[meteorite-list] meteor-wrong (most likely)

From: Jerry A. Wallace <jwal2000_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 18 03:50:42 2005
Message-ID: <42DB5F31.9050809_at_swbell.net>

Stan,

Actually it is about that simple, Stan. You must, of course, have the
right equipment and
follow the proper protocols, but once that is done you can ease almost
anything into the
molten mixture in a crucible. I've been witness to, and creator of, some
pretty wild mixtures
back in the years when I did such things. But it never occured to me at
the time to try to
meld silicates into molten ferrous fluids. Seems that a gentle tumbling
action during the
cooling process might overcome the problem of difference in density
(specific gravity-
normally resulting in the silcates floating to the top in a molten
mixture) between the silicates
and iron, thereby (maybe) resulting in a homogenized mixture as seen in
Shirokovsky.

And yes, you've got to be careful, know what your doing, and think
before and as you're
doing an operation or procedure. I also have been witness to and cleaned
up after some fairly
spectacular blasts of molten metal. Each and every time one of those
happened, it was always
attributable to operator error and not to equipment failure (altho that
happens as well.).

Visit a modern foundry and be prepared to be amazed at what is (and can
be) done there. Most
welcome curious visitors and will attempt to answer all questions with
patient aplomb.

As for Shirokovsky, I have given much thought and wonderment as to how
it might have been
produced. I sure would love to have been there to have seen it done.
Maybe next time.

With time, money and experimentation, I believe almost any interested
and competent metallurgist
in a willing and patient foundry could produce something similar
(eventually).

Best regards,

Jerry

PS... Come on, Adam. Shirokovsky really does make a great meteorong
specimen. And, I agree, it
should be advertised and promoted as such, not as a true meteorite. I
can also appreciate your attitude
that dictates "No Fakes". But I personally think we can learn from them
as long as we keep the facts
in context and use them only as points of comparison in order to further
our ability to speculate on the
formation of natural compositions in their native environments. In other
words... we learn by doing
(providing we survive the doing.) Which brings to mind the sorry results
created by poor old Bubba
when he said, "Hold my beer and watch this!" (Natural selection at
work.) jw



stan . wrote:

>
> it cant be that simple, can it? there is a HUGE diffrence in the
> density of silicates and iron. how would you get a heterogenious mix
> of the two? it's not like you can just pour 50 kgs of iron into a
> crucible and stir it with a spoon - unless your spoon is made of
> tungsten and you are wearing an aluminized fireretardent suit i guess :)
>
>> From: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites_at_comcast.net>
>> To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] meteor-wrong (most likely)
>> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:43:00 -0700
>>
>> You can probably create something similar for about 10 cents a pound
>> in a
>> good furnace. Notice that each main piece weighed about 48
>> kilograms, about
>> the same size that could be produced in a small crucible. Heck, at
>> $1.00 to
>> $3.00 a gram this spells a tidy profit because production cost would
>> be less
>> than 1 cent per gram. Maybe somebody with access to a furnace should
>> produce
>> some more. At this margin I would certainly invest.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Meteoryt.net" <marcin_at_meteoryt.net>
>> To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 4:27 PM
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] meteor-wrong (most likely)
>>
>>
>> > > Cheap is a relative term. It is a lot cheaper now versus when it was
>> first
>> > sold as a new pallasite find. But since it is "cool" looking
>> material that
>> > appears to be similar to a pallasite, it is still not $0.10/g or
>> > less....like cheap chondrites and irons. Pricing is still in the $1
>> to $3
>> > per gram range. See the site below for pieces at $1.50/g.
>> > > http://www.polandmet.com/
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> > Someone can laugh that pallasite-wrong cost few times more than Brahin
>> > pallasite(ebay curiosity), but there is just areound 3 importand
>> reassons
>> > for this in my opinion:
>> > First
>> > Shirokovsky is verry stable. I personally in around 800g of slices
>> find
>> only
>> > one with rust. This looked like accident in preparing this single
>> slice.
>> > Second,
>> > Half of market success of Shirokovsky is this how this mineral was
>> prepared.
>> > Give us 1mm thin brahin slices with 90% transparent olivines, and I
>> (and
>> not
>> > only me) pay more than for Shirokovsky.
>> > Third
>> > Its just cool looking thing, and we collecting cool things, so its
>> > "must-have" specimen in our collections not mater if this is
>> meteorite or
>> > not.
>> >
>> > Good night all
>>
Received on Mon 18 Jul 2005 03:50:09 AM PDT