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Eichstädt
Rob wrote:
> I'm trying to find some more information on a 1785 witnessed
> German fall named Eichstädt (Eichstaedt). The blue book states
> that two specimens have since been destroyed and the remaining
> listed fragments appear to be just a small percentage of the
> original 3 kg mass.
Hi Rob ...
... and all the other remaining survivors
of the recent extinction event :-)
This is what I can offer:
U.B. MARVIN (1996) E.F. Chladni (1756-1827) and the origins of
modern meteorite research (Meteoritics 31-5, 1996, 545-588, p. 552):
Stütz wrote that in 1785 he received a small piece of stone from his
friend the Baron Homspech, Canon of Eichstädt and Bruchsal in Bavaria.
Stütz described the sample as ash-gray sandstone with tiny grains of
malleable iron and iron ochre scattered through it. He said it had a
thin, sulfurous crust of malleable native iron, resembling a blackish
glaze streaked with traces of fiery melt. A notarized document he
received with the stone stated that at 12:00 p.m. on 1785, February 19,
a day when the countryside was covered with a foot of snow, a worker at
a brick kiln saw it fall from the clouds after a violent thunderclap.
The man rushed to the spot but found the black stone too hot to pick up
until it cooled in the snow. The document stated that the country rock
of that area consisted chiefly of fossiliferous marble that was entirely
different from the stone.(*)
(*) This is virtually the literal translation of Chladni's passage (§8a)
in his famous 1794 treatise: "Concerning the origin of the mass of iron
discovered by Pallas and others similar to it, and concerning a few
natural phenomena connected therewith".
Mrs. Marvin's translation doesn't mention the following passage:
"...Der Stein möge ungefähr einen halben Schuh im Durchmesser gehabt
haben und sei ganz mit der schwarzen Eisenrinde umgeben gewesen ..."
"... The diameter of the stone may have been half a shoe* and
was totally covered with black iron melt/fusion crust ..."
* Whatever that is or once was but I'd guess it
is about 1/2 foot or 15-16 cm (ca. 6 inches).
Best wishes,
Bernd
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