[meteorite-list] NP Article, Jan. 1823 Angers Meteorite Fall

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:51 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-DAV83NtQXkZVb600009026_at_hotmail.com>

Paper: Edinburgh Advertiser
City: Edinburgh, Midlothian
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 1823
Page: 27


ACCOUNT OF THE FALL OF AN AEROLITE

A heat prevailed in Anjou, and probably in the rest of France, during the
whole most of May 1822, such as is seldom felt except in July and August,
and without being attended with the showers which, in the west of France
fall pretty regular at this period. The air was all the while calm, and the
sky nearly cloudless. On he 3d of June last, the same clear weather
prevailed. At a quarter past eight in the evening of this day there was
seen, from several remote places, (at London, for example, and at Angers,
sixteen leagues from each other,) a globe of bright light in a southern
direction from Angers, lasting for several seconds, and dispersing in
luminous waves. This light was followed by a very loud detonation, susceeded
by a number of sharp reports, like the vollies of masquerty, lasting for
five or six seconds, which attracted the attention of many persons, who had
not happened to observe the luminous appearance. This was folled by a fall
of stones, proceeding from the same direction, one of which, weighing thirty
ounces, fell in a garden of the Faubourg Gaven, at Angers, seven feet
distant from a women watering the plants. We have every reason to believe
that many other similar stones must have fallen at the same time around
Angers, but no certain factof the kind has, as yet, come to my knowledge.
The above mentioned stone is an irregular angular fragment, showing that it
must have been a splinter of a large mass. It is covered with a blackish
brown crust, of a uniform thickness, which must be attibuted to the action
of fire; as there is a bubble on one part of the surface, as if in this spot
a greater intensity of heat had began to melt it. The inner part of this
aerolite has the same appearance and the texture as that which fell at
L'Aigle several years ago, a fragment of which is preserved in the Museum of
Natural History at Angers. When the meteor was first observed, many persons
affirm that they saw the stone, which has been preserved, falling down in an
oblique direction, like a ball from a poece of ordnance. As this fragment
happened to fall on a hard garden walk, it only made an indentation half and
inch deel, attended with the dispersiion of the earth around it, so as to
alarm, grievously, the person near whom it fell. Though it was picked up
almost immediately after its fall, it was not sensibly warmer than the
atmosphere.

-- Annales de Chimie el de Paysique.


Angers Meteorite. L6, 2+ stones totalling 900+ grams
Received on Wed 26 Mar 2003 11:24:02 PM PST