[meteorite-list] Dessicant, Idealist's View

From: StarHarvest_at_aol.com <StarHarvest_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:14:08 2004
Message-ID: <7476585C.145DB116.40B23FE7_at_aol.com>

My uncle, a resident of Hawaii, raved about how crisp our potato chips were here in the high mountain deserts of Utah. "I can't believe it!", He exclaimed. "The chips have been sitting out all day and haven't even gotten soggy!" My parents used to dry friut by simply spreading the pieces on cookie sheets, covering them with cheesecloth to protect the fruit from flies, and letting the sun and wind do it's job. I used to work in a solar mill operated by Morton Salt. The solar salt business depends entirely on a dry, hot, windy climate. Salt water from the Great Salt Lake is irrigated into shallow ponds early in the spring, and allowed to simply sit. Come fall, the water evaporates, and the residual salt is scooped up by a huge front-end loader, and delivered to the mill where the salt is further dried and sanitized in a kiln, and then milled into various grades of useable salt.

I don't suppose there would be much of a problem here with corrosion blighting a meteorite collection. Yes, we have lots of snow in the winter, but even then, the climate is WAY dry!

Because of Utah's dry climate, I was thinking that here would be a great place to have a WORLD METEORITE CONSERVATORY!....A place where people could come and observe meteorites from around the globe, in a museum-like display. Then I thought of an even more awsome location for such a conservatory....THE DESERTS OF PERU! HEY! can you imagine? Ancient artifacts such as cloth, leather, and desicated mummies have been found there, persevering throughout centuries without corrosion. What if such a thing could be funded? Would it not be wonderful to know that the wonderful meteoritic specimins of today could remain safe throughout the centuries to come, while being displayed and enjoyed by millions?....Your idealist, hopeless dreamer and student, Rand Kluge
Received on Tue 29 Apr 2003 07:33:32 PM PDT