[meteorite-list] 1903 Saline Meteorite, Farrington NPA

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: The Arizona Republican
City: Phoenix, Arizona
Date: Thursday, March 5, 1903
Page: 10 (of 16)

Under "CURRENT COMMENT"

The Story of a Meteorite.

     Professor Farrington of the Field Columbian museum, is reported to have 
found free phosphorus in a meteorite discovered in Saline county, Kan.
     In some comments upon this discovery it is said that free phosphorus is 
not found in terrestrial substances.  Hence the deduction that meteorites 
come from outside space.  This may be a confirmation of an old deduction.  
It certainly is not new.  It has long been the belief of scientists that 
meteorite come from space out side our planet.
     It is a further deduction, we are told, that "meteorites are not hot, 
as is generally supposed, but come from extremely cold places somewhere out 
in space."
     Let us not be so unjust to Professor Farrington as to suppose he talks 
like that.  He knows it is not generally supposed that meteorites are hot, 
so long as they are in space. But when they enter our atmosphere the 
friction makes them hot.  In fact, the heat so generated disintegrated them, 
so the only those of considerable size reach terra firma in sold form.
     Professor Farrington would not be likely to talk about "very cold 
places somewhere out in space."  We have no very good reason to believe that 
far out in space one place is much colder than another or that there is 
enough oxygen anywhere there to prevent the existence of free phosphorus.
     A more interesting deduction is that either a meteorite containing free 
phosphorous can never come from a warm place where oxygen is prevalent, like 
our planet or else that if it was projected into space from such a planet or 
sun the extreme cold or other influence of space has the effect to 
chemically separate phosphorus from other substances.
     The presence of free phosphorus in a meteorite is certainly very 
interesting, whether we consider the phenomenon of the persistence of 
phosphorous in this state in spite of the great heat generated in the 
meteorite by passing through our atmosphere or speculate upon the possible 
origin of a body containing phosphorus in that state.
     The fact seems to suggest the existence of matter which has never been 
associated with the great masses of matter - suns and planets - where heat 
is believed always to be present or to have been present at some time - 
Chicago Chronicle.

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