All About Historical Accounts of Falling Meteorites

Michele Mercato (d. 1593) gives a vivid description of the fall of a meteor which was observed near Castrovilarii, in Calabria, January 10, 1583. Some men in a meadow observed a black, whirling cloud rushing through the air, and saw it descend to the earth not far from where they were standing. The noise accompanying the descent of the meteorite was so deafening that it was heard far and wide, and the poor men fell to the ground almost unconscious from terror. People from the neighborhood hastened to the spot and, after restoring the terrified witnesses of the phenomena, discovered a mass of iron weighing thirty-three pounds at the spot where the black cloud had touched the earth.

The startling phenomenon of a rain of stones from the sky which took place under rather queer circumstances is reported by the Jesuit priest Alvarus as having occurred in China in 1622. The Taoist priests of that land enjoyed the repute of being able to bring down rain from the sky by their magic or religious rites, and when, during the year mentioned, China was visited by a drought of unexampled severity, the aid of these rain-makers was invoked. Yielding, perhaps not unwillingly, to the popular entreaty, a group of priests ascended a hill and proceeded to pronounce their invocations. To the joy of the onlookers the sky became darkened and a rushing sound was heard, at first mistaken for an oncoming rain-storm, but to the dismay of all an immense shower of stones of all sizes fell upon the earth, destroying what remained of the parched fruits and grain crops, and killing or maiming many persons. So terrifying was the sight that the Jesuits who were watching the result of the affair half-believed that the Last Day had come. When the panic had finally subsided, the people fell upon the unlucky Taoist priests and beat them soundly.

In the "Annals of the Ottoman Empire," by Subhi Mohammed Effendi, there is an account of the fall of a meteor at Hasergrad, on the banks of the Danube, on the fourth of Saban, A. H. 1153 (October 25, 1740). The weather was fine, not a cloud was to be seen in the sky, and not a breath of air was stirring. Suddenly there arose a whirlwind, the air became obscured with clouds of dust, rain fell in torrents, and it became dark as night. While all who were out of doors were hastening to seek shelter from the storm, three terrific peals of thunder were heard, as loud as the sound of many cannon. After the storm had passed several strange masses partly of stone and partly of iron were discovered in a nearby field. The Vizier bore two of these as great rarities to the Sultan in Constantinople.

The influence exerted by popular beliefs, even upon the learned, is well illustrated by the opinion given by some of the leading French physicists of the eighteenth century as to the character of meteorites. When a meteoric stone fell at Luce, Dept. Marne, France, September 13, 1768, three French scientists, among them the celebrated Lavoisier, were sent to investigate the matter. In their report to the Academy of Sciences, they state that there must have been some error in the accounts given of the event, for it was an assured fact that no such things as pierres de foudre, or thunder-stones, existed. This was, of course, perfectly true, but Lavoisier and his companions did not stop to think that stones might fall to the earth in some other way. The result of the investigation was summed up as follows:

If the existence of thunder-stones was regarded as doubtful at a time when physicists had scarcely any idea of the nature of thunder, it is even less admissible to-day, when modern physicists have discovered the effects of this natural phenomenon are the same as those of electricity. There is no record that the fulgarite, the fused sand or rock struck by the lightning, has ever been used.

The opinion which seems the most probable to us, and that which is most in accord with the accepted principles of physics as well as with the facts reported by Abbe Bacheley, and our own investigation, is that the stone was originally covered with a slight crust of earth and turf, and was struck by lightning and so made visible.

Chladni reports in a pamphlet published in 1794 that the mass of meteoric iron discovered by Dr. Pallas in Siberia, and known as the Pallas or Krasnojarsk iron meteorite, was regarded by the Tartars as a sacred object which had fallen from heaven. As it is somewhat unlikely that this belief could be accounted for by an ancient tradition, we must seek an explanation in the conviction among primitive peoples that any mass of rock or metal of unusual appearance and differing notably from the surrounding formations must have come from the sky. In this way primitive instinct often anticipates the results of modern scientific investigation. This siderite, of irregular form and weighing some 1500 pounds, was seen by Dr. Pallas in 1772, and deposited by him in 1776; he learned that it had been found in 1749 at the summit of a mountain situated between Krasnojarsk and Abakansk, by a Cossack. Most of this famous siderite is preserved in the St. Petersburg Museum.