Wold Cottage meteorite
Wold Cottage | ||
---|---|---|
Observed fall Yes | | |
Fall date | 13 December 1795, 3 p.m. | |
TKW | 56 lb (25 kg) | |
Related media on Wikimedia Commons |
The Wold Cottage meteorite (also called the Wold Newton meteorite) fell near Wold Cottage farm in 1795, a few miles away from the village of Wold Newton in Yorkshire, England.
The meteorite
The stone fell at around 3 o'clock, on 13 December 1795, landing within a few yards of ploughman John Shipley.
The stone initially weighed 56 pounds (25 kg).
The meteorite can nowadays be seen in the Natural History Museum in London.
Analysis and research
Early analyses recorded two parts of the stone, an earthy part, and a malleable part. The earthy part analysed as containing silicon, magnesium, iron, and a small amount of nickel, of which some parts of the iron and nickel were in the elemental state; the earthy substance was similar to
The Wold Cottage meteorite was the largest meteorite observed to fall in Britain, and is the second-largest recorded in Europe (after the
The monument
Inscription |
---|
Here |
On this Spot, Decr. 13th, 1795 |
Fell from the Atmoſphere |
AN EXTRAORDINARY STONE |
In Breadth 28 inches |
In Length 36 inches |
and |
Whoſe Weight was 56 pounds. |
---- |
THIS COLUMN |
In Memory of it |
Was erected by |
EDWARD TOPHAM |
1799 |
A monument was erected on the location of the stone's impact, by Major Topham, on whose property the stone had fallen.[14] The structure was built of brick 4 ft (1.2 m) square and 25 ft (7.6 m) high, with a plaque on one face.[15]
In fiction
The event was used by the science fiction writer
The meteorite plays quite a central role in the 2019 detective novel Sherlock Holmes & The Christmas Demon by British author James Lovegrove.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b Meteoritical Bulletin Database: Wold Cottage
- ^ "Natural History Museum". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
- ^ Sowerby 1806, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Sowerby 1806, pp. 18–19.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-86239-194-9.
- ^ Pillinger & Pillinger 1996.
- ^ Sowerby 1806, p. 6.
- ^ "SOWERBY, JAMES (1757–1822)". The Vauxhall Society. Archived from the original on 24 January 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
- ^ Sowerby 1806, p. 18.
- .
- ^ Sources:
- Elliott, Robert. "The Wold Cottage & It's Meteorite". Retrieved 13 November 2012.
- Bostick, Mark. "Early Meteorite Falls". The Wold Cottage Fall. Archived from the original on 9 August 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
- ^ Pillinger & Pillinger 1996a.
- ^ Pillinger & Pillinger 1998.
- ^ Sowerby 1806, p. 7.
- ^ Historic England. "Commemorative monument recording fall of a meteorite, erected 1799 (79897)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 13 November 2012.
Literature
- Pillinger, C. T.; Pillinger, J. M. (January 1996), "The Value of Publicity—The Wold Cottage Chondrite, Edward Topham, and the Foundation of Meteoritics", Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 31: A108,
- Pillinger, C. T.; Pillinger, J. M. (August 1996a), "The Wold Cottage meteorite: Not just any ordinary chondrite", Meteoritics, 31 (5): 589–605,
- Pillinger, C. T.; Pillinger, J. M. (July 1998), "Wold Cottage and Its Influence on Reports of the Pettiswood and Evora Meteorites", Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 33: A123,
- Sowerby, James (1806), "Tab. CI. FERRUM nativum. Meteroic Iron", British mineralogy, or, Coloured figures intended to elucidate the mineralogy of Great Britain, vol. 2, pp. 1–19
External links
- "(search) "Wold"", piclib.nhm.ac.uk, Natural History Museum, Images related to the Wold Cottage Meteorite and monument