[meteorite-list] Family Claims Meteorite Fell In TheirCourtyardinIndia

From: Stefan Brandes <brandes_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 17:44:21 +0200
Message-ID: <004801c7da9c$27cbf5e0$f49a2fd5_at_HP17984996113>

>Some figures:
>
>The museum of the Indian Geological Survey opened in Calcutta in 1856, in
>1867 the meteorite collection there already had 247 specimens.

natural history collection since 1748 J




Greetings from Austria

Stefan





The Natural History Museum of Vienna possesses one of the largest
collections of meteorites in the world. With over 1 700 pieces, it lies in
fourth place, behind the U.S. National Museum in Washington, D.C.; the
National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, which has the largest
collection of meteorites from Antarctica, and the NASA Johnson Space Center
in Houston. Not only is the Viennese collection large, it also has the
longest history of all meteorite collections and was and remains an
important research centre. Meteorites were already collected in Vienna when
they were still regarded as earthly phenomena (meteorite ~ aerolite ~ air
stone). Of course, one could always find materials in the wonder cabinets of
the rulers which had fallen to earth and which, depending on the
circumstances, were regarded as lucky or unlucky talismans. Although some
cases of matter falling to earth had been observed by hundreds of witnesses,
the scientific authorities of the day regarded these as somewhat irregular
earthly phenomena. During this period of total disregard for meteorites, two
masses of iron fell to earth in Hraschina near Zagreb, Croatia. The fall
occurred on 26 May 1751, only a few years after Emperor Franz I had acquired
the Baillou natural history collection (1748). The Emperor ordered a report
on the fall from the episcopal syndicate in Zagreb. The report was delivered
to the court in July, together with the iron masses. The most important
piece was incorporated in the Imperial Treasury, and from there, it soon
came to be included in the Imperial Natural History Collection. The 39 kg
iron mass from Hraschina became the founding piece of the Viennese meteorite
collection.

The Protocol of Bishop Klobuczezky and Curate-General Wolfgang Kukuljevic
listed many eye-witness reports in connection with the incident and the
accompanying fire ball. This Protocol later became an important document for
Franz G?ssmann and E.F.F. Chladni, who, on the basis of such reports as well
as the fact that the newly fallen meteorites were covered with molten crust,
could prove that these masses originated from space.

This intellectual proof could have remained useless since, despite a string
of occurrences, the scientific opinion of the times (led by the Academie
Fran?aise) had not changed. Only after the stone rain of L'Aigle (26 April
1803) did the situation change. A member of the Academie, Jean Baptiste
Biot, produced a report, and Messrs. Thenard and Vanquelin, along with the
British chemist Howard, examined the stones. Meteorites have been
acknowledged as extra-terrestrial objects ever since that time.

Shortly after this time, the Viennese collection, taken care of by Abb?
St?tz, comprised 7 meteorites: Hraschina (40 kg); Krasnojarsk (2.5 kg);
Tabor (2.7 kg); Steinbach (1.1 kg); Eichst?dt (126 g); L'Aigle (1.1 kg), and
Mauerkirchen (429 g).

St?tz's successor, Carl von Schreibers, was very interested in meteorites.
He studied them intensively and inspired many of his contemporaries to
investigate them. Among others, his friend Aloys von Widmanst?tten, Director
of the Imperial Factory Products Cabinet, began to study the
extra-terrestrial iron. He described the so-called "Widmanst?tten figures",
named after him. Schreibers and Widmanst?tten also worked together with
other renowned scientists of the time in order to discover more about
meteorites.

The chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth made analyses in Berlin of samples from
Vienna, which were the first analyses ever made of stone and iron
meteorites. J?ns Jakob Berzelius and Friedrich W?hler also co-operated on
this project. Carl von Schreibers can be regarded as the founder of meteoric
science and he construed the study of meteoric science in the same way as it
is followed today, i.e., on the basis of interdisciplinary research. Today,
all natural sciences interact closely in order to extract the cryptic
messages from the solar nebula carried by the meteorites.

The collection grew quickly, also under Schreibers' successors Paul Partsch,
Moriz Hoernes and Gustav Tschermak. Tschermak was particularly keen and
published many research papers, as well as a wonderful book summarising his
observations. His successors Aristides Brezina and Friedrich Berwerth also
continued studying meteorites. This intensive study resulted in a major
growth of the collection: At the turn of the century, it comprised more than
600 different meteorites, many of which were main specimens.

The outbreak of the first World War and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire brought these research activities to an abrupt halt. Austria was
fighting for survival and the curators were fighting to save their
collections. Modest research activities took place under the leadership of
Hermann Michel, but these were rudely interrupted by the second World War.
Again, the major activity was confined to maintaining existing collections.
Michel was able to preserve everything virtually intact throughout the war.
However, the end of the war was not the end of it all: The occupying forces
expressed interest and again, it was a battle to maintain possession of the
collections. Hermann Michel had to resist Russian officers and Hubert
Scholler had to repulse strong attacks made by the American side.

The meteorite collection only began to grow again in the 1970s. The
collections came to life after the extension of the laboratories. A budget
for purchases permitted the acquisition of select contemporary falls and
discoveries. A large fund-raising drive organised by the "Friends of the
Natural History Museum of Vienna" resulted in the acquisition of the "Second
Huss Collection of Meteorites" from the USA - the first acquisition of this
magnitude in the history of the museum. This collection of 125 meteorites,
many of which are main pieces, partly made up for the long war years, during
which no new items were acquired. Lately, two further collections of
meteorite finds from the Sahara have been added, which constitute very
important statistical data on the falls of meteorites during the last 100
000 years. These collections also contain several rare types of meteorites.
In 1997, the historically valuable meteorite collection of Johann G. Neumann
was acquired. Neumann had discovered the "Neumann bands" meteoritic
kamacite.

Since the 1960s, the meteorites in the collection have again been used
intensively for research purposes. In addition, during recent years, also
cosmic dust has been extensively studied. This material has only been
available for research since the beginning of the 1990s, thanks to the
efforts of Michel Maurette (CNRS, Orsay) in making it available to science.
This dust ("micrometeorites") comprises the main mass of extra-terrestrial
material falling to Earth today. The Natural History Museum of Vienna
possesses several hundred of these objects.





Hi Chris,

Some figures:

The museum of the Indian Geological Survey opened in Calcutta in 1856, in
1867 the meteorite collection there already had 247 specimens.

London achieved that number of specimens (250) not before the 1880ies.

Berlin, although they had acquired the collections of Chladni and Klapproth
had in 1864 181 meteorite specimens.

The collection in Moscow owned in 1868 45 specimens.

The Washington collection started in 1870. The meteorite specimens donated
of Smithson were lost in a fire before (has anyone numbers?)

AMNH in New York received its first meteorite in 1872,
The first catalogue published in 1896 lists 55 meteorite specimens.

The Field Museum in Chicago started in 1893 in buying Ward's exhibition from
the World's Columbian Exhibition - 170 specimens.


So I guess, with that tradition, we can fully trust the Indian scientists to
recognize a meteorite :-)

Best!
Martin
Received on Thu 09 Aug 2007 11:44:21 AM PDT