[meteorite-list] Nininger Moment #20

From: almitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Oct 10 13:26:55 2004
Message-ID: <4169715F.4C7AB365_at_kconline.com>

The Science Of Learning To Recognize Meteorites

In America Nininger noted that it was the village of Weston
Connecticut that was first to realize a fall in the New England
area and at a time when knowledge traveled slow and new ideas
took time to be accepted. On the December Morning a Judge
Wheeler witnessed the fall and asked to himself if the fireball, the
noise in the form of a thundering sound, along with buzzing,
whizzing and a stone which hit a nearby building and rolled
away into the grass could at all be associate with each other.

At the time it was thought that no stones could fall from the
sky. Judge Wheeler asked his neighbors what they had seen and
heard and a number of them had picked up odd looking stones
from their yards and had heard the noise. Yale professors were
contacted to try to find answers to how this could have happened.
The professors at first thought the story a hoax but after questioning
Judge Wheeler and his area neighbors and seeing that a great deal
of sincerity was present with the story concluded that some how
rocks had fallen from the sky.

So was the hard won acceptance in Europe that rocks fell from the
sky (though it was accepted earlier on than in America). A French
priest in the mid 18th century carried a stone to Paris Museum and
told of the story of the rock falling from the sky. He was told that it
was impossible but perhaps lighting had struck causing the rock to
form. So it was settled that no stones could possibly fall from the
sky as there were none to fall from the sky and the issue was settled
(for the time being in 1755).

Other falls by respected citizens and scientist were recorded, an
astronomer Jerome de la lande described a fall near Bresse in 1753.
Another priest Father Bachelay presented evidence of a stone he had
seen fall but was told it must have been formed by a lighting strike.
An Italian chemist D. Troili, wrote a detailed account of a fall at
Albareto, Italy in 1766. Again these testimonies fell on deaf ears of
the scientists of the time. Other falls happening in Europe with detail
accounts of the falls also happened, including the countries of
France, Italy and England. There were many good witnesses and
stones to back their claims. This began to divide scientists into two
camps, some believing that somehow stones must fall from the sky
and some who thought it was caused from some natural
occurrence here on Earth.

Then nature provided a unique Shower that occurred near the town
of L'Aigle, France where some 3,000 stones pelted down on the
towns people, some of which narrowly escaped serious injury or
death. Hundreds of peasants witnessing the event and many were
not a little frightened. The investigation by French scientists at
the time heard such consistent reports of the event along with
thousands of stones that were gathered after being seen to fall
that wide acceptance had now become fact. It would take many
years for other areas to gain respect that stones did indeed fall
from the sky but it was becoming better documented and
something that couldn't be ignored or explained away anymore.

The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey
Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of the
items written in the moments might be old out dated material and the
reader is advised to keep this in mind. Source: Find A Falling Star

--AL Mitterling
Received on Sun 10 Oct 2004 01:29:03 PM PDT