[meteorite-list] History of etching process for revealing Widmanstatten structure

From: Mike Mitchell <mmaluna_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:15 2004
Message-ID: <B75AB36A.12709%mmaluna_at_mindspring.com>

I am not a member of this list but have discovered it by doing an internet
search.

My grandfather, Oscar Reberholt, worked on meteorites at the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, sometime between 1930ish and
1950ish. As a child I remember seeing an old newspaper clipping from the
Washington Post showing a picture of him at work. The text that accompanied
it was about three or four hundred words and I don't know whether it was an
actual news story or what, in the newspaper business is called a feature
story. Family history has it that he worked on a way of "polishing"
meteorites. And there is some contention that he actually invented the
method.

>From my frail investigations of your field so far, what I'm wondering is if
what I'm remembering as "polishing" has anything to do with the nitric acid
and alcohol etching process that makes the Widmanstatten structure visible.
Does anyone out there know who actually came up with this method? Was it
Widmanstatten himself (which would seem logical to me)? Or could it have
been a former Danish merchant seaman who jumped ship in New York and
eventually ended up as a technician at the Smithsonian Natural History
Museum?

If anyone has any knowledge of the history of this process, or resources
where I might look into it further, I would be extremely grateful to hear
from you.

Since, as I said, I'm not a member of this list, please e-mail me directly.

Thank you.

Mike Mitchell
mmaluna_at_mindspring.com
Received on Sat 23 Jun 2001 08:58:18 PM PDT