[meteorite-list] Favorite Ordinary Chondrites

From: walter branch <branchw_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:48 2004
Message-ID: <001a01c2ea51$bbee4380$7dcb9f44_at_l1s2m3>

>The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey
>Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of
>the items written in the moments might be old out dated material and the
>reader is advised to keep this in mind.

Thanks to Al for posting these "moments" and I would like
to plug Nininger himself. For those new to meteorites and/or the list,
I would strongly recommend you read Niningers autobiographical
account, "Find a Falling Star." I keep referring to this book as
insperational but that is the best way I can describe. Al rightly
points out that some of the material is outdated but with a publication
date of 1972 that is to be expected.

I know Eric Twelker of the Meteorite Market has some copies
for sale and Martian Horejsi may as well (sorry if I am forgetting
anyone).

"Highly Recommeded"

Okay, back to mowing the lawn (I hate mowing the lawn).

-Walter

---------------------------------------------
www.branchmeteorites.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "almitt" <almitt_at_kconline.com>
Cc: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Favorite Ordinary Chondrites


> Subject: A Nininger Moment 9
> Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 05:32:33 -0500
> From: almitt <almitt_at_kconline.com>
> To: "meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com"
<meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>
> Nininger's Program Of Meteorites
>
> Dr. Nininger was good at both presenting information on his numerous
> talks throughout central and western United States and also at hunting
> them. He would sometimes stop in at a local restaurant for a bite to eat
> and would lay meteorite specimens on the counter so as to generate
> interest that would sometimes uncover new finds. He would go back to
> areas he had asked about specimens before and ask again, always
> offering a reward for a new find. His program was initiated in 1923 and
> by 1950 in the state of Kansas alone where only 15 new meteorites had
> been located in seventy five years prior, he had located an additional 40
> new falls! Perhaps more important was information he was collecting
> with each new field investigation. He was trying to unravel some
> of the assumptions of that time into more factual information produced
> by the types and amount of new falls and finds he or those working with
> him had found. Some of these were the ratios of the different types of
> various falls, such as irons and stony type. Nininger showed that showers
> of stony meteorites were the rule rather than the exception.
>
> Ninginger brought to light over 222 previously unknown falls, that added
> up to over 2,000 individual meteorites during this time frame of hunting.
> Also no doubt that many new falls were also found as an indirect result
> of his program to other institutions, collectors and scientists. A Dr.
Flecter
> Watson of Harvard once wrote in his book " Between The Planets"
> Published in 1941 that Nininger was accounting for half of all the
> discoveries in the world at that time. In 1937 thirty one new discoveries
> were tabulated to have been found due to Nininger's efforts. More than
> three times the amount found in any three years previous for the entire
> world. For all of the finds there were also the pseudo-meteorite finds
that
> totaled some 35,000 specimens that yielded nothing. Nininger figured he
> had published over 150 different papers, four books and two booklets and
> passed out over 200,000 free leaflets in his effort to bring about new
> meteorite finds and information.
>
> Nininger also stated that mankind is not ready to write a chemical
> formula for meteorites as some new varieties have only been encounter
> only once and perhaps some will only fall to our planet once in a 10,000
> year span of time. Of the 1,800 varieties that had been found and
> cataloged at that time, some were only represented by one, two, or three
> falls. He also reasoned that there are some that have never reached our
> planet at all and that we don't have an adequate sample of the over-all
> increment of the meteoritcal matter and I think that is even ringing as
> true today as back then. Often Nininger was told that a fall was all
> hunted out and that no more remained. In his program of finding more
> specimens he would often hunt an area again and find many more new
> specimens. Such was the case of the Plainview where 68.2 pounds had
> been found at the time and was suggested that was all there was to be
> found. Though an additional 1430 lbs were later recovered due to the
> efforts of Nininger and some others.
>
> Source: Find A Falling Star By H.H. Nininger
>
> The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey
> Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of
> the items written in the moments might be old out dated material and the
> reader is advised to keep this in mind.
>
> --AL
>
>
>
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Received on Fri 14 Mar 2003 12:47:07 PM PST