[meteorite-list] looks like slag

[MexicoDoug 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 @ 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