[meteorite-list] Family Claims Meteorite Fell In TheirCourtyardinIndia

[Stefan Brandes]

>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 Güssmann 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 
Française) 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 Abbé 
Stütz, comprised 7 meteorites: Hraschina (40 kg); Krasnojarsk (2.5 kg); 
Tabor (2.7 kg); Steinbach (1.1 kg); Eichstädt (126 g); L'Aigle (1.1 kg), and 
Mauerkirchen (429 g).

Stütz'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 Widmanstätten, Director 
of the Imperial Factory Products Cabinet, began to study the 
extra-terrestrial iron. He described the so-called "Widmanstätten figures", 
named after him. Schreibers and Widmanstätten 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. Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Friedrich Wöhler 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