[meteorite-list] this day in meteorite history

[al mitterling]

Greetings All,

At the time of the Ensisheim meteorite fall it was actually considered 
supernatural and a miracle of God as nothing has been seen like this before. 
It was chained down so as to keep it from leaving in the same manor it had 
came.

The beginning of acceptance of meteorites were from the time of Peter 
Pallas, Ernst Chladni, Edward Howard and Jean Baptiste Biot.

In 1794, Chladni published a German paper on the Pallas Iron suggesting it 
came from outside of the Earth's confines and other specimens like it, 
including stony material. He suggested these were coming from outer space. 
He was ridiculed by the scientific community of that time until several 
falls with so many witnesses that it began to have some credibility to it. 
The L'Aigle, France fall was one of these. A young scientist Jean-Baptist 
Biot, was sent to investigate. He found that so many of the witnessed 
reports told of the same thing and in such exacting detail that the 
phenomena must be true. Wold Cottage which fell late in 1795 and another 
Italian fall also secured believe in the nature of meteorite falls and 
origins. Certainly the Ensisheim Fall added credibility to meteorites coming 
from space but was not widely witnessed.

Most people of the era before simply thought that stones falling from the 
sky were simply a terrestrial phenomena and called them thunderstones or had 
some supernatural meaning.

Best!

--AL Mitterling



----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Greg Catterton" <star_wars_collector at yahoo.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 5:34 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] this day in meteorite history

> On this day in meteorite history...

Ensisheim meteorite impact
On November 7, 1492 the Ensisheim meteorite fell in France. This is a very 
historic fall that help to prove that meteorites did indeed come from space 
and is the oldest known witnessed fall.