An Introduction to the Study of Meteorites: With a List of the Meteorites Represented in the Collection

For centuries, the idea that stones could fall from the sky was considered the ravings of cranks and superstitious peasants. Yet the records existed - ancient accounts, royal testimonies, curious specimens gathering dust in museum cabinets. This 1904 guide from the British Museum captures the moment when meteoritics finally shed its fringe-science reputation and took its place among the legitimate sciences. Fletcher traces the long, reluctant journey toward acceptance: the eyewitnesses mocked, the specimens dismissed, the slow accumulation of evidence that finally forced the Royal Society to admit, in 1796, that perhaps the peasants had been telling the truth all along. The book then catalogs the Museum's remarkable collection - iron meteorites from Siberia, stony falls from India, the mysterious Canyon Diablo specimen - offering detailed classifications, historical provenance, and the scientific methods beginning to unlock what these cosmic visitors could tell us about the universe. Part scientific catalog, part intellectual history, this is a window into a world where even stones from the heavens had to fight for recognition.