aerolite, taerolith

[In Ger. aerolit; Fr. aérolithe; Port, acrolithe, aerolitho: fr. Gr. ἀήρ ( αer ) = the air; λιθος ( lithos ) = a stone.] A stone which falls from the air or sky. The name is somewhat inappropriate now that it is known that the connection of these stones with the air is but slight, they simply traversing it as, under the operation of gravity, they fall from the regions beyond to the earth. They have also received the name of meteorites, from the fact that the fall of one or more aërolites is generally preceded by the appearance of a meteoric fire-ball, which, after gleaming forth for a brief period, then explodes, irresistibly suggesting the inference that the aerolites which fall constitute its fragments. Hence in many scientific reports. AËROLITE. aërolites and large meteors are cla ed under one category. Sometimes aërolite and meteorite are made quite synonymous terms; but it is better to draw a distinction between the two, making meteorite the general word and limiting aërolite to the stony varieties of the genus. This is done by Prof. Maskelyne in his "Guide to the Collection of Minerals in the British Museum." The aërolites in this limited sense, as a rule, fall to the ground in an incandescent state. They are generally sub-angular, but with the angular points rounded off, and are coated, to the depth of about a quarter of a line, with a black crust like varnish. When fractured they commonly display a series of small grey spherical bodies in a gritty substance, occasionally with yellow spots interspersed. When thus consisting of stony spherules they are sometimes termed chondritic aërolites, from Gr. χονδρίτης ( chondrites ) = of the shape or size of groats; χόνδρος (chondros) = a corn, grain, groat. Iron is found in large quantity in nearly every aërolite, sometimes malleable, and sometimes in a state of oxide. It is always in connection with nickel. Other substances found in more limited quantity in aërolites are silica, magnesia, sulphur, alumina, lime, manganese, chrome, cobalt, carbon, soda, and water. No new element has been found, but the combination of the old ones is different from any occurring in this planet. Though the fact that stones could fall from the sky to the earth was doubted by the scientific almost till the close of the eighteenth century, the occurrence of such a phenomenon had been again and again popularly reported in various countries, and from a high period of antiquity. There is reason to believe that the object of worship in many a pagan shrine in ancient times was an aerolite; that this was the case with the idol worshipped in the great temple of Diana at Ephesus is all but implied in the town-clerk's words, "The image which fell down from Jupiter" (Acts xix. 35). Among the notable aërolites in the British Museum collection may be enumerated a great chondritic one, which fell at Parnallee, in Madras, on February 28th, 1857; one which descended at Basti, in India, on December 2, 1852, and is remarkable for containing crystalline calcium sulphide, a ociated with enstatite and augite; and, finally, the carbonaceous stones which came down at Cold Bokkeveldt, Kaba, Grosnja, and Montauban. [AEROSIDERITE, METEORITE, SIDERITE.]