404' Dis. Noeggeratli and Bischof on the largest Mass 



for musket-barrels ; the one cannot be scratched by the other. 

 However, white crude steel-iron from the royal foundry at 

 Hamm, near Altenkirchen, was found to scratch the metallic 

 meteoric mass. 



This iron is not very tough. Pretty large flakes maybe struck 

 into several pieces by a few strokes of a moderately sized 

 hammer ; yet the mass is in some degree ductile, and may be 

 easily filed. At a red and at a white heat it was found to be 

 very brittle, as was the case when worked in its original state 

 at the foundry of Pluwig. A moderate stroke of the hammer 

 on a glowing piece immediately scatters it into innumerable 

 sparkling small fragments, part of them in the form of dust. 



The specific gravity of apiece of this kind, which was most 

 compact and rather sparingly interspersed with the above- 

 mentioned tubular bubbles, was 6"859 at 61° Fahrenheit. 



The metallic mass is apparently attracted as powerfully by 

 the magnet as common iron ; but of polarity there were no 

 signs whatever. 



On boring the masses a smell of sulphuretted hydrogen was 

 perceived ; this was particularly the case when the masses were 

 first dug up and their pores filled with moisture. In this lat- 

 ter state, even the fresh-fractured surfaces showed a strong 

 tendency to oxidation, since in a few hours afterwards they 

 were covered with separate spots of a green colour, and at last 

 presented one entire coat of rust. 



The slag or scoria is of a grayish-black colour, the fracture 

 glistening, of a small and uneven grain, filled more or less with 

 roundish bubbles, the largest being three-fourths of an inch in 

 length, covered here and there with small fine iron-black cry- 

 stals with metallic lustre, which are mostly indistinct, with 

 rounded surfaces, sides and angles; but triangular faces may 

 still frequently be discerned, which in their combination seem 

 to point to an octahedral form, and on the whole exhibit a 

 great similarity to magnetic iron ore. The mass of the slag 

 scratches glass, and is attracted by the magnet. 



It would answer no useful purpose to subject the meteoric 

 substance to a quantitative analysis, since it must have under- 

 gone a change in the proportions of its constituent parts in 

 the process through which it passed in the foundry ; especially 

 as a great quantity of slag was separated from it by that ope- 

 ration : but should any fragments of the original substance be 

 found, (as we have I'eason to hope,) we might then have it in 

 our power to publish an analysis stating the quantity ot its 

 component parts. Experiments were therefore instituted to 

 discover those sul)stances which have been Ibund in meteoric 

 iron. 



I. yhiafi/sis 



