[meteorite-list] Strange Rock Reportshvvhox lbvcffi

[Eddie Garza]

On Oct 2, 2009, at 7:43 PM, MEM <mstreman53 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hello Mike, List, Meteorwrong Collectors,
>
> How many kilos do you want? This is a great meteorwrong specific to  
> Pennsylvania highways and railroads.  It makes great target material  
> for testing your meteorite hunting skills with a metal detector.  It  
> is not technically a "slag" as it is an intended bulk ore additive  
> made in that form for ease of shipping and charging blast furnaces.
>
> I believe it is what is known as "Giest Eisen" or "Eisen Giest"-- 
> Spirit iron*-- a cobalt/molybdenum -enriched, iron-ore stock made in  
> the 80 or 90s for the German steel industry by The New Jersey Zinc  
> Company(?) in Palmerton, PA( EPA Super Fund Top 10 and one of my  
> favorite collecting places for radioactive morsels).  The process  
> didn't have as much cobalt as specified(?) or other defect and whist  
> waiting for resolution, NJZC went out of the smelting business in  
> Palmerton.
>
> Bethlehem Steel may also have experimented with the mountains of  
> these which were left in limbo.  A lot of it found its way into road  
> bed filler.  It is magnetic, makes a metal detector sing soprano,  
> and as I said is a realistic acting meteorwrong.
>
> Palmerton's "claim" to fame was a perpetual toxic-fog inversion  
> overlying the town sited between two high ridges in a narrow  
> valley.  This killed the vegetation and left Palmertion looking like  
> a transplanted town from somewhere in Colorado or Utah. It also  
> killed the local residents in particularly persistent fogs.
>
> Elton
>
> * The origin of the name cobalt was attributed to its mysterious  
> nature which made smelting iron difficult or so I thought, but the  
> Wikipedia article gives a different slant.
>> From the Wikipedia article on cobalt's name origin:
> "The word cobalt is derived from the German "kobalt", from "kobold"  
> meaning "goblin", a term used for the ore of cobalt by miners. The  
> first attempts at smelting the cobalt ores to produce cobalt metal  
> failed, yielding cobalt(II) oxide instead. Also, because the primary  
> ores of cobalt always contain arsenic, smelting the ore oxidized  
> into the highly toxic and volatile oxide As4O6, which was inhaled by  
> workers".
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