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British Mineralogy
Radiated Oxide of Iron, or Hæmatite
- Class 3. Metals.
- Order 1. Homogeneous.
- Gen. 7. Iron.
- Spec. 3. Oxide.
- Div. 2. Imitative.
- Var. radiated.
- Syn.
- Brown Hæmatites. Kirw. v. 2. 163.
- Brauner Glass-kopf. Emmerl. v. 2. 323.
- Fer oxidé Hæmatite. Haüy, v. 4. 105.
This variety of hæmatitic iron ore, with which I was favoured by Mr. Murray, comes from near Edinburgh, and has not long been discovered. It has much the appearance of crude iron, with nearly the same shining fracture in the direction of the radii, but blacker and duller in the opposite direction. These radii sometimes terminate like brushes in the matrix, which is a brown clay. It is not magnetic.
Some of the variety figured at Tab. 56. is occasionally found about it. The ends are some of of them terminated beyond the matrix, like the ends of a bunch of wires, or obscurely crystallized with the ends approaching those of Tab. 62. and 63. Mr. Kirwan says, “seldom steel grey.
“External lustre 2, 3. Internal lustre 2, 1.
“Spec. Grav. from 3.789 to 3.951. Streak reddish or yellowish brown.” In ours the powder is the same colour as the streak. “It is not magnetic until calcined. Before the blowpipe, it blackens, and gives to borax a yellow tinge with some effervescence.”
We do not know that this has been analysed.
