METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 49 



BATH FURNACE 



Bath County, Kentucky. 



Latitude 38° 5' N., longitude 83° 45' W. 



Stone. Intermediate chondrite (Ci), of Brezina. 



Fell 6.45 p. m., November 15, 1902; described 1903. 



Weight: Three stones, 87.3, 5.7, and .2 kgs. (178, 13, and .5 lbs.). 



The first account of this fall was given by Miller, 1 as follows: 



On the evening of November 15, at 6.45 central standard time, a very brilliant meteor was observed in its fall to 

 the earth by many persona in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. 

 Atonce, though at first independently of each other, Prof. H. C. Lord, of the Emerson McMillan Observatory, Columbus, 

 Ohio, and the writer began a series of investigations with a view to determining where it should have fallen. We 

 secured reports from some twenty-five or thirty observers scattered over the States mentioned above; none of them, 

 however, were expressed very definitely in terms of angular measurements, excepting those of Professor Lord and 

 myself, and we evidently had not noted the altitude and azimuth of the meteor at exactly the same point of its 

 descent. Satisfied, however, that if any pieces came to earth, they must have fallen somewhere between Lexington 

 and a point in Elliott County, Kentucky, where an observer saw the meteor to the west of him, I was induced to hunt 

 down a rumor that it had fallen in Bath County, and was rewarded by finding that it had indeed come to earth in the 

 extreme southern portion of that county, and had been picked up by the man who saw it strike the ground. The 

 exact point struck was a stone in the road in front of the home of _Mr. Buford Sta,ton, 5 miles due south of Salt Lick, 

 Kentucky. 



The stone (for it is an aerolite) is roughly 8.5 by 6 by 4 inches, has a volume of 1,642 c. c, and now weighs, with 

 some pieces chipped off for analysis, 5,725 grams, or about 12 pounds 10.5 ounces. It exhibits the usual black crust 

 or varnish, the pittings, the grayish interior, and shows on analysis the disseminated nickeliferous metallic iron. 



It is interesting to note that, though the approximate place of this aerolite's fall was not determined by calcu- 

 lations based upon observations giving the azimuths of the point where it appeared to burst, as seen from different 

 stations — the meteorite itself having been brought in before our investigations had reached the calculating stage — 

 yet had it not been seen to strike the earth, it is not improbable that it would have soon been found as a result of 

 special search. A projection of the lines of observation in accordance with the azimuths of the Columbus and 

 Lexington determinations (S. 15° W. and N. 81° E.) cross in the southern portion of Bath County, Kentucky. 



Ward 2 gave a further account of the fall and description of the stone found, as follows: 



On the evening of November 15, 1902, at about 6.45 o'clock, a brilliant meteor was seen by many persons in the 

 States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, in its progress from southwest 

 to northeast over a course of more than 600 miles. Its passage was simultaneously noticed by two trained observers — 

 Prof. A. H. Miller, of the State College at Lexington, Kentucky, and Prof. H. C. Lord, of the Emerson McMillan 

 Observatory, of Columbus, Ohio. These gentlemen both secured the altitude and azimuth of the point where it 

 appeared to burst and vanish, as seen from their rather widely separated standpoints. Calculations based upon these 

 observations gave the approximative place of the fall, where, indeed, it had already been announced, as in Bath 

 County, Kentucky. The detonations which immediately preceded its descent to the earth were heard over a large 

 area in that region, most persons thinking that they were due to the explosion of nitroglycerin, which is often used 

 in "shooting" wells in the neighboring Ragland oil fields. 



The aerolite, for such it was, came to the earth in the extreme southern part of Bath County, at an old settlement 

 called Bath Furnace. It struck in the middle of the road, directly in front of the home of Mr. Buford Staton. Mr. 

 Staton and his wife at once made search for it, but on account of the darkness they failed to find it that night. The 

 next morning, however, Mr. Staton readily discovered the meteorite lying on the surface of the ground on the side of 

 the road, whither it had bounded. It had lost some small chippings by the collision of its fall, but was in the main 

 quite entire. 



Mr. Staton, in a letter tells me: "It was dark. I saw the light and heard the report. It came through the air, 

 whizzing like a steam saw going through a plank. * * * The stone struck in the middle of our hard road and 

 bounded away for about 5 feet to one side. The hole which it made in the road was about 1 foot long, 9 inches wide, 

 and 5 inches deep." 



The aerolite is in general shape a five-sided polygon, somewhat wedge-shaped when viewed from either the side 

 or the end aspect. Its length is 8.25 inches, height 6.5 inches, width 4.75 inches. The weight of the mass is 12 pounds 

 13.5 ounces. The clippings broken off in the fall, if added, would doubtless make a total weight of just 13 pounds. 

 Its specific gravity is 3.48. 



The stone is covered over its entire surface with a very dark, nearly black, crust. This crust, although abso- 

 lutely opaque and protective, shows itself at the few fractured spots to be very thin, less than a half millimeter thick. 

 It is dull and matte in surface appearance, with a uniform, fine granulation. This is, however, broken at frequent 

 points by minute pimples, interspersed with equally minute angular or slightly lengthened protuberances. None 

 of all of these have an elevation of more than 1 mm. These pimples, where they have been rubbed, show a bright 

 character, and are undoubtedly outside individuals of the minute points of bright iron which are sprinkled some- 

 what abundantly through the entire stone mass. 

 716°— 15 i 



