MancJiester Memoirs, Vol. Ixi. (1917), iNo. 4. 



IV. An Egyptian Meteorite. 

 By Henry Wilde, D.Sc, D.C.L., F.R.S. 



{Received and. read March 6th, igij.) 



In the month of October last year an interesting communi- 

 cation was made to me by Capt. Cyril Norbury, of the 7th 

 Manchester Regiment, respecting the fall of a meteorite which 

 he observed in August, 1916, while engaged in military opera- 

 tions in Egypt at the extreme north of the Sinai Peninsula. 



The fall occurred in the early afternoon, and was attended 

 by a loud whizzing followed by a great thud. It was at once 

 decided that the sounds were caused by an enemy bomb that 

 had failed to explode, but on further search of the spot with a 

 spade where the body had disappeared it was unearthed. 



That the body was an erratic was evident from the fact 

 that no stones of any kind are found in that part of the track- 

 less desert. Capt. Norbury noticed that a portion of the meteo- 

 rite was missing, but although a careful search was made, the 

 missing portion could not be found. He also mentioned in 

 this connexion as a singular coincidence that a similar occur- 

 rence took place at the same time 14 miles away, though the 

 meteorite in that case was never found, but the 6th Manchesters 

 heard a similar buzzing through the air. Capt. Norbury re- 

 turned to England in the autumn of last year, when he kindly 

 placed the meteorite at my disposal. 



I was able to confirm his statement respecting the separa- 

 tion of its parts after entering the atmosphere from the irregu- 

 larity of its natural lines of curvature. The weight of the 

 meteorite is nearly 3.5 lbs., and the missing parts would be 

 about the same weight. The thin pellicle on the surface of the 

 stone (o.02in. deep) through which it becomes vividly incandes- 

 cent during its passage through the atmosphere, is indubitable 

 evidence of its identity with those in the collection of similar 

 meteorites in the British Museum. 



The Egyptian Meteorite is an amorphous silicate, grey 

 in colour, and contains microscopic particles of iron which are 

 diffused throughout the mass, and cause a magnetised needle 

 to adhere to any part of its surface. 



March 2^r(L 191 7. 



