[meteorite-list] 1957 08-09 Nininger to Whipple letter, Canyon Diablo Speriods
From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu May 19 03:08:46 2005 Message-ID: <BAY104-F3405970F3C784F123401FFB3080_at_phx.gbl> August 9, 1957 Dr. Fred Whipple Director Astrophysical Observatory 60 Garden Street Cambridge 38, Mass. Dear Dr. Whipple: Since our last report we have moved our museum to Sedona, Arizona, and are much better housed then before and are equipped with ten new exhibition cases of original design in addition to the exhibit facilities which we had in the old building on U.S. Highway 66, so that now we are better able to carry on our instructional program. The Curators of Meteorites in both the U.S. National Museum and the British Museum of Natural History have visited us and have praised our project as easily the most effective educational program in meteoritics carreid on anywhere. This is very encouraging to us. Our most important advance since the last report has been the further reseaches and the publishing of my book - ARIZONA'S METEORITE CRATER - with which, of course, you are familiar. Recently I have been making further classification of the several types of materail identified in association wtih the Arizona crater. There has been considerable confusion of terms by various writers who have referred to my metallic spheroids as "small pellicles", "spherules", "metallic spherules", "Canyon Diablo spherules", and "miniscule bits and pieces" which appeared in THE ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL, 62, No. 3, 1957, May, P. 96. The name metallic spheroids was very carefully chosen with the help of Mr. Wilfred Funk to whom all of the description features were submitted. They are not spherical hense not spherules. They are definitely metallic. They stongly tend toward roundness. Their chemical composition as well as shape sets them apart from the spherules of Spencer and from all the particles described by Barringer or Tilghman. Likewise various writers have failed to note that the metallic particles in our impactite slag are of two kinds and for the most part are different from the spherules described by Spencer from Wabar and Henbury. However, I have found that not all the particles in Wabar silica-glass are spherical as described by Spencer. I am sending a list of the meteoritic and impacite materials that I, or others, have classified from the Arizona crater. Our Museum has also recovered several new finds since the publication of THE NININGER COLLECTION OF METEORITES (1950). The list is enclosed. Respectfully submitted, H. H. Nininger HHN: AN (end) Received on Thu 19 May 2005 03:08:44 AM PDT |
StumbleUpon del.icio.us Yahoo MyWeb |