It took many centuries before it was established that stones and pieces of metal, sometimes a few tons in weight, do fall from the sky. These are now known as meteorites. Metallic meteorites are composed of iron and nickel and show a characteristic crystal structure called Widmanstätten after its discoverer. Some meteorites evaporate during impact and leave a crater of a characteristic shape on the surface of the earth.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BiotJean-Baptiste (1774–1862), a graduate of the École Polytechnique in Paris known for his work on the polarisation of light and electromagnetism. He was nominated Professor of Physics at the Collège de France in 1800 and was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1803. In 1804 he participated with Gay-Lussac in the balloon experiment and in 1809 was elected Professor of Astronomy at the University of Paris. He was one of the leading scientists of his day.
2.
ChladniE.: ‘Über den Ursprung der von Pallas gefunden und anderer ihr ähnlicher Eisenmassen, und übereinige damit in Verbindung Stehende Naturerscheinungen’; 1794, Riga, Johann Friedrich Hartknoch. Besides his work on meteorites, Chladni was one of the founders of the science of acoustics.
3.
ProustJoseph Louis(1754–1826), born in Angers, France, spent three years at Vergara in the Seminario Patriotico in Spain. In 1788 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Metallurgy at the Royal Artillery School in Segovia by the King of Spain. He moved later to Madrid and published works on platinum.
4.
ChladniE.: ‘Über Feuer-Meteore und über die mit denselben herabgefallenen Massen. Nebst zehn Steinbruchtafeln und deren Erklärung von Carl von Schreibers’; 1819, Vienna, I. G. Heubner.
5.
BuchwaldV. F.: ‘Handbook of iron meteorites: their history, distribution, composition, and structure’; 1975, Los Angeles, CA, University of California Press.
6.
The name was systematically misspelt ‘Widmannstätten’ in C. S. Smith's ‘A history of metallography’ (see Bibliography).
7.
Personal communication, 14 November1991.
8.
SchützenhoferV.: ‘Aloys von Widmanstätten’, Bl. Technikgesch., 1947, 34–44.
9.
TschermakG.: ‘Die mikroscopische Beschaffenheit der Meteoriten’; 1885, Stuttgart, Schweizerbart. An English translation was published as j. a. wood: Smithsonian Contrib. Astrophys., 1964, 4, (6).
10.
TschermakG.: ‘Lehrbuch der Mineralogie’; 1894.
11.
This figure was obtained by the English scientist Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) when he calculated the gravitational constant in 1798 using the value for the radius of the earth determined by the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes (275–194bc) in Alexandria in 235bc from the shade experiment.
KrinovE. L.: ‘Principles of meteoritics’; 1960, Oxford, Pergamon.
23.
MarvinU. B.: ‘The meteorite of Campo del Cielo, Argentina. Its history in politics, diplomacy, and science’, in ‘Geological sciences in Latin America’, (ed. FigueroaS. and LopesM.), 155–174; 1994, Sao Paolo, Universidade Estadual de Campinas Instituto de Geociencias.
24.
MasonB.: ‘Meteorites’; 1962, New York, NY, Wiley.
25.
MooreC. B.: ‘Researches on meteorites’; 1962, New York, NY, Wiley.
26.
PerryS. H.: ‘The metallography of meteoric iron’, US Natl Mus. Bull., 1944, 184.
27.
RankamaK. and SahamaT. G.: ‘Geochemistry’; 1950, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.
28.
SmithC. S.: ‘A history of metallography’; 1960, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.
29.
WatsonF. G.: ‘Between the planets’; 1941, Philadelphia, PA.
