Description
Le Teilleul is an incredibly rare meteorite, a french fall on the National Day in France, july 14 1845. It is an howardite and I was lucky to buy many years ago the largest piece in a private collection (about 8.5 grams).
“On July 14, 1845, around 3 o’clock in the evening, following a detonation similar to a clap of thunder, a stone was collected in the hamlet of Vivionnière, commune of Teilleul (Manche), which, according to the two witnesses, seemed incandescent at the moment of its fall.
Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Rétout, professor at the college of Mortain, and that of his pupil Mr. Dary, to whom I would like to address my thanks here, I received all of this stone, of which Mr. Fouqué kindly gave me a first sample, indicating its source.
The Teilleul meteorite, whose size exceeds that of a fist, roughly presents the shape of a very flattened pentagonal prism, whose edges are slightly blunted. Its weight is about 780 grams.
As always happens, this meteorite is completely enveloped in a blackish crust, which formed on its surface, while in a state of incandescence it passed through the earth’s atmosphere.” Gabriel Auguste Daubrée (1814-1896).
Total mass of only 780g.
