[meteorite-list] NPA 10-25-1975 I Remember..The New Concord Meteorite

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: The Advocate
City: Newark, Ohio
Date: Saturday, October 25, 1975
Page: 7

'I Remember, I Remember'

Minnie Hits Moody
The New Concord Meteor

     It has amazed me, these past few years, considering the meteoric rise 
of the fame of John Glenn, of whom Guernsey County may well be proud, that 
nobody has brought up the subject of the Guernsey County Meteor, frequently 
mentioned with awe even this far away when I was a child - Guernsey County 
then considered a remote spot, a full day's journey distant by Ohio Electric 
and B. & O., counting the wait in Newark and Zanesville to change lines and 
cars.
     Grandpa even had a souvenir of the meteor, one of the many stones which 
it scattered.  It had been given to him some time afterward - he was not on 
the scene.
     According to Prof. Elias Loomis of Yale College (as it then was called) 
writing in Harper's Magazine for June, 1868, this meteor was one of the most 
remarkable then on record because of the large quantity of stones which fell 
to the earth.  His article entitled, "Shooting Stars, Detonating Meteors and 
Aerolites," gives just about all the facts we know now, more than a century 
later, about this remarkable incident.
     Henry Howe, author of "Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio," also 
tells us a few particulars.
     On the 1st of May 1868, about half an hour after noon, an aerolite 
exploded over the western border of Guernsey County a little east of the 
village of New Concord.  As it approached the earth, its brilliance nearly 
equaled that of the sun.  A great number of distance detonations were heard, 
like the firing of canon, after which the sounds became blended together and 
were compared to the roar of a railway train.  Several stones were seen to 
fall to the ground, and they penetrated the earth from two to three feet.  
The largest weighed 103 pounds, and is (date of 1868), preserved in "the 
cabinet of Marietta College." (Here I quote Yale's Professor Loomis.)
     Another stone was found which weighed 53 pounds; a third 51 pounds; a 
fourth between 40 and 50 pounds, and a fifth weighed 36 pounds.  A small 
one, weighing about 15 pounds is preserved in "the cabinet of Yale College." 
  After 30 stones were found; the entire weight of all the fragments was 
estimated at 700 pounds.  Grandpa's stone was of trifling size, small enough 
to be held in the hand of a child.  I looked for it in his desk when I was 
preparing this column, but it was not in the customary small drawer where he 
kept it.  Which is hardly surprising.  Grandpa has been dead 66 years.
     Owing to the cloudy state of the atmosphere near New Concord on May 1, 
1860, conditions were unfavorable for accurate observation of the meteor's 
position in the heavens.  It has been computer, however, that the meteor 
moved northwest; that its path was almost horizontal and its elevation about 
40 miles above the earth's surface.  The velocity of the Weston meteor 
relative to the earth was about 15 miles per second.  Professor Lommis then 
adds, as of 1868, that there were 18 well-authenticated cases in which 
aerolites had fallen during the last 60 years, and their aggregate weight 
was 1,250 pounds.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
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PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my 
website), are available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list 
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is 
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.