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Meteorite Economics -- 1929

As a newbie to this mailing list I have only had time to hunt
for, not meteorites, but meteorite books at the local university
library.  After all the discussion of Monahans and Portales Valley,
I thought the following might be of some interest:

 "On account of the halo which naturally surrounds an object
  of such mysterious origin, meteorites have been eagerly
  sought by collectors--so eagerly, indeed, that stones and
  irons have been divided and subdivided to a degree bordering
  upon the absurd and far removed from scientific.  The desire
  on the part of collectors to secure representatives of the
  fullest possible number of falls has not only led them to bid
  prices foolishly high but has caused a stone--if of only
  moderate size--to be broken into bits and so widely distributed
  that it has been impossible in later years to secure enough for
  study.  Catalogues of collections have been printed in which
  certain rare falls were represented by fragments weighing
  but 0.1 or 0.2 of a gram, or a little larger than the point
  of an ordinary lead pencil.  Prices have soared accordingly and
  instances may be cited in which five or ten dollars a gram has
  been paid.  The small meteorite which fell in Kilbourn,
  Wisconsin, in 1911, and passed through a board in the roof of
  a barn, sold as high as seven dollars a gram, largely on this
  account, as it was a stone of a common chondritic type.
  Obviously a meteorite has no ACTUAL value and these prices are
  not only wholly artificial and unscientific, but silly.  It
  should be added that this condition is due largely to the mere
  collector rather than to the serious student.  Ambitious heads
  of departments in our public museums are, however, by no means
  blameless."

  from "The Story of Meteorites" by Geroge P. Merrill, in "Minerals
     from Earth and Sky," Vol. 3 of the Smithsonian Scientific
     Series, 1929.

I take no sides in the arguments and offer this a bit of history
for your enjoyment.

Cheers,


  
Gregory Walker      gwalker@netcom.com

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