[meteorite-list] Any interesting (?) Chinese tektite

From: Norm Lehrman <nlehrman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Mar 10 10:55:41 2006
Message-ID: <20060310155539.48171.qmail_at_web81005.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Mark & list,

About five years ago, as Cookie and I were helping our
main Chinese supplier unpack at Tucson we found a
couple of dozen like you have pictured. The
coloration is a surface patina like Carnival Glass.
We never determined how it formed, but I have seen
similar patinas developed on ghost town glass that has
been through a fire. I always suspected that the
tektites might have been through a warehouse fire.
Others suggested that an overly aggressive acid
treatment was used in cleaning, but I've tried a
variety of acids over the years and have never seen
anything like this happen.

Ironically, we were just commenting between us this
year that it is strange that we have never seen the
phenomena again. Not a single piece. This convinces
me we are talking about some non-natural feature. To
find 20 or 30 in one crate, then no more in something
on the order of 50,000 to 75,000 pieces that we have
subsequently sorted certainly provides a clue.

I looked into the commercial production of carnival
glass, but I don't remember the whole story.
Something about sublimation of a metal film on hot
glass. If you want to pursue the subject, look into
that manufacturing process for more clues.

As I recall, I sold all our pieces to a single
collector in Texas. We openly expressed our concerns
that this was probably not a natural phenomenon.

Regards,
Norm
http://tektitesource.com

--- MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_msn.com> wrote:

> Hello list,
>
> Hope everyone is doing well.
>
> This may or may not be interesting, as it may or may
> not be that unusual.
> However, I have sorted through and sold a lot of
> tektites over the years and
> this is the only tektite like it I have seen.
>
> A nice average sized dumbell tektite....
>
>
http://www.meteoritearticles.com/coltektitechin76g.html
>
> Photographs were taken under white photograph lights
> in a room with white
> walls. The color is more obvious in person and was
> hard to reproduce
> digitally. On the ends and in the surface dimples,
> you can see a very
> striking blue color. The ends also show a little
> purple color, but more of
> the blue. Not sure what has caused this colorling.
> Any thoughts?
>
> Clear Skies,
> Mark Bostick
> Wichita, Kansas
> www.meteoritearticles.com
>
>
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Received on Fri 10 Mar 2006 10:55:39 AM PST