[meteorite-list] NP Article, Meteorite Hits Man, Nininger

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:47 2004
Message-ID: <OE77Dc41W2ufyWOxbCJ00000858_at_hotmail.com>

Title: Indiana Evening Gazette
City: Indiana, Pa
Date: Thursday, December 31, 1953
Page: 4


Meteorite Hits Man's Tin Hat


     BOSTON (AP) - Meteorites bean someone on earth only once every 350
years on the average - and now it looks as though one has struck a guy who
was waring a tin hat!
     This indication of how times are getting over toughter for meteorites
came out in a talk before the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science,
whose 120th meeting ends today.
     Dr. H. H. Nininger of the American Meteorite Museum, Sedona, Ariz.,
reported that a tiny object having all the external earmarks of a meteorite
had struck a construction working "on his tin hat: after first richocheting
off a drilling rig.
     At least, said Nininger, that's what the man told him had happened.
The "beaning" happened several years ago but Nininger made it public today.
     The incident apparently marked a lucky day for Ninger too because he
tested the object in his laboratory - and he says he feels not only that it
is an honest-too-goodness meteorite, but that it's something pretty special
in that line.
     Meteorites, believed to be fragments of an exploded planet or possibly
two colliding ones, exist in the millions and are of all sizes - but only a
few ever reach the earth and still fewer are recovered. Some 24 million a
day are consumed in the atmosphere.
     In case you're worried about getting hit, Dr. Fred L. Whipple of
Harvard, a regular fireball on the subject of meteorites told a reporter:
     "Meteorites that reach the earth are mostly very small - some as small
as dust particles - bit a couple have hit the earth that were big as
apartment houses. Fortunately all the large ones have fallen in
uninhabitated places.
     "Only one person out of all the people on earth is struck by a
meteorite, every 350 years on the average. There's one unconfirmed report
that a monk was killed by one back in the 15th century. Injuries, when they
have occurred, have been slight."
     Here's the reason Dr. Nininger was so happy about the object he
studied:

(Mark Bostick Note: Article apparently ends and does not continue the rest
of the story, perhaps the last line was meant to be earlier in the article).

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Received on Tue 11 Mar 2003 01:26:54 AM PST