Waldau meteorite fall

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Waldau meteorite fall
Locality allegedly between Kaimling and Waldau ; but probably L'Aigle , Department de l'Orne, Normandy , France
Fall time allegedly in 1809, the week before Pentecost, at around 9 o'clock; More likely: April 26, 1803 as a rain of stones with about 3,000 fragments (a total of 37 kilograms)
description L6 chondrite , weighing around 250 grams
authenticity Real meteorite , wrong location

The Waldau meteorite fall in 1809 is the name of an impact event in Germany. In the week before Pentecost, a meteorite is said to have fallen on a small hill in the Upper Palatinate .

Case history

The Munich mineral dealer Jakob Frischholz offered a meteorite from the Upper Palatinate for sale as a rarity on November 11, 1811 .

In 1858 this meteorite appeared in the mineralogical collection of the University of Zurich . The object has been preserved there to this day, but as the " Meteor stone from L'Aigle in Normandy in France ". Gustav Adolf Kenngott , Professor of Mineralogy at the Federal Polytechnicum and at the University of Zurich in the second half of the 19th century, explained the obvious contradiction as follows:

“The collection of the local university has a meteor stone which is said to have fallen in 1809 near Waldau in the Upper Palatinate (Baiern) and about which no further news has been known so far. In the interests of science, I consider it advisable to make a communication about it and to express my opinion that I consider this meteor stone to be one from Aigle, from which on April 26, 1803 very many, 2,000 to 3,000 pieces, fell. "

In addition, Gustav Adolf Kenngott and David Friedrich Wiser, a well-known Zurich merchant and private scholar collecting minerals, determined the rock on the meteorite in question and came to the same conclusion. Their conclusion: It is completely similar to the meteor stones from L'Aigle. However, it could not be clearly proven that the Waldau meteorite is really an L'Aigle: ETH Zurich has no geochemical analyzes of the rock.

A piece was cut off for research in the 1970s. The meteorite , which now weighs 252 grams , is in the meteorite collection of the Earth Science Collections at ETH Zurich.

Letter from the mineral dealer Jakob Frischholz

According to Kenngott, a letter dated November 11, 1811 revealed the fraudulent intentions of the mineral dealer Jakob Frischholz:

“Well-born Herr Legationsrath! On my trip this spring, the forester Schiller von Leuchtenberg (who was not a connoisseur at all and died 14 days ago, but was busy collecting) sent me some coins, metals, mountain species, etc. found in the fields there and informed me that I did I would like to come to him, since I would only be 14 hours away, he has beautiful steps, etc. I came to him and he told me about a shepherd who really found lightning bolts (thunderbolts) which split trees. I went to see the shepherd and he showed me the thunderbolts, which were pure mountain crystals, which one not seldom, but seldom, found so pure in the passage granites there. Among other things, he showed me this aerolite, which in the week before Pentecost (he couldn't remember the day) 1809 between Kaimling and Waldau fell like lightning in a storm through a forest onto a small mountain or hill. There was a strong smell in the forest, but which smell was very different from that of sulfur (it was more like garlic). The cattle ran out of the forest. It just looked like a star cleaner (as people put it) falling at night. On the hill he saw a smoke or dust. It was around 9am in the morning. He went up to the hill, found the grass striped up there, rummaged around with his stick and found no thunderbolt, but after about 5 shoes, not in the depths, but quite crooked in the dam soil this stone. He found no further trace of a hole. Because of its weight, he thought the stone was silver and came up with the idea that silver cannot be found in the mountains, but falls out of the air, which is why it is so rare. I made the mistake and offered him a tip. Now he did not give me the stone at all, but carried it to a silver worker, who filed it and believed he discovered silver ore in it. My brother only bought the stone from the shepherd 3 months ago because it offered him as much as the shepherd believed he could get silver from it. He assured me that several years ago he had seen a similar appearance, but did not pay attention to it. I looked around the square, but unfortunately did not find a large piece that I would have wanted. In my honor it is the only one that I could get. He told me a lot of ridiculous stuff about his thunderbolts. If I come there again next year, I will get a closer note, also write you the hill and the name of the shepherd, etc. I already had several aerolites myself, e.g. B. from Eichstädt, Silesia, etc., but none resembled this one. It weighs 22 ½ loth and belongs to this not because of its mean size and because it is not a fragment of a larger, but a whole individual, finally among the rarities because it, not like the ordinary air stones, is round or rounded, ie of more or less spherical, but strangely enough, it is excellently blunt-angular and blunt-edged. Also, it's the only one I could get. Professor Graf in Amberg offered me 8 ducats because he doesn't have one yet. I said I am not selling it. I appointed him to the local Academy of Sciences. But this is not allowed to buy anything now, and I don't want to keep it for long. I can turn my money back every month. A foreign traveler would certainly give 100 guilders for it. With the above benefits from others, I believe it would not be expensive for 50 guilders. With your well-born I don't want to look at something because I hope to do business with you more often. "

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