[meteorite-list] A curious reference

From: Tracy Latimer <tracyl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:44 2004
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.93.1020502081723.12635F-100000_at_netra.lib.state.hi.us>

Thank you for finding this for us -- for the benefit of all who don't have
access to this magazine at all. Too bad no one apparently thought to
collect and keep the "aerolite" that killed this fellow. Smoking
meteorite gun!

Tracy Latimer

On Thu, 2 May 2002, Alan Pickup wrote:

> Francis Graham <francisgraham_at_rocketmail.com> writes
> >Now here's a curious reference:
> >
> >English Mechanic "Killed by a Meteor" 1880 06 04
> >
> >Alas. My library does not have this. I could do an
> >interlibrary request, but if this has your curiosity
> >aroused too, and your library has back issues of the
> >"English Mechanic", it will save time if you share a
> >synopsis.
>
> Francis (& list),
>
> I have unearthed the copy of the "English Mechanic and World of Science"
> No 793 for June 4, 1880, in the library of the Royal Observatory,
> Edinburgh. There is a one paragraph note (p316 of the volume) that
> reads:
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Killed by a Meteor -- The "South Australian register" for April 3 quotes
> the "Littleton Times" as stating that as David Meisenthaler, a
> well-known stockman of Whitestone township, was driving his cows to the
> barn about daylight a short time ago, he was struck by an aerolite and
> instantly killed. It appears as if the meteor had come from a direction
> a little west of south, and fell from an angle of about 60 degrees, for
> it first passed through a tall maple, cutting the limbs as clean as if
> it had been a cannon-ball, and then struck him apparently on or under
> the shoulder, passing clean through him obliquely from below the right
> shoulder to above the left hip, and buried itself about two feet in the
> soft black ground. The poor man's head and legs were injured, but the
> greater part of his body seems to have been crushed into the earth
> beneath the terrific aerolite, which was about the size of a common
> patent bucket, and apparently of a rough, round shape. It appeared to be
> formed of what is called iron pyrites.
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Alan
> --
> Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707: 55.8968N 3.1989W +208m (WGS84 datum)
> Edinburgh / SatEvo & elsets: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/
> Scotland / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/
> *
>
>
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Received on Thu 02 May 2002 02:18:59 PM PDT