[meteorite-list] looks like slag

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jan 24 11:02:31 2006
Message-ID: <190.50008477.3107a98d_at_aol.com>

Ed, Bernd, Well, I wish I had seen this message to Bernd earlier - it made
me think of a trip I was on when I was about 7 years old to "Batsto Village".
This meteorwrong is most probably "Batsto Ore" or "Batsto Slag". Batsto ran
one of the larger foundries in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey during the
American War of Independence and supplied George Washington's troops with this
finished product to add some iron to the Redcoats' diets and the cannon balls
to send many a British ship to rest with the crustaceans at the bottom of the
seas. Certainly this is interesting material, and the fact that it is far
from highways today doesn't necessary reflect the situation of colonial roads
and supply lines 230 years ago...There were many foundries scattered through
the area near the pinelands, as the pine was the fuel for the foundries and
the "ore" was found on the surface in many places...

A quick Google finds a nice picture of the ore material, and other sites
mention that limonite deposits used as raw material in the area are called "bog
iron". Your meteorwrong has a British pedigree!
http://65.160.49.117/batsto_ore.htm
Here is another find from the web, an advertisement from a 1775 store, I
believe in Philadelphia - shows there was a lot of this stuff to go around:
"TO BE SOLD, By Little and Flower, at their store in Second-street, six
doors above Arch-
street, sixty ton of Batsto pig iron,"

Just found this,
http://www.allgetaways.com/view_destination.asp?DestinationID=XGP533-012

Saludos, Doug

In a message dated 1/23/2006 4:39:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
roc350_at_optonline.net writes:
>Dear List,

>Bernd asked:

>"Well, where exactly (state, area) did you find it? What do you think its
specific gravity
is? If it happens to look like a sphere, one might easily (but roughly)
compute/estimate
its specific weight."

>This material was found in New Jersey. The woods in which it was found is
part of thousands of acres of undeveloped land (mostly state & watershed
property). I was _at_ 30 miles in from the nearest road.

>They do not look like spheres.

>As far as specific gravity, I have no idea....a piece the size of a man's
fist weighs close to 2 lbs. It's heavy!

Ed
Received on Tue 24 Jan 2006 11:02:21 AM PST