s — Meteoric Iron from North Carolina. 



A lump oi the Emmetl ('<>.. Iowa, iron meteorite was placed 

 upon the lower carbon of an arc lamp and vaporized by the 

 pas the current. The light given bj the meteor vapor 



was found, on the average, equal to that or 40 candles. The 

 galvanometer deflection by the meteor at a certain distance 



mi the thermograph was 223*2 scale divisions. At the same 

 distance the candle gave a deflection of 55*4 divisions. From 



this we see that for a given expenditure of energy the arc of 

 meteor vapor gives 1" times the Light of the candle. Dividing 

 the value of m obtained above by 1<>. we have /// = OO'i'.l gm. 



the mass of a meteor giving the light of a star of the first 

 magnitude, moving with nearly the parabolic velocity and 



Qg for •_ ids. 



Bowdoin College. March 12, 1890. 



Art. L. — Meteoric Iron from North Carolina; by 



L. Gk Eakins. 



The iron hare described was found in the latter part of 1880 

 on a farm near Ellenboro', Rutherford Co., !N". C, and its na- 

 ture remained unknown until February, 1890, when it was 

 brought for examination to Mr. Stuart W. Cramer of the U. S. 

 Assay office at Charlotte, X. C, who ascertained that it was a 

 meteorite and secured half of the mass. This portion was sent 

 by Mr. Cramer to the U. S. National Museum for description, 

 and the iron was cut and divided between the Museum col- 

 lection and that of the Assay office. 



The weight of the original mass, as near as can be deter- 

 mined, was about 2,200 grams; in shape it was roughly two 

 globular ends with a connecting bar, the total length being 

 about ir>u :iim , with end diameters of -T5" ,m , and 50 mm in the 

 middle. 



The iron is very tough and highly crystalline, the Widman- 

 Btatten figure showing distinctly on a polished, unetched face, 

 and after etching they are unusually strong. Small, irregu- 

 larly distributed patches of troilite are visible and schreiber- 

 •ems to be present. On account of the small amount 

 of material that could be secured for analysis no attempt was 

 made to determine carbon, and the sulphur found shows that 

 very little troilite happened to be included in the material 

 analyzed, which, of course, in such highly crystalline material 

 could not represent the actual average composition without cut- 

 ting up a large part of the mac 



