The blowpipe vade macum : the blowpipe characters of minerals deduced from the original observations of Aquilla Smith ; alphabetically arranged and edited by Samuel Haughton and Robert H. Scott / [Aquilla Smith].

  • Aquilla Smith
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The blowpipe vade macum : the blowpipe characters of minerals deduced from the original observations of Aquilla Smith ; alphabetically arranged and edited by Samuel Haughton and Robert H. Scott / [Aquilla Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sylvauia. Soft, brittle. Streak orange-yellow. On (.•liarooal it burns with a bluish hame; emits copious sulphureous fumes, and a slight odour of arsenic. Arsenic, yellow sulphuret of {Vide Orpiment). (Ph. 283; Th. 82).— Transylvania. Very soft. Powder bright yellow. On charcoal it bums until a bluish flame, emits fumes of sulphurous acid, and is entirely volatilized. Arsenical Iron (Ph. 213).—Faithleg, Waterford. Hardness = 6. On charcoal it emits copious arsenical fumes, and fuses readily into a magnetic bead. Arsenical Iron (Ph. 213).—Haytor Mine, Devonshire. Yields with some difficulty to the knife. Hardness = 5-5. Heated on charcoal, it emits copious arsenical fumes, and melts into a shining porous gray globule, attracted by the magnet. Arsenical Iron Johanngeorgenstadt, Saxony. Hardness about = 5‘5 ; streak shining; powder greyish-black. On charcoal it very soon emits fumes of arsenic, and becomes magnetic; it forms a bead with diffi- culty, even in the forceps. Arsenical Iron, massive.—Hardness =5'5 ; streak greyish-black. On charcoal it emits arsenical fumes readily and copiously, and fuses into a dark grey irregular scoria, which is magnetic; and when transferred to the forceps, forms a bead with difficulty. Does the difficulty of forming a bead by fusion depend on its containing less sulphur than other specimens ? [Asbestus ( Vide Hornblende).—In the forceps fuses readily into a yel- low-coloirred opaque bead, withanaiTow neck. Ho water. With borax dissolves readily into a colourless transparent bead. With microcos- mic salt dissolves slowly, and leaves no siliceous skeleton.—Ed.] Asparagus Stone ( Vide Apatite). Augite, black {Vide Pyroxene). (Th. 190; M. 143).—Arendal, Nor- way. Hardness nearly = 5*0 ; streak greenish. In the forceps fuses rather readily into a black bead. Ho water. With borax very slowly soluble. Augite, black.—Ei-sby Pargas, Finland Hardness near = 5-0; streak white. In the forceps in the inner flame fuses on the surface into a dark green glass, and fonns ahead very slowly.. Ho water. 'With borax emits a few bubbles, colours the glass Avith iron, and is vciw slowly soluble. Augite, white (Fide Pyroxene). (Th. 187).—Fnited States. Hardness = 5 0. In the forcejls effervesces and intumesces, and fuses readily into a colourless blebby globule. Ho water. With borax dissolves partly at first, and leaves a residue very slowly soluble. [The Augites dissolve in borax somewhat more easily than the Horn- blendes ; and in the forceps show slight traces of soda.—Ed.] Axinite (Th. 367 ; Al. 191).—Dauphine. Eesists the knife. In the for- ceps it fuses I’cadily, Avith much intumescence and effervescence, into a dark green shining globule. Ho AAmter. With borax it breaks up and dissolves readily into a transparent glass, coloured by iron ; Avith nitrate of pota.sh it indicates the presence of manganese.