FLAMMARION
The " stones fallen from the sky " were formerly
regarded as wonders... It is at the end of the 18 th century that scientists
are interested in this phenomenon... to bury it, of course, as for other
similar problems thereafter:a famous chemist ,Lavoisier, in a report with the
Academy of Science in 1792 affirms that they are ordinary stones struck by the
lightning, in spite of testimonies of people worthy of respect... It is,il
seems to me, the " scientific " behavior of many contemporary
scientists, and one could write about it a large book... Nevertheless, more
intelligent scientists,at the beginning of the 19th century ,after
serious enquireries, declare that they
are stones coming from celestial space..The 19th century will know a series of incredible events in
this field and,in about 1879, one of
the best astronomers of the
time,Camille Flammarion, in his book on " comets " gives a study of
an unequalled value so far. To
summarize in some sentences would be unworthy of me ... more espacially as certain contemporary
spirits have presented Flammarion as whimsical... I thus will quote you
lengthily this work, more than remarkable, extracted from " Comets
and Stars ", quoting which belongs
to its famous " Popular Astronomy “...:
CAMILLE FLAMMARION
(1842-1925)
" Let us arrive now at the fireballs and
the aerolites .
A luminous element of significant size quickly crosses space while spreading on all sides a bright light;it is as a sphere of fire whose apparent size is often comparable with that of the Moon.This body usually leaves behind it a luminous and very sensible trace.Often, during or immediately after its appearance, there is an explosion and sometimes several successive explosions, that are heard from far distances.Often, the explosion is accompanied by the division of the sphere of fire in luminous fragments, more or less numerous, which seem projected in varied directions.This phenomenon constitutes what one calls a meteor or a fireball.It occurs as well at daytime as at nighttime.Besides, one finds sometimes on the ground , solid bodies, stony or metallic, which do not appear to have anything common run with the grounds on which they are lying.Since immemorial times, the vulgar one allotted to these stones an extra terrestrial origin;they are considered as stones fallen from the sky; more than two thousand years ago, the Greeks venerated the famous stone fallen from the sky in the river AEgos ;in the Middle Ages, the chroniclers preserved us naÏfs drawings of these unexplained falls ;several naturalists indicated them under the name of stones of the lightning, thunderstones, because they were considered as matters launched by thunder.One had confused them with iron pyrites found in calcareous grounds;but this old confusion did not prevent the real existence of stony or ferruginous fragments authentically fallen from sky.A rather curious remark, the old traditions, the stories from antic times and from the Middle Ages, the popular beliefs were speaking of stones fallen from the sky in vain, of stones of the air, " aerolites ", the scientists did not want to believe it . Either they denied the fact itself, or they interpreted it differently, looking at the bodies fallen on the Earth as launched by volcanic eruptions, removed on the ground by waterspouts or produced by some matter condensations within the atmosphere.In 1790 ,the famous Lavoisier and in 1800 the whole Academy of Science have declared these things...
This
almost general incredulity of scientists yielded, when Biot made with
the Academy of Science his report on the memorable fall which took place at
Laigle, in the department of Orne,in
April 26 /1803.After a meticulous investigation made into the spot, one could,
indeed, note the perfect exactitude of the circumstances brought back by the
public rumour on this so remarkable fall . Many witnesses were there to affirm
that, a few minutes after the appearance of a large fireball, flying south-east
to north-west and that one had seen at Alençon, Caen and Falaise, an appalling
explosion, followed by detonations, similar to the noise of guns or rifles
,burst out of a black cloud in the clear sky . It precipitated a great number
of meteorites on the surface of the ground, where they had been collected still
smoking, on an extent of ground which did not measure less than three miles
length .
The largest
one weighed less than ten kilogrammes.
Since that
time, many falls were not less authentically noted .Every year one
or several falls had launched one or more pieces being collected,
sometimes broken on the rocks,ou inserted under the ground to several feet of
depth.On July 23,in 1872, by a beautiful day, it fell one near Blois ,at Lancé,
after an explosion that was heard
80km around the place .It
weighed 47 kg, had fallen at 15 meters from a shepherd, naturally amazed, had
been inserted of 1m60 in a field.On next 30 April, another meteorite fell down
near Rome and with such a noise
that the peasants thought the sky had exploded... A more curious thing is that
one hour and half before, one had seen on the sea, in the direction from where
the fireball had arrived, a very luminous immobile mass.On May 14,in 1864, the
fireball fallen at Orgueuil(Tarn-and-Garonne), was seen at a height of 65 km
and from Gisors(Eure)at 500 km of distance.On January 31,in 1879, another one
fell at Dun-le-Poélier(Indre) near a
farmer who thought being dead....One could easily multiply the examples.And
these masses are not unimportant, as one can judge by the following
samples:
Meteortes fallen near LAIGLE (France) in 1803
1-Ferruginous aerolite fallen in 1860 in a sandy plain in Chile,
and weighing 104 kg, sent to Paris for the exhibition of 1867....
2-A stony aerolite fallen
at Murcie in Spain, 24 December 1858, also sent to the exhibition of 1867,
weighing 114 kg....
3-aerolite fallen on 7 November 1492 at Ensisheim(Haut-Rhin),
in front of the Maximilien Emperor, at the head of his army, weighing 158 kg.It
is today in the mineralogical Museum of Vienna.
4-several thousands of
stones fell on June 9,in 1866, at Kriahynia(Hongria), with a terrible thunderous noise; the largest
fragment, which appears in Vienna close to the precedent, weighs 293 kg....
5-block of meteoric stone
which was used since a immemorial time
as a bench at the door of the church of Caille(Alpes-Maritimes. Its weight is
of 625 kg...It was transported to Paris.
6-The mineralogical Museum
of London has an iron mass found in 1788 at Tucaman(Argentina), which weighs
635 kg....
7-Meteoric iron mass found
by Pallas in Siberia in 1749(it is one of the first aerolites identified).It
weighed 700 kg....
8-aerolite of 750 kg fallen in 1810 in Santa-Rosa(Nouvelle Grenade).Its volume is about the tenth of one cubic meter.
9-Aérolite of 780 kg which
was used as an idol in the church of Charcas(Mexique), removed by the care of
the commander of the French expedition
in Mexico, and nowadays in Paris.Height:1 meter.
10-aerolite of 1 meter of
diameter, fallen on December 25,in 1879 in Mourzouk, close to a group of
frightened Arabs.
11 -Le heaviest
aerolite ever authenticated in the collections is that which makes the
ornament of the British Museum .FOUND in 1861 close to Melbourne(Australia).Two
fragments weighing together three thousand kilogrammes, of which one is in
Melbourne and the other one in London.
To these aerolites... let us associate three other planetary
fragments which are still more
considerable....The first one weigth 6350 kg, is in Bahia in Brazil, where it
was discovered in 1816, then analyzed by
Wollaston; the second one weighing more than ten thousand kg, fell in
China... the Mongols, who calls it the Rock of North, tell that this mass fell
during a large fire of the sky.The third one lies in the plain of Tucaman...
Moreover, since immemorial times ,
quantities of celestial iron had fallen from the sky, because the first
instuments manufactured by men were
made out of meteoric iron. .Hence ,in the past time ,the word “sideros” was
used for iron as well as for star...
IRON meteorite....
Their identity with the fireballs is not doubtful any more, since any fall of aerolite comes from a fireball... "
It is here that I stop this long quotation of the work of Flammarion ....This end of quotation is all the more remarkable as it makes it possible to denounce contemporary calumnies .I will quote only one extract of the review " Sky and Space " to prove it .In number 354 of November 1999, it presents the book of Jean Paul Poirier... I am quoting: " Where do those celestial stones come from? Some important learners such as Laplace, Poisson ,Biot and even Olbers (German), leaned for the assumption of a volcanic eruption from the moon.According to the writings of Camille Flammarion, the Moon was to comprise three volcanos, including two extinct?... " Not only one word on the conclusion of Flammarion as for the origin of the meteorites and the fireballs... too lucid conclusion and too near to the truth for these small Messrs... And,one could burst out laughing when reading the end of the article : " the account, richly documented, thus leads to a critical reflexion of the scientific thought” Poor France....
