METEOR IRON. VIDMANSHTETOVY FIGURES

Sometimes the whole meteorite has the same composition and can be regarded as a piece of crystal. In most cases, meteoric iron consists of a thin, lying on each other plates, the latter are grouped according to the laws of crystallography and differ in nickel, phosphorus and sulfur. The consequence of these minor differences in the composition is the fact that some iron plates with varying speed and strength dilute acid. If sawing a piece of meteoric iron and nitric acid to act on the polished surface of it, then suddenly at the last act the characteristic lamellar structure. This is explained by the fact that some plates corroded more acid, others weaker; obtained vidmanshtetovy peculiar shape, named after the discoverer of the scientist. Good, Mene and Lorenz Smith was artificially reproduce this phenomenon by fusing iron with nickel, iron sulfide, iron or phosphorous to silicon: but in the nature of any of the terrestrial bodies vidmanshtetovy figures were not observed, and therefore we can assume that all masses of iron the found in the earth's surface and giving these figures are those of meteorites. Thus it was proved the cosmic origins of many masses of iron, although the actual decline in their observed very rarely (Grashina in Zagreb, in 1751 Tennessee, 1835 Braunau in Bohemia, 1845). Meteoric iron is of interest not only for geologists, but also for historians of culture. In everyday life, iron is the most desired metal: it does not occur on land in native form, getting the same from its ore requires a relatively high degree of culture, so all peoples long before there is bronze and is used to manufacture all sorts of guns and jewelry. Meteoric iron from ancient times was under the hand of man, and some savage tribes, standing at very low levels of development, treated him well, for example., Eskimos in Greenland, the addition of iron, which they gather on the wrecked ship, enjoy a meteoric iron. In Madagascar, the arrowheads are made from the same metal. It is quite possible that in general people are acquainted with iron and its use by the meteoric masses, found on the ground, and only later learned how to extract it from ore. No matter how drastically different meteoric iron from meteoric stones, however, there are transitional forms. Caught meteorites, in which iron forms the bulk, it observed the crystals and crystalline grains of olivine, a mineral consisting of magnesium oxide and silica. In the last century German naturalist Pallas during his trip to Russia was found first and famous representative of this type of meteorites: find was made near Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, near the bank of the Yenisei, weight reached 1,600 pounds of Russian, local residents honored her as a sacred object of heaven origin. This so-called pallasovo iron in the history of science is very great interest, it prompted the Chladni begin his famous study (pallasova piece of iron is shown in a special table). Meteorites of this type are called pallasite.