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Alais
Padirac wrote/ a écrit:
> Dear Ron, Dear list, The first meteorite where water was found in
> 1835 is Alais or Alès fell down in 1806 and analysed by Berzelius.
> Best regards, Dominique Padirac (France).
Bonsoir Dominique, Hello List!
Dominique a raison / Dominique is right:
1) BERZELIUS J. (1834) Om meteorstenar - IV: Meteorsten fran Alais
(V.A.F. 1834, 152-153; P.A. 1834, XXXIII, 118-123).
2) BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris, Meteorites in History, pp. 167-168:
Berzelius reported his analysis of the Alais meteorite in 1833.
Destructive distillation yielded a blackish substance, i n d i -
g e n o u s w a t e r, carbon dioxide gas, a soluble salt containing
ammonia, and a blackish-brown sublimate, which Berzelius confessed
was unknown to him.
His further analysis of the blackish substance detected silica,
magnesia, iron oxide, alumina, and an insoluble carbonaceous residue,
which amounted to 12 percent of the substance. He had prefaced his
report by asking whether the presence of humus or a trace of other
organic (organischen) compounds might give a hint of the presence of
organic productions on other celestial bodies. His conclusion was that
"the presence of a carbonaceous substance in the meteoritic earth has an
analogy with the humus contained in terrestrial earth, but it is likely
that it was added in a different manner, that it has different
properties, and that it does not justify the conjecture that it has an
analysis analogous to the carbonaceous matter in terrestrial earth." At
the end of his lengthy report on several other meteorites, Berzelius
returned to the Alais stone: "The carbonaceous substance, which is
intermixed with this earth, appears not to justify the conclusion that
organic nature is present at the place of this earth's origin."(*)
Berzelius's remarks may well have been influenced by his belief that
meteorites were ejecta from volcanoes situated in two different areas
of the Moon and his knowledge that the Moon lacked sufficient atmo-
sphere to support life. There was, however, no immediate response to
his conclusion.
(*) Berzelius (1834), 113-123, 143. Nagy did not excerpt Berzelius's
final conclusion. Monge et al. (1806) and Thenard (1806) made reports
on the Alais meteorite. Both reported carbon and w a t e r, but said
nothing about organic matter.
Meilleures salutations d'Allemagne,
Best wishes from Germany,
Bernd
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