[Rockhounds] Arkansas diamond hoax Now funny boji boojum sphericals

[Ted Kowalski]

No, it's not taconite; otherwise we would've been able to pick up the balls
anywhere along the train line. We (kids with slingshots) figured out that we
needed fairly high train trestles to find the balls. 

My understanding is that train brakes would phase change when overheated and
slough off melted material taking the heat out of the brake system. Given a
high enough fall and this material cools into spherical shapes. They were
some sort of composite material and were just heavy enough to make decent
slingshot ammo, but not so heavy you'd really hurt someone if you hit them.
They're also the reason people would learn not to park their cars under
train trestles.

Ted Kowalski
Fredericksburg, VA USA

-----Original Message-----
From: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
[mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Carolyn & Steve
Weinberger
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 6:04 PM
To: Ted at crystalgems.com; Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and
gem collectors
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Arkansas diamond hoax

Those little sphericals you picked up were probably taconite pellets.
The taconite was ground to a fine powder and the iron ore separed out  
using magnets.  The powdered iron was then combined with bentonite  
clay and limestone and rolled into pellets which were transported in  
open rail cars.  What you picked up were probably some of the pellets  
that spilled off the trains.

C

On Mar 17, 2008, at 5:39 PM, Ted Kowalski wrote:

> Sure looks like the little sphericals I used to pick up under railroad
> trestles, melted train brakes or something.
>
> Ted Kowalski
> Fredericksburg VA USA
>
<snip>