 8 oz. bag of soil collected from around the crater, a magnet, a magnifying glass and a tube to collect your samples. You brush the magnet through the soil and indeed quite a number of metallic spherules are quickly attracted to it. They are obviously spheroidal with the naked eye but make interesting observing under a
> magnifying glass or low power microscope. It's actually a nice kit and for the price can't be beat.
>  Bob King

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