474 



METEOEIC IRON. 



METEORS. 



salt of phosphorus, gave a blue bead, and then, 

 when heated in the same flame with a minute 

 particle of green vitriol, became blood-red. 

 From these experiments it appeared that the 

 heavy metal from the foundery was an alloy in- 

 cluding a considerable quantity of tungsten. A 

 number of experiments were now made for 

 the purpose of determining its exact compo- 

 sition, and the following final results were 

 obtained : 



38.23 



61.77 



Sesquioxide of iron 



Protoxide of iron 28.12 



Protoxide of nickel 2.00 



Protoxide of cobalt . trace 



Tungsten. 

 Iron . . , 



100.00 



Of the 61.77 grains of iron, 41.46 were taken 

 up by hydrochloric acid. The residue, amount- 

 ing to 20.31 grains, had to be removed by flux- 

 ing- the undissolved portion of the alloy with 

 a mixture of nitre, carbonate of soda, and 

 common salt, by which the iron was oxidized 

 and the tungsten converted into tungstic acid. 



METEORIC IRON. Professor Charles Up- 

 ham Shepard, of Amherst College, gives to the 

 American Journal of Science a description of 

 a fine specimen of meteoric iron, ploughed up 

 in April, 1868, on the farm of Mr. Michael Sul- 

 livan, two and a half miles southwest of Lost- 

 town, Cherokee County, Ga. It weighs 6 Ibs. 

 10 oz., and has very strikingly the form of a 

 human foot. Its color is almost perfectly 

 black, and is wholly free from stains of iron- 

 rust. It evinces no tendency to exfoliation; 

 nor is it uniformly covered by a fused coating. 

 Widmannstattian figures are visible directly in 

 one portion of the surface. The indentations 

 are broad and shallow, though, on the whole, 

 well pronounced. A thin slice, weighing twen- 

 ty-seven grammes, was sawn from the heel end 

 of the mass. The hardness proved uniform, no 

 pyrites having been encountered in the section. 

 The specific gravity of the fragment is 7.52. 

 On being etched with a dilute nitric acid, very 

 beautiful Widmannstattian figures were pre- 

 sented, not quite identical with any with which 

 Professor Shepard is acquainted, but most near- 

 ly resembling those of the Seneca Lake iron 

 the difference between the two consisting main- 

 ly in a less breadth to the bars by about one- 

 third, in the former of these irons. At the 

 date of his communication, he had found time 

 only to examine the filings (or, rather, sawings) 

 of this iron for sulphur and nickel. The first 

 is wholly wanting, while the latter is abun- 

 dantly present. 



M. Stanislaus Mennier, of the Museum at 

 Paris, has been analyzing varieties of meteoric 

 iron. A quantitative analysis of the specimen 

 discovered in 1784, in the valley of Toluca, 

 Mexico, gave the following results : 



Nickeliferous iron * 96.301 



Graphite 1.176 



Troilite 1.482 



Schreibersite.. . 1.232 



Total 



99.05 



These numbers (for the crust) agree with the 

 formula Fe 2 3 (FeNi)0, which does not differ 

 from that of magnetite, except by the substitu- 

 tion of a small portion of nickel for a corre- 

 sponding quantity of the iron of the protoxide. 



M. Mennier finds that gases do not exist in 

 appreciable quantity in the meteoric irons 

 which he examined. One mass, from Siberia, 

 gave him a small bubble of gas, having the 

 composition of atmospheric air; but it should 

 'be remarked that the iron was cracked. Among 

 the rare substances discovered by him in me- 

 teoric iron are chromite and proto-chloride of 

 iron. Their separation was easy, and their 

 character identical with that of analogous ter- 

 restrial compounds. 



A meteorite, weighing 2 pounds 5 ounces, 

 which fell, March 20, 1868, in Griqua erri- 

 tory, South Africa, was brought to England by 

 Mr. J. K. Gregory, and a portion analyzed by 

 Prof. Church. Its composition was : 



Nickel iron 29.72 



Troilite 6.02 



Schreibersite 1.59 



Silica and silicates 61.53 



Oxygen, other substances, and loss 1.14 



Total 



100.00 



Total .100.191 



The external crust of the Toluca iron had 

 the following composition : 



METEORS. A meteoric shower hardly less 

 remarkable than that of November 14, 1867, 

 occurred on the same date in 1868. People 

 generally either did not know that a shower 

 was due, or did not take sufficient interest in 

 it to sit up and watch for it. But in various 

 parts of the country scientific men were on the 

 alert, and a larger number of accurate observa- 

 tions were probably taken than on any pre- 

 vious similar occasion. The editor would 

 express his obligations to the American Jour- 

 nal of Science, from which, and other less 

 important sources, were derived the data of 

 the following account. 



Professor H. A. Newton, with a corps of 

 assistants, conducted the observations at New 

 Haven. They commenced counting at 12, 

 midnight. The party then consisted of seven 

 or eight persons, but was enlarged to twelve, 

 and toward morning fell off to seven or eight 

 again. To each person was assigned a direc- 

 tion to which he was to look. To avoid dupli- 

 cation, the counting was done aloud ; each 

 meteor, whether seen by one or by several 

 persons, was counted once, and once only. 

 Such, at least, was the aim of the party ; and 

 probably few meteors were lost at first. But, 

 after a time, as the meteors became more 

 abundant, it was evident that many were lost 

 in the counting. Afterward, therefore, Pro- 

 fessor Newton directed the members of the 

 party to count silently during intervals which 

 he carefully limited by the watch. Immediately 



