Smithson Tennant: meteorites and the final trip to France

Abstract

Smithson Tennant is known mainly for his discovery of osmium and iridium. This paper details Tennant's involvement with meteorites, which has received little attention by his biographers, and provides new information about his final stay in Paris. Tennant reported his analysis of the Cape of Good Hope meteorite in 1806 and received a sample of the Bendego meteorite in 1811 that was subsequently analysed by Wollaston. During Tennant's final trip to France, which began in September 1814, Berthollet presented a sample of the Limerick meteorite that he received from Tennant to the French Institute. Tennant visited Delamétherie, and an unpublished letter acquired by the author shows that he met the explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt. The Limerick meteorite was discussed with Delamétherie and probably with Humboldt. Evidence suggests that Tennant met the painter François Gérard and the scientists Biot, Arago, Gay-Lussac and Cuvier. The Limerick meteorite specimen that Tennant gave to Berthollet is probably Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle sample MNHN-35, whose donor is unknown. Tennant was the first to be quoted in the scientific literature about the Limerick meteorite—more than three years before the scientist William Higgins published his account of the meteorite shower.