Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites, 119 



brown powder. A freshly fractured lustrous surface of one of the 

 masses commenced in one corner to rust, expand and crumble away ; 

 while the remainder experienced no change, till at length the oxida- 

 tion extended into the interior and the whole fell to pieces. In a 

 hermetically sealed glass tube the iron is preserved unchanged ; but 

 in another tube with a fine crack oxidation continued. In alcohol 

 no change takes place ; in air, dried by sulphuric acid, the change 

 is greatly impeded. Attempts to preserve them by coating them with 

 varnish were of slight avail. The cracking is caused by dilatation, 

 and takes place with such force that masses of metal, on which 

 chisel and saw were without effect, are broken and bent out of 

 shape during oxidation. 



Nordenskjold found that a fragment of the largest iron, when 

 heated to redness, gave off more than 100 times its volume of 

 a gas which had a bituminous smell. It was evidently gas not 

 simply occluded by the metal, but was produced by the decomposi- 

 tion of " the organic matter in the meteorite," through the reducing 

 action of those compounds on the oxide of iron associated with 

 them. When such iron is treated with mercury chloride but little 

 gas is evolved ; in aqua regia it dissolves, leaving in some cases 

 a carbonaceous residue, in others very' little residue of any kind ; 

 by the action of hydrochloric acid a gas is given off which has a 

 penetrating odour resembling that of some hydrocarbon. By treat- 

 ment with acid a humus-like compound appears to be generated, 

 which is soluble in ammonia, insoluble in acid, and can be oxidized 

 only with difficulty by long boiling with very strong acids. 



In Nordenskjold's paper are given the earliest analyses of these irons : 

 I. Fragment of one of the large iron masses : this specimen evolved more gas 

 than II. and III. Specific gravity = 5-86 — 6-36. Analysed hy Nordenskjold. II. 

 Fragment of iron, more compact and less crystalline than L, probably from the 

 basalt ridge. Small grains were observed to be malleable. The specimen from 

 which this was taken subsequently crumbled away. Specific gravity = 7' 05 — 7'06. 

 Analysed by T. Nordstrom. III. Fragment of iron from the basalt ridge, which 

 exhibited well-marked "Wiedmanstattian figures. In external appearance this iron 

 exactly resembled II. Specific gravity = 6 - 24. Analysed by G. Lindstrom. 







I. 



84-49 

 2-48 

 0-07 

 0-27 

 0-20 

 1-52 

 0-72 " 



004 



0-05 

 10-16 



II. 



1-64 

 0-35 

 0-19 

 0-07 

 0-22 

 1-16 

 0-24 

 0-48 

 0-29 

 0-07 

 0-14 

 0-66 

 4-37 



3-71 



Carbon... 

 Hydrogen 



III. 



93-24 



Nickel 





1-24 



Cobalt 





0-56 



Phosphorus 





0-19 

 0-03 



Sulphur 





1-21 



Chlorine 





0-16 









Magnesia 





trace 

 008 







0-12 









Insoluble portion.. 





[ 0-59 



Carbon, Organic Matter, j 

 Oxygen, and Water ... \ 



2-30 

 . 0-07 



100-00 99-93 99-79 



Nordstrom analysed the carbonaceous residue of the compact iron 



