Copyright - M.Bandli - Historic Meteorites
BARBOTAN
Gers, France - Fell July 24, 1790
H5 Chondrite
Collection No. B256.1 - A 1.75 gram slice with fusion crusted edge. Parent sample is Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) #226 (19 gram fragment), which now resides in the Karl Collection. The Karls cut a very small amount from this mass and we were very fortunate to obtain this sample from them.
Below: An excerpt from Gordon's 1933 ANSP catalogue of meteorites showing the Barbotan in their inventory.
Below: Nicolas Baudin's original 1796 French report on the fall at Barbotan. It took nearly a decade to locate and pair the booklet and stone up (so it is somewhat ironic it is titled "la Decade..."). Baudin was a Professor of Physics and actually witnessed the Barbotan fireball. Here he gives a detailed account and considers an atmospheric origin (and the editors mock the idea of falling rocks).
Left: Late 1800's ANSP specimen label for the parent piece.
Prior to its deposit to ANSP, the Barbotan was part of the legendary William S. Vaux Collection.
Baudin, N. (1796) Extrait d'un memoire sur un meteore igne qui a paru dans la Gascogne, le samedi 24. juillet 1790. La Decade . 8 , Annee 4, No. 67, pp 385-396.
Gordon, S.G. (1934), Meteorites in the Collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia , 35 (for 1933) , pp 223-231.