Other
Scientific paper
Jul 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994metic..29s.496m&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics (ISSN 0026-1114), vol. 29, no. 4, p. 496-497
Other
Chemical Analysis, Histories, Hypotheses, Meteorites, Bolides, Interplanetary Space, Meteoritic Composition, Planetary Mass
Scientific paper
Two hundred years ago, in April 1794, Chladni published his small book Uber den Ursprung ... on meteorites and their origins. This bicentennial year seems an appropriate time to examine how Chladni's contemporaries received his book. Would meteoritics have emerged about the turn of the nineteenth century without Chladni's book? Evidence suggests that Chladni's book by itself would have wielded little influence had not several witnessed falls occurred and epoch-making chemical analyses been performed within the next 10 years. Perhaps Chladni narrowly escaped the fate of those scientists who formulate correct hypotheses prematurely. Chladni was the first person to seriously investigate reports of fireballs and masses of stone and iron falling from the sky. He found descriptions to be so consistent from century to century and place to place that he concluded that falling bodies are authentic natural phenomena. After refuting other modes of origin, Chladni proposed that the bodies are small masses of planetary materials from outer space, that produce meteors and fireballs as they plunge through the atmosphere. The Aristotelian dictum that only ether exists between the large bodies of the universe was reaffirmed by Isaac Newton in 1685. Chladnia protested, but his rhetoric and reputation were no match for Newton's. Given the succession of witnessed falls and the chemical work that took place in three countries, meteoritics clearly would have begun flourishing as a new science even if Chladni had not written his book. Nevertheless, as events compelled radical changes of ideas, Chaldni's historical and theoretical treatment of meteorites must have gained the increasing respect of his peers. Today we can admire the clarity of his insights.
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