On the genesis of Widmanstätten structure in meteorites and in iron-nickel and iron-carbon alloys

In April 1909 a paper on artificial reproduction of meteoric structure in alloys of iron aud carbon was read by the author before the Russian Mineralogical Society. In that paper special reference was made to the work of Sorby, who, to cite his own words, for ‘more than twenty years … commenced to carefully study the microscopical structure of iron and steel in order, if possible, to throw light on the origin of meteoric iron’. A brief survey of the work of Stodart and Faraday, of Osmond, Rinne, and Berwerth was also given and, subsequently, the structure of a carbon-steel containing 0.55 % carbon with perfectly developed Widmanstätten figures was described.