A 146-pound iron, found by this girl without the use of instruments although only a small corner of the meteorite was visible above the surface of the ground.
A commercially built meteorite detector in operation.
The operator of such a meteorite detector wears earphones and watches a signal needle in plain sight on the top panel of the detector. Since the phone and signal-needle circuits of the meteorite detector are in balance only when the magnetic field generated by the detector is undistorted, the disturbing presence of a deeply buried meteorite is at once revealed by a shrill note sounding in the earphones and simultaneous motion of the signal needle. If, as in all buried treasure stories, we use “X” to stand for the spot where the signals from the detector are strongest, then the meteorite-hunter has only to dig deep enough at “X” to recover the celestial treasure-trove he is after.
8. THE NATURE OF METEORS
In answer to an exam question, a freshman astronomy student wrote:
A meteor is the flash of light
Made by a falling meteorite
As it rushes through the air in flight—
I hope to gosh this answer’s right!