* Astronomy

On a Supposed Aerolite or Meteorite Found in the Trunk of an Old Willow Tree in the Battersea Fields (January 1, 1854)

On the 2nd of June, a timber merchant, residing at North Brixton, named Clement Poole, brought the specimen now exhibited to the Museum of Practical Geology, when it occurred to Mr. Trenham Reeks, our Curator, that it might be a meteorite, and on inspecting its position in the mass of wood, and having heard all the evidence connected with it, I was disposed to form the same conclusion. On submitting a small portion of the metallic part to a qualitative test in the metallurgical laboratory of our establishment, the presence of nickel, cobalt and manganese was detected in the iron included in the mass, and as the surface was scorified, indented, uneven, and partially coated with a peculiar substance, the surmise as to the meteoric nature of the imbedded material seemed to be rendered much more probable. Again, in looking at the wood which immediately surrounded that portion of the mass which remained, as it is now, firmly inserted in the tree, a blackened substance was observed to be interpolated between the supposed meteorite and the surrounding sound wood. On the outside of this substance (which had somewhat a charred aspect) we observed a true bark, which follows the sinuosities of the wood wherever the latter appears to have been influenced by the intrusion of the foreign mineral matter.
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