METEORITES — HENDERSON AND PERRY 237 



armies rallied in this battle and defeated Napoleon, the meteorite 

 would doubtless have been taken as a divine symbol that inspired 

 them to victory. 



Not only have meteorites stimulated man's imagination in the 

 more or less remote past, but their scientific study has led to useful 

 discoveries. According to the following quotation from a paper pre- 

 sented at the Second Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, 

 Toronto, Canada, in 1927, by Robert C. Stanley, president of the 

 International Nickel Company of Canada, the first use of iron and 

 nickel alloys was suggested by a study of the Smithsonian collection 

 of meteorites by Samuel J. Ritchie and John Gamgee : 



While Colonel Thompsou was wrestling with the problem of the separation 

 of the nickel and copper, which was subsequently solved by the Orford, and 

 later by the Mond process, Mr. Ritchie had to face the problem of creating a 

 market for his nickel. The World's annual consumption of nickel, in 1889, was 

 four thousand tons, whereas the rich ores of his Canadian mines were ready 

 to turn out twice that amount. The price, which had been $1 a pound or more 

 when the Canadian deposits were first opened up only a few years before, had 

 shrunk to 650 by 1889. The market was heavily over-stocked. German-silver, 

 electroplating and coinage were practically the only uses for the metal. The 

 future of the Canadian industry depended upon the extension of the market by 

 finding new uses for nickel. 



At this juncture Mr. Ritchie recalled an experience some years before in 

 Washington. He had met there John Gamgee, an Englishman, who had inter- 

 ested the Government in the building of a refrigerated hospital ship for treat- 

 ment of yellow-fever patients in the Gulf ports. Gamgee investigated ammonia 

 refrigerating machines but soon found that cast iron would not hold com- 

 pressed ammonia gas. He tried all kinds of alloys. Then, going one day 

 through the Smithsonian Institution with Mr. Kitchie, he saw some nickel- 

 iron meteorites and decided to try such an alloy. IMr. Wharton furnished some 

 nickel with which Gamgee produced a very superior nickel-iron alloy which 

 held the gas. Gamgee's ship was never built but he had demonstrated the 

 possibilities of nickel-iron alloys. 



NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF METEORITES 



The total number of known falls of meteorites for the entire world 

 is about 1,400, which number includes only specimens now preserved 

 in various collections. Not all of these have been studied, and as 

 some of the discoveries lie comparatively close to each other, many 

 of them may when studied be found to be individuals of the same 

 fall. The United States alone has contributed more than 35 percent 

 of the known falls or discoveries. This indicates a keen interest in 

 the subject in this country, because the land area of the United States 

 is a much smaller percentage of that of the entire world. 



The distribution of meteorite localities is far from uniform over 

 our 48 States. The fact that so many meteorites have been found in 

 some States and so few in others may be due to several causes. There 

 are areas where it is difficult to find a meteorite on the ground because 



