A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Aerolite shower in Sweden in 1869

 Academy Newspaper Thursday 15^th December 1870

 

The Aerolitic Shower at Hessle.

This meteoric fall, the first recorded to have taken place in Sweden, occurred at 12.20 p.m. on Ist January, 1869, in the neighbourhood of Hessle, three Swedish miles from Upsala.

Prof. Nordenskjold, who announced the shower last year, has now issued (Poggendorff’s Annalen, No. 10, 1870) a detailed account of the physical and chemical characters of the stones, and the phenomena attending their descent. They were strewn over a line of country lying 30° E. of S. towards 30° W. of N.

Some fell within a few yards of peasants leaving church, another fell close to a fisherman on the Malar Bay Larsta-Viken, dug a hole 3 to 4 inches deep in the ice, and rebounded; when picked up, it was still warm. The noise accompanying the fall, which was heard in Stockholm, is described as resembling some very heavy thunderclaps, followed by a rattle like the passing of waggons at a gallop, and ending with first a note like an organ tone and then a hissing sound, the whole lasting some minutes.

 The sky was cloudy, and though apparently unseen at Hessle itself, a luminous meteor was noticed by observers at a distance. The stones vary greatly in size, some weighing nearly 2 lbs., the smallest (and the little ones were numerous) only 0'07 gramme.

Though of sufficiently loose structure to break in pieces when thrown with the hand against the floor or frozen ground, it is remarkable that nearly all the specimens are intact, and that some of the stones weighing 2 lbs. which struck the ice of the Larsta-Viken, failed to penetrate it, though its thickness on that day did not exceed a few inches. These facts support the statements of eyewitnesses as to their remarkably small downward velocity.

These meteorites present no unusual aspect, and resemble in particular those of Aussun and Clarac, Haute-Garonne, which fell on the 9th December 1858. Their exterior is black; within they are bright grey, and sufficiently porous to cling to the tongue, whence it is concluded that their mass has not undergone fusion, as would be required by the theory of Laplace.

 Chemical analysis proved them to be composed of about 20 per cent. of nickeliferous iron (chamoisite, Fe,Ni); some schreibersite, and rather less than 1 per cent. of what was probably chromite; a variable amount of iron monosulphide (troilite) ; a trace of carbon, probably in the form of a hydrocarbon; traces of salts soluble in water; about 10 per cent. of labradorite or anorthite; 37 per cent. of olivine; and 23 per cent. of shepardite. These silicates, it should be remarked, were not isolated for examination, but are assumed to be present from calculations based on the results of an analysis of the mass.  The researches of Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Laurence Smith have shown the 

                                               www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk