[meteorite-list] NP Article, 05-1883 Alfianello Fall Article?

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:44 2004
Message-ID: <OE23SDhUhz2w41CpGE8000006b5_at_hotmail.com>

Title: The Stevens Point Journal
City: Stevens Point, Wi
Date: Saturday, May 26, 1883
Page: 2

An Aerolite
     The Rome correspondent of the St. James Gazette says that on the 16th
of February some peasants working in a field near Breseia were startled by
hearing a loud report like thunder. Looking up they saw the clouds torn
open, and a large body followed by a train of bluish smoke hurtling through
the air over their heads with the noise of an express train. The aerolite
buried itself in an adjoining field, the fall causing a shock like that of
earthquake. It was felt ten kilometres away, while the report was heard at
Verona and Piacenze, many miles distant. When they had recovered from their
fright the peasants hurried to the spot, and found a clean hole about three
feet deep running in an oblique direction from north-northeast; and on
digging down they came to a solid block, in the form of a truncated cone,
weighing from four to five hundred pounds. The surface, which was still
hot, and emitted a sulphurous smell, was covered with a greenish black
crust, full of small holes, such as would be made by finger-tips in a soft
paste, which may have given rise to the report that one of the fragments
bore the impress of a hand. The proprieter of the clover-field in which the
aerolite fell flew into a rage at his crops being trampled down by people
coming to see it, and broke it up, when it was carried away piece meal. So
he gained nothing but damage to his fields, while those who picked up the
pieces found a ready sale for them, one man getting as much a seven thousand
franes for a lump that weighed twenty-five pounds. On a subsequent search by
Prof. Bombicci, of Bologha, several pieces of scorize, apparently detached
from the aerolite in its flight, were found in the neighborhood.

(Mark note: Possibly the Alfianello meteorite fall, an L6 that fell February
16th, 1883 at 1500hrs. 228kg total weight found)
Received on Mon 03 Mar 2003 11:25:22 PM PST