[meteorite-list] Meteorite Deliveries - on Earth

From: Rosemary Hackney <ltcrose_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:25 2004
Message-ID: <000f01c25052$359b3660$d673d6d1_at_default>

The only package I never received was one with the Eagle BUTT..(hehe).. I
did have one from Europe that had been stamped when it was mailed as the
14th of April but I got it over a month later at my end. I showed it to the
postal employees and they were baffled why it took so long. My poor sender
( neutron was more upset than I was). Well I had one from Mike C. that was
in the states.. that never showed up and he replaced it.. Was the only one I
ever had to have replaced and bless his heart he sent a bigger sample. (
Thanks Mike for the generosity).. Anyway.. the post office seems to do
pretty well since I have ordered almost 700 items this year and have only
lost that. Oh well.. the one I lost was no loss.

I did have some Trinitie, Uranium ore and Torbernite also shipped..But was
no problem. Also some small thorium and and others.

Some were from overseas and said something like study material...no retail
value. I always wondered why that was put on there.

Rosie
----- Original Message -----
From: "LabNEMS" <staff_at_meteorlab.com>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 9:26 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Deliveries - on Earth


> List:
>
> My thanks for the kind words from so many on this and the thoughtful
> responses.
>
> Shipping and receiving specimens is problematic. It's like
> the Quarterback in football - he has control over the ball
> only up to the point when he puts it in the air.
>
> Overall the US Postal System has been, in my opinion, excellent.
> This also extends to almost all of the worlds postal systems. Amazingly,
> something we ship seems to arrive (in time) almost anywhere in the world.
> Yes things get lost - but only sometimes. The ratio of what arrives to
> what is lost is probably somewhere down in the "noise level".
>
> But, as some of you have noticed, things do seem to have changed since
> Sept. of last year. Our off-shore mailings do not seem to be affected but
> deliveries within the US have. We ( N.E.M.S.) have the unfortunate
problem
> that all of our mailings go through Boston (Logan Airport). Those
familiar
> with
> the events of Sept. 11 will remember that this was the point of origin for
> the ill-fated
> United airliners. Security on all packages is extreme here.
>
> I don't know what the Postal people scan for but we have had packages
> returned,
> stamped - "Unsuitable for Air Shipment", or "Hazardous Material, Surface
> Ship Only"
> And this was only for meteorites ( one complete 2+ kilo Campo, and some
slices
> of an H6)
>
> We also had a visit (recently) from Federal Agents (US Postal Inspectors)
> on a package being
> shipped to a university. In it were prepared samples of Trinitite and
> Uranite (UO2).
> The samples measured out at less than 2x Background (some granite samples
from
> New Hampshire can be measured at 5x Background and are, or at least have
> been, routinely
> shipped through the mails). The Inspectors were doing baseline work on
how
> and what we
> shipped. My point here is that someone, somewhere is scanning all
packages
> at a new level to
> detect anomalies. With radioactives this is understandable but meteorites
> are so obscure
> to Inspectors that they probably get pulled from the stream, piled up, and
> examined - all slowing
> the delivery process down. Of course our NEMS label's with a graphic of
the
> Earth and an electron
> revolving around the nucleus of an atom is probably not helpful in the
> current shipping
> climate........
>
> DHL, FedEx, UPS, all work but are far too costly for US shipments of only
> one $20.00 micro
> as was the case in Randy's E's shipment. So far we've found that
> Registered US Mail is
> almost bulletproof. The downside is that it's slow and expensive.
>
> As more technology is put in place by the Postal System, I'm hopeful that
> the delays
> and missing packages problem will improve. But for now we'll probably all
> have to
> put more money into our shipping procedures to ensure more timely
> deliveries or at least
> give the customer more options for shipping.
>
> Russ / NEMS
>
>
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Received on Fri 30 Aug 2002 02:22:32 PM PDT