FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[GneissWare]

I have a number of specimens from the mid to late 1800s with handwritten labels and notes in German script. I can make out the obvious things like mineral, locality and date, but would like to translate these notes to preserve the knowledge. I know Roger is on the forum and there may be others who can read German well. If anyone would like to help with this project please send me a note at gwsupport (at) dslextreme (dot) com.

I can't post many of the photos on the forum because I have kept the files large to improve readability. But, I'll post a few items so anyone interested has an idea what they look like.

Thanks in advance,
Bob

[Montanpark]

Bob,
to me it reads like this:
No etc,
Cavradi
Eisenglanz ....... auf Adular .... welche frisch u. glänzend fünf tafelförmig ausgebildeten Gruppen als Grundlage dienen. Mit Rutil
Andermatt 1879

There are two words that are not clear to me but i will carry on ;-)

Translation::

Eisenglanz (missing) on fresh and lustrous adularia (missing) which forms the basis for five tabular developed groups. With rutile.

Cheers
Roger

[Montanpark]

... not really sure if the word reads tafelförmig "ausgebildeten" Gruppen... but the meaning is clear.

[Montanpark]

got the first missing word!
Eisenglanz "gruppiert" ....

[GneissWare]

Roger,
I presume the reference to Andermatt 1879 probably means he acquired the specimen from someone in Andermatt in 1879? He was about 58 years old, and this would have been 2 year before his death, so I presume it was not self collected.
Bob

[Gerhard Niklasch]

...auf Adularketten? (chains of Adularia [crystals])
Cheers, Gerhard

[GneissWare]

Hi Gerhard,
Adularketten does seem to fit the handwriting, and sure makes sense from the specimen.
Thanks for the help.
Bob

[Pete Richards]

The texture of this specimen suggests that it may be a composite faden crystal group, typically found in alpine veins. These crystals are formed as a vein opens, by cracking and healing of original crystals. Faden crystals of quartz are most common, but faden crystals of adularia, epidote, and many other minerals are known. The characteristic that gives these crystals the name faden (thread in German) is that a thread-like zone of different color/texture runs down the middle of the crystal. Another characteristic is that the crystal has the form of a number of crystals stacked on top of each other, in the same orientation. For opaque minerals or ones with minimal transparency, the "faden" cannot be seen, but the habit indicates the probable origin anyway. On this specimen it is noteworthy that all of the individual minerals seem to be stretched out in the vertical direction, consistent with this mode of origin.

[GneissWare]

Hi Dr. Richards,

I am well aware of fadens in quartz and have a large collection, but it never occurred to me that the phenomena may be present in this specimen. I have rarely seen fadens, as you state, in a few other species, but not in hematite. I pulled the specimen back out to examine it under the scope, to see if I could confirm your hypothesis.

Upon a close examination of the specimen, I can confirm that the adularia do seem to have a preferred orientation, at least on the display side of the specimen. Only traces of adularia are present on the reverse side, near the top and bottom, but with a different orientation than those adularia on the front side. They form a bit of a chevron shape when viewed on end. The adularia clearly encloses some hematite blades when viewed from the vertical position (on end).

As you can see from the photo, each hematite "blade" is formed of numerous intergrown parallel to subparallel, individual hematite crystals. What is not obvious in the photos is that many of the rutiles on each hematite "blade" have the same orientation at about 10 degrees off the vertical axis. This seems to be controlled by their intergrowth with the individual hematite crystals--thus a classic epitaxial growth.

In conclusion, based on my examination, and I admit that I am not an expert with respect to crystallography (my educational background was geochemistry), I cannot conclusively confirm or deny this to be an example of faden growth. But, the orientation of the adularia, and the relatively consistent orientation of the epitaxial rutile suggesting a control on hematite growth, certainly seem to point towards supporting the hypothesis.

Thanks for your note, and for helping me look at this specimen in a different manner.
Bob

[Montanpark]

Gerhard may be right .. i first thought "Ketten" also but then i would have expected a - (minus) between the words adular and ketten. With regard to Pete´s comment this would make sense anyway. So it seems that we have the first label deciphered :-)

Cheers
Roger

P.S. Bob i will mail asap.

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Hello,

According to the type on the label I would say that your specimen was once part of the Senckenberg Museum collection in Frankfurt (Main)/Germany. Maybe it is from the Senator Kessler section. Do you have other pics of the labels? Then I can tell you, if you´re interested in.

Best regards
Andreas

[GneissWare]

Andreas,
Nice to have you aboard.

You are correct about the source of the specimens. Based on other labels I didn't photograph, this (and other specimens) were sold out of the Senckenberg Institut, Frankfurt in 2002, and once belonged to Dr. Adolf Friedrich Scharff (1812-1881; former curator of the Institut).

Most of the specimens came with handwritten notes, probably in Herr Scharff's hand. Several specimens had crystallographic drawings as well.

Bob

[Andreas Gerstenberg]

Oh, yes. I see, you know;-)