322 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL.- XIII. 



MURFREESBORO. 



Rutherford County, Tennessee. 

 Latitude 35° 50' N., longitude 86° 25' W. 

 Iron. Medium octahedrite (Om) of Brezina. 

 Found? described 1848. 

 Weight, 8.5 kgs. (19 lbs.). 



The first account of this meteorite was given by Troost * as follows: 



To these 10 aerolites (of Tennessee) I add now an eleventh meteoric mass of iron, discovered a few months since, a 

 few miles from Murfreesboro, in Rutherford County, Tennessee. 



The history of its discovery is similar to that of the generality of these meteorites. Nothing is known of its fall; it 

 was accidentally discovered by gold and silver hunters, and being at first considered as containing these precious metals 

 it was kept a profound secret till it was found out to be iron, when no difficulty was made to part with it for a pecuniary 

 consideration. When this discovery is made, these aerolites generally get into the hands of those that know how to 

 appreciate them; and such is also the history of the Rutherford iron. 



The mass as it first came into my possession (only a very small part being chiseled off) weighed about 19 pounds; it 

 had an irregular oval shape and was surrounded with a crust of about 2 mm. in thickness, resembling the brown hydroxide 

 of iron, the pure metal being here and there visible. This metal has the common luster of iron; its fracture is very 

 crystalline and it is very malleable though harder than any of the Tennessee meteoric irons, having taken longer time 

 to be sawed. 



The specimen of it in my collection weighs 10 pounds 14 ounces; it has a polished surface of an irregular elliptical 

 form 10 by Cinches diameter, exhibiting fine Widmannstatten figures of a rhomboidal and triangular form. 



It seems pretty free from intermixture with other matter, only one circular mass of 0.3 inch in diameter is brought 

 to light on the sawed surface which, judging from its structure and the action of acid upon it, I am inclined to consider 

 as sulphuret of iron (magnetic pyrites) ; on the other surface are two small cavities, one of about 0.2 and the other 0.1 of 

 an inch in diameter; with these exceptions the metal is homogeneous and compact. 



From an imperfect analysis to which I have subjected it, it appears to contain less nickel than any of the Tennessee 

 meteoric masses, being composed of 96 iron, 2.40 nickel, and 1.60 matter not examined. 



Shepard 2 remarked the presence of two small cavities in the iron, one 0.2 and the other 0.1 

 of an inch in diameter. 



Brezina 4 in 1885 made -the iron the type of a group among the medium octahedrites. He 

 gives the width of the lamellae as 0.75 mm. and remarks that they are less sharply bounded than 

 those of Cross Timbers and Werchne Udinsk. 



Meunier 5 makes the following observations : 

 This iron gives the characteristic figures of the caillite type. The kamacite is characterized by vhe distinctness of 

 the Neumann lines, which give the etched surfaces a peculiar watered appearance. 



In 1895 Brezina 8 remarked further: 



It is evident from two different positions of the same portion of this iron with reference to the light that the oriented 

 luster of the laminae run in at least three directions since in the case of these two positions there is not shown a complete 

 reversal of the illumination. 



The meteorite is distributed, Harvard possessing 2,428 grams and the British Museum 

 2,794 grams. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1848: Troost. Description of a mass of meteoric iron discovered near Murfreesboro', Rutherford County, Tennessee. 



Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 5, pp. 351-352. (Analysis.) 



2. 1853: Shepard. Potassium in the meteoric iron of Ruffs Mountain, South Carolina. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., 



vol. 15, p. 6. 



3. 1862: von Reichenbach. No. 20, p. 622. 



4. 1885: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 210 and 233. 



5. 1893: Meunier. Revision des fers m&eoriques, pp. 52 and 55. 



6. 1895: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, p. 276. 



MURPHY. 



Cherokee County, North Carolina. 

 Latitude 30° 10' N., longitude 84° W. 

 Iron. Hexahedrite (H) of Brezina. 

 Found 1899. 

 Weight, 7.7 kgs. (17 lbs.). 



This meteorite was first described by H. L. Ward * as follows: 

 In May of the present year we received word from Mr. W. B. Lenoir that he had what he supposed to be a meteorite 

 that he desired to sell. Upon request he forwarded it to us; and a superficial glance at the well-pitted surface was 

 sufficient to determine that it was a siderite. 



