‘Space objects' from boiler

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33611, 13 August 1974, Page 1

‘Space objects ' from boiler

The loud noise heard in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch on the night of July 29 remains something of a mystery, although objects found on the roof and garden of a South Brighton resident that night appear, after a preliminary examination, to be nothing more than boiler clinker.

Mrs M. Moyse, of Marine Parade, said yesterday that at the time ; of the noise she was , watching television.

She heard something fall on the roof of her home. She went outside. Her original thought was that someone had thrown a heavy rock on the roof. “About a week later while talking to my neighbour, Mrs E. Cary, I mentioned it to' her. She told me she had a similar experience the same night and at the same time. We discussed the possibility of it being fall-out from a meteor. “I climbed on the roof, and found what I thought to be a bit of a meteorite. It certainly did not look like anything found on Earth. At the time I did not report it, but on Sunday as I was looking out of the kitchen window I saw another object under a fruit tree. “It appeared to be either ■ metal or rock that had been, subjected to intense heat. It was pitted, and heavy, and required both hands to lift it,” Mrs Moyse said. The samples were taken to the University of Canterbury physics department for ex-, amination. The department's: senior technician (Mr P. Howell) said that although it would be two weeks before! a positive identification could be made, he was reasonably >

sure they were pieces of boiler clinker. They had certainly not been identified as coming from any meteorite. “As it happened, the garden had a load of commercial coke clinker dropped there to provide fill for a drive,” said Mr Howell.