[meteorite-list] Michael Cottingham's BATH FURNACE meteorite

[Frank Cressy]

Hello Bernd and all,

Just returned from Tucson late yesterday and am
catching up on email.  Bernd is right about Bath
Furnace, it is a very interesting witnessed fall.  So
I thought I'd add a bit more to the story. 

The following link is to an image of a Bath Furnace
part slice from Al Lang's website:

http://www.nyrockman.com/museum/bath-furnace-58.htm

As you can see it has a characteristic mottled
appearance that was apparent when the meteorite was
first broken.  Ward stated: "The inner structure of
the stone...is quite compact and dense, taking a good
polish.  It is a light gray base, blotched evenly
throughout with patches of clove-brown iron oxide. 
Most of these are cloudlike in indefinite
contour...That the brown blotches before referred to
are due to the oxidation of iron can not be doubted;
but as there has been no opportunity for this process
to have gone on, either since the fall of the stone or
during its passage through our atmosphere, the
question is raised as to [where] its having found the
oxygen in the parent body from whence it came?"

The TKW of Bath Furnace is 86.5 kg and the main mass
is the oriented 80 kg stone that Bernd mentioned and
linked.  It is a show piece at the Field Museum of
Natural History in Chicago.  That leaves only 6.5 kg
for other institutional and private collections.  

Cheers,
Frank


--- bernd.pauli at paulinet.de wrote:

> Hello Meteorite Folks,
> 
> I'd like to draw your attention to a highly
> historical US American meteorite,
> a witnessed fall with many appealing details,
> anecdotes, and characteristics!
> 
>
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=1&catref=C12&frpp=25&from=R10&satitle=Bath+Furnace&sacat=3239%26catref%3DC6&sadis=200&fpos=68775&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&seller=1&sass=meteorite-collector&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&fgtp=
> 
> And, let us all wish the Cottinghams the very best
> for the soon-to-happen
> arrival of a yet even more spectacular,
> one-of-its-kind, "sweet" specimen:
> 
> => their baby <= !!!!!!!!
> 
> Now, here are some interesting Bath Furnace tidbits:
> 
> The fall of Bath Furnace, a perfectly
> flight-oriented L6 chondrite in the early evening
> of November 15, 1902 was accompanied by blinding
> light and heavy detonations.
> Fragments were reported to be "singing" as they flew
> through the air. The first piece
> that was found had fallen in the road in front of a
> house. It had struck the ground so
> violently that it cut a furrow in the road! The
> second piece was found one hundred
> yards west of the first piece and #3 about half a
> year later in mid-May of 1903.
> A squirrel hunter noticed a scar on a white oak tree
> and soon found the third stone
> buried about 2 feet deep nearby.
> 
> According to Henry A. Ward, the third piece "has
> gone through the ordeal of a suit
> at law brought by the owner of the land upon which
> it fell, against the man who found
> it. The suit was compromised by the payment of
> several hundred dollars to the finder,
> in consideration of his relinquishing his claim."
> 
> When the original masses were recovered they showed
> a dense, black crust - both
> primary and secondary. Direct evidence that
> atmospheric break-up of the meteoroid
> must have occurred high up in the air. High enough
> to trigger the development of a
> secondary crust.
> 
> Henry Ward describes the third mass found as "one of
> the most completely furrowed
> and definitely oriented aerolites known to science.
> We know no stone of American fall
> which equals it in this respect. The furrowing of
> the front side is most complete. These
> furrows radiate from the apex in all directions,
> covering that surface and streaming back
> upon and over all the sides."
> 
> Henry Ward even came to the conclusion that Bath
> Furnace had been furnished by the
> Leonid shower, an assumption based on the fall date
> of the meteorite which happens to
> coincide with the date of the Leonid shower!
> 
> Returning to the description of the Bath Furnace
> chondrite Ward states that there are
> "abundant sparkling points of nickel iron".
> 
> The online Encyclopedia of Meteorites has a
> photograph of the beautifully regmaglypted
> main mass but says "Photograph from unknown source".
> Well, the source is Henry Ward:
> 
> Proceedings of The Rochester Academy of Science,
> vol. 4, pp. 193-202, Plate 19.
> Notes on the Bath Furnace Aerolite (By Henry A.
> Ward). Rochester, N.Y.
> Published by the Society, August 21, 1905
> 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Bernd
> 
> 
> P.S.: Yes, of course, I've purchased some BF pieces:
> 2.56 + 0.38 + 0.37 grams and I can
> hardly wait for their arrival (as usual ;-)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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