A second factor is the degree of civilization reached by the inhabitants of a particular area. Those regions of the world which have been settled the longest and which have seen the development of the higher cultures will be the most likely to support a populace that will take an interest in and report the occurrences of natural events like meteorite falls. Such a populace will also be more likely to bring suspected meteorites to the attention of experts.
For example, up to 1953, 55 witnessed falls and 3 unwitnessed falls were known from France, a country of relatively small area, but with a high population density and an advanced degree of civilization. From the whole vast area of Siberia, on the other hand, only 20 meteorite falls and 23 finds have been reported during the same interval.
In the past, scientists have suggested that various natural forces, such as the magnetic field of the earth or the attraction of high and massive mountain ranges, might cause more meteorites to fall in one place than another. But all available evidence indicates that this is not the case. The fall of meteorites upon the earth has been and is a process that shows no apparent pattern. Only “human” factors (like population density and scientific interest in meteorites) can be considered as accounting for any concentrations of meteorite falls in particular regions or countries.
In historic times, the number of man-built structures (houses, barns, hotels, office buildings, etc.) has increased tremendously. Such structures have presented an ever-expanding target to hits by falling meteorites. On pages [73], [74] is a listing of some of the meteorites that have struck and damaged buildings during the last 150 years or so. The items included in this list were chosen on the basis of interest, authenticity, and concreteness of detail.
The stories of all these meteorite falls are exciting, but none more so, perhaps, than that of the Beddgelert, North Wales, stone. This meteorite fell in the small hours of the morning on September 21, 1949. Not many people saw the fireball that accompanied its descent because of the early hour (1:45 a.m.), but one of the few persons who happened to be outside said that it resembled a huge rocket as it flashed across the sky. He also reported that the appearance of the fireball nearly frightened the swans in the local park to death, the birds fleeing in all directions.
The manager of one of the hotels in Beddgelert simultaneously was awakened from a sound sleep by the barking of his dog. This was an unusual occurrence, and the man was surprised by it. While he was trying to account for the dog’s peculiar behavior, he suddenly realized that something quite out of the ordinary was happening outside. He heard a series of unevenly spaced bangs that he later compared to “a naval broadside.” But as the noise died away and nothing further happened, he went back to sleep.
About noon on the next day, the manager’s wife went into the upstairs lounge of the hotel, a room right under a part of the roof. She was astonished to find plaster dust all over the floor. It had obviously come from a jagged hole in the ceiling. And, on the floor, she found an odd-looking dark stone.
Investigation showed that this stone had indeed fallen through the roof. It had made a neat round hole in four overlapping thicknesses of slate, shattered the underlying lath, made a dent in the lower edge of an H-section iron girder, and had finally broken through the plaster ceiling into the hotel’s upstairs lounge.
Although it was clear that the stone had come through the roof, the hotel manager did not connect the event in any way with the peculiar noises he had heard during the preceding night.
He tried to cut the stone on an emery wheel, but it was too hard.