www.niger-meteorite-recon.de Meteoritica go to page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | historic sources for sale Inventory # C 040 Account Of The Discovery And Bringing Home Of The "Saviksue" or Great Cape York Meteorites By Lt. Robert E. Peary, In: Northward over the "Great Ice": A Narrative of Life and Work along the Shores and upon the Interior Ice-Cap of Northern Greenland in the Years 1886 and 1891-1897. 2 Volumes. New York 1898 Stunning account on the discovery and salvage of the three Cape York meteorites by the discoverer himself. Peary explains how almost every expedition that went north in the area of Melville bay since 1818 tried to solve the mystery of the "Iron Mountain". Since the iron that was discovered on Disco Island had prooved to be telluric the scientists doubted a meteoritic origin of the legendary Iron Mountain that only the Inuit had seen until then. Peary made several unseccessful attempts to reach the northern shore of Melville bay until he ans his Eskimo scout finally reached the location of the meteorites by sledge in May 1894. In summer 1884 Peary made an attempt with his ship the Falcon to penetrate the ice of Melville bay and to embark the meteorites. This operation failed due to an unusual harsh summer in this region of the arctic circle and he could not get within 30 nautical miles of his "prizes". Another attempt was scheduled for the summer of the following year. The Inuit told Peary that they themselves had made an attempt to carry away a section of the "Woman" a couple of generations before Peary arrived at the scene. A portion of the upper body of the woman had become detached because of the constant chiseling away of fragments over the centuries. When the head came off, a party of Inuit from Peterahwik lashed it to a sledge to carry it away in order to have a more convenient supply of the precious metal and to save themselves the long and arduous journey to Cape York and into Melville bay. "When well out from the shore the sea ice suddenly broke up with a loud noise, and the head disappeared beneath the water, dragging down with it the sledge and dogs. The Eskimos themselves narrowly escaped with their lives and since then no attempt has been made to carry away any but the smallest fragments of the heavenly woman". In late August 1895 "woman" and "Dog" were transported to the shore and secured to Peary's ship "Kite". These were the first of the Greenland meteorites to arrive in the US. In 1896 after Peary had chartered a larger ship suitable for the huge load Ahnighito was excavated in a ten day effort with a full village of Eskimos hired as workmen. Then a "road" was cleared and the massive meteorite was hauled down to the shore in an act of unprecedented endeavor. However as a civil engineer Peary was well prepared for the tremendous task. With hydraulic jacks, the largest ones Peary was able to obtain, the meteorite was lifted from its bed: "... and as it rose slowly inch by inch under the resistless lift of the hydraulic jacks, gradually displaying its ponderous sides, it grew upon us as Niagara grows upon the observer, and there was not one of us unimpressed by the enormousness of this lump of metal." It was not before 1897 that work was completed and Ahnighito was embarked on the Hope in last six day effort. Before Peary ends his account with a description of the recovered masses and letters of Weinschenk and Brezina confirming that the samples indeed represent an iron meteorite, Peary acknowledges the "invaluable assistance" of his "faithful little band of Eskimos", who "did all they could to put into my possession the Iron Mountain of their forefathers." Inventory # C-065 Ueber den Tauschwerth der Meteoriten Von E. A. Wuelfing, Separat-Abdruck aus dem Neuen Jahrbuch Für Mineralogie und Palaeonthologie, Jg. 1899. Bd 1. S. 115-118. Stuttgart 1899 Wuelfing's brief paper "On the trade value of meteorites" can be considered as one of the primary sources of information on the 19th century conditions of the inter-institutional meteorite trades. By naming eight factors determining the value of a meteorite such as total weight of the class, known number of owners, costs of recovery, probability of future falls of the respective class, individual weight and character, Wuelfing deduces a complex formula to calculate the individual value of a given meteorite. As so often the icing on the cake in scientific treatises comes from the footnotes. There Wuelfing admits that some curators seem to have had problems implementing his sophisticated value calculation in their trades with dealers. On page 116 he quotes an English correspondant to Nature: "As regards the pecuniary values to be assigned to the meteorites, we are afraid that the dealers will eschew all such mathematical calculations as are suggested by the author, and will in each case get, as heretofore, what they can". We also owe Wuelfing the documentation of a debate on a trade between a 19th century collector and the curator of an institutional collection (image above). The collector offered a 268g plate of Vaca Muerte and the institutional curator sent him a list of meteorites (top table) which the collector thought would undervalue his offer. To proove his point he responded with another list that listed meteorites he had received from a different institutional collection and which he had traded for a 171g plate of Vaca Muerte (bottom table). Unfortunately Wuelfing does not report how the dispute ended. click to continue go to page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | historic sources for sale     © 2001-2008 NigerMeteoriteRecon