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Nininger Moment #20
The Science Of Learning To Recognize Meteorites
In America Nininger noted that it was the village of Weston
Connecticut that was first to realize a fall in the New England area
and at a time when knowledge traveled slow and new ideas took time
to be accepted. On the December Morning a Judge Wheeler witnessed
the fall and asked to himself if the fireball, the noise in the form
of a thundering sound, along with buzzing, whizzing and a stone
which hit a nearby building and rolled away into the grass could at
all be associate with each other.
At the time it was thought that no stones could fall from the sky.
Judge Wheeler asked his neighbors what they had seen and heard and a
number of them had picked up odd looking stones from their yards and
had heard the noise. Yale professors were contacted to try to find
answers to how this could have happened. The professors at first
thought the story a hoax but after questioning Judge Wheeler and his
area neighbors and seeing that a great deal of sincerity was present
with the story concluded that some how rocks had fallen from the
sky.
So was the hard won acceptance in Europe that rocks fell from the
sky (though it was accepted earlier on than in America). A French
priest in the mid 18th century carried a stone to Paris Museum and
told of the story of the rock falling from the sky. He was told that
it was impossible but perhaps lighting had struck causing the rock
to form (thunderstones). So it was settled that no stones could
possibly fall from the sky as there were none to fall from the sky
and the issue was settled (for the time being in 1755).
Other falls by respected citizens and scientist were recorded, an
astronomer Jerome de la lande described a fall near Bresse in 1753.
Another priest Father Bachelay presented evidence of a stone he had
seen fall but was told it must have been formed by a lighting
strike. An Italian chemist D. Troili, wrote a detailed account of a
fall at Albareto, Italy in 1766. Again these testimonies fell on
deaf ears of the scientists of the time. Other falls happening in
Europe with detail accounts of the falls also happened, including
the countries of France, Italy and England. There were many good
witnesses and stones to back their claims. This began to divide
scientists into two camps, some believing that somehow stones must
fall from the sky and some who thought it was caused from some
natural occurrence here on Earth.
Then nature provided a unique Shower that occurred near the town of
L'Aigle, France where some 3,000 stones pelted down on the towns
people, some of which narrowly escaped serious injury or death.
Hundreds of peasants witnessing the event and many were not a little
frightened. The investigation by French scientists at the time heard
such consistent reports of the event along with thousands of stones
that were gathered after being seen to fall that wide acceptance had
now become fact. It would take many years for other areas to gain
respect that stones did indeed fall from the sky but it was becoming
better documented and something that couldn't be ignored or
explained away anymore.
The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by
Harvey Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling.
Some of the items written in the moments might be old out dated
material and the reader is advised to keep this in mind. Source:
Find A Falling Star
--AL Mitterling
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