[meteorite-list] Details of 1825 Hawaii fall... (fwd)

From: Tracy Latimer <tracyl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:12 2004
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0208120946080.18088-100000_at_netra.lib.state.hi.us>

Thank you to Mark Bostick for posting those old news reports of various
falls. It's very interesting to hear about what was seen and found at
that time, rather like a time capsule. Just to throw my 2g worth in, here
is a report that another list member sent me some time ago; I'm not sure
it made it to the list, but it's an eyewitness account of the Honolulu
fall of 1825. The author, Hiram Bingham, was a local missionary and
merchant of some account, so I'd give it fair credence.

Tracy Latimer
p.s. thank you also to ERic Hutton for the original info!

~~snip~~paste~~

A short while ago someone was asking about meteorite falls in Hawaii.

I have just come across this eye witness report of the 1825 fall.


Taken from the American Journal of Science and Arts. Vol. 49, Oct 1845.

Particulars of the fall of Meteorites in the Sandwich Islands;
communicated by request, by the Rev. Hiram Bingham, missionary in
those Islands, in a letter dated Boston, May 1, 1845.

To Prof. Silliman--On the 27th of September, 1825, a shower of
meteoric stones fell, partley in the channel between Molokai and Lanai,
and partly between those islands and Oahu, and partly at Honolulu,
where I then resided. One explosion was heard at Lahaina, and several
in quick succession at Honolulu, eighty miles to the northwest,
between the hours of 10 and 11, A. M. The fragment that was seen to
pass Lahaina towards Oahu fell in the Molokai Channel, and threw a
mass of water into the air, and was said to be followed by a rumbling
sound.

The Rev. Mr. Richards of Lahaina mistook the report of the explosion
for that of cannon on board of some ship. The explosions which I
heard at Honolulu led me at first to suppose they were cannon on
board of ships not far distant. But soon after I was satisfied that they
were meteoric. Very soon the servants of Kalanimoku, secretary of
state, brought me the fragment which they affirmed had just fallen from
the sky in our village. This fragment I carefully preserved and brought
over, and had the pleasure of presenting to you. A different pleasure
from that with which Mr. Richards and myself picked up and forwarded
to the Missionary Museum in Pemberton Square, Boston, a cannon
ball--one of several which had been fired at our heads.

-- 
Eric Hutton
_______________________________________________
Meteorite-list mailing list
Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list

Received on Mon 12 Aug 2002 03:52:48 PM PDT