[meteorite-list] Hammer fall term

From: Michael Farmer <mike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:18:54 -0700
Message-ID: <4D5B44F5-015F-4250-AB75-33761A6B1E1D_at_meteoriteguy.com>

Regine,
I completely agree with you,
My two cents: hammer stone is of interest to me and to many collectors I know. I have several house hitting meteorites in my collection from Cali, Thika, Guadalajara, etc with the rooftops they hit. But that goes with a particular stone. One Thika which landed in a coffee field does not in my opinion equal the Thika which went through a house rooftop and has the roof with it. To many collectors the roof piece well documented, has special value. To others perhaps not, but to each his own. However someone trying to add extra value to all Thika stones because one went through a house is his marketing and borders on a scam in my opinion.Of course in the case of Park Forest, so many stones hitting houses and buildings, cars
Err made the headlines, but again, the specialness should be assigned to each stone not the hundred others that just landed on the ground....
To suggest every stone from Sutter's Mill is special because one hit a garage door is ludicrous. However that stone stands out among 60+ and many people are willing to pay to have a piece, or we would not have sold out in a couple of days.

Michael Farmer


Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 12, 2012, at 10:08 AM, "Regine P." <fips_bruno at yahoo.de> wrote:

> Sorry to come up with the subject
> matter again, but I keep thinking about this every now and then and
> would like to add my two cents on it this time.
>
> I agree with the "hammer fall" term being misleading, and so far haven't met anyone who is very fond of it
> except those who actually see it as a market opportunity. On the flip
> side I have met a few who were seriously confused by the term: The
> Sylacauga police chief for example, who sent me a link to an Ebay
> auction, thinking the speck pictured was a piece of the rock which hit
> Mrs. Hodges (it was instead part of the one found by Julius McKinney,
> which has an interesting story by itself and, as far as I'm concerned,
> deserves more attention than a footnote).
>
> I'm quite keen on the stories
> behind hammer stones and the idea that something ancient from out there
> is hitting something random and creates a connection between the sublime and the mundane. "Hammer fall" on the other hand is simply a sales term which does the opposite of creating historical awareness: It completely overshadows all the other aspects (historical or other) of a meteorite
> shower. I'd find it fairly irritating if anyone used the term "L'Aigle
> hammer fall", because one of the pieces (presumably) hit a man on the
> arm. A more recent example is Sutter's Mill - is it an important fall
> because one of the rocks struck a garage door? I feel these falls
> deserve different attributes in their headline, something which is
> perhaps attributable to all or most of the specimens of the fall, such
> as the historic significance, the classification, characteristics or man hours included in searching for the pieces in the strewn field. As
> mentioned before, I'm not referring to the actual stone which hit
> something, as the
> designation is significant in identifying the rock as being the single
> piece falling on something man made.
>
> Cheers,
> Regine
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Received on Tue 12 Jun 2012 01:18:54 PM PDT