Search the Dictionary

A mineral of a lead-gray color and brilliant metallic luster, occurring in prismatic crystals; sulphide of antimony; -- called also antimony glance, and gray antimony.

A common mineral of the zeolite family, a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime, usually occurring in sheaflike aggregations of crystals, also in radiated masses. It is of a white or yellowish color, with pearly luster on the cleavage surface. Called also desmine.

A black or greenish black mineral occurring in foliated flates, also in velvety bronze-colored incrustations. It is a hydrous silicate of iron and alumina.

Concreted earthy or mineral matter; also, any particular mass of such matter; as, a house built of stone; the boy threw a stone; pebbles are rounded stones. "Dumb as a stone." Chaucer. They had brick for stone, and slime . . . for mortar. Gen. xi. 3.

The fine powder or mark yielded by a mineral when scratched or rubbed against a harder surface, the color of which is sometimes a distinguishing character.

A steel-gray mineral of metallic luster. It is a sulphide of silver and copper.

Strontium carbonate, a mineral of a white, greenish, or yellowish color, usually occurring in fibrous massive forms, but sometimes in prismatic crystals.

A metallic element of the calcium group, always naturally occurring combined, as in the minerals strontianite, celestite, etc. It is isolated as a yellowish metal, somewhat malleable but harder than calcium. It is chiefly employed (as in the nitrate) to color pyrotechnic flames red. Symbol Sr. Atomic weight 87.3. A rad…

ns, or of constituent particles, in a substance or body; as, the structure of a rock or a mineral; the structure of a sentence. It [basalt] has often a prismatic structure. Dana.

A crystalline mineral found in guano. It is a hydrous phosphate of magnesia and ammonia.

cts; a number of things used or clessed together; a set; as, a suite of rooms; a suite of minerals. See Suit, n., 6. Mr. Barnard took one of the candles that stood upon the king's table, and lighted his majesty through a suite of rooms till they came to a private door into the library. Boswell.

transparent, colorless, acid liquid with a peculiar odor, containing some fatty acids and mineral matter; perspiration. See Perspiration. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Gen. iii. 19.

A mineral, a telluride of gold and silver, of a steel-gray, silver-white, or brass-yellow color. It often occurs in implanted crystals resembling written characters, and hence is called graphic tellurium. [Written also silvanite.]

thod; to arrange methodically; to methodize; as, to systematize a collection of plants or minerals; to systematize one's work; to systematize one's ideas. Diseases were healed, and buildings erected, before medicine and architecture were systematized into arts. Harris.

A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or grayish color, usually occurring in foliated masses. It is hydrous silicate of magnesia. Steatite, or soapstone, is a compact granular variety. Indurated talc, an impure, slaty talc, with a nearly compact texture, and greater hardness than common talc; -- calle…

A heavy mineral of an iron-black color and submetallic luster. It is essentially a tantalate of iron.

A rare nonmetallic element found in certain minerals, as tantalite, samarskite, and fergusonite, and isolated as a dark powder which becomes steel-gray by burnishing. Symbol Ta. Atomic weight 182.0. Formerly called also tantalium.

e temperature and material employed in obtaining it. Coal tar. See in the Vocabulary. -- Mineral tar (Min.), a kind of soft native bitumen. -- Tar board, a strong quality of millboard made from junk and old tarred rope. Knight. -- Tar water. (a) A cold infusion of tar in water, used as a medicine. (b) The ammoniacal…

r-white metallic luster, but usually combined with metals, as with gold and silver in the mineral sylvanite, with mercury in Coloradoite, etc. Symbol Te. Atomic weight 125.2. Graphic tellurium. (Min.) See Sylvanite. -- Tellurium glance (Min.), nagyagite; -- called also black tellurium.

A blackish lead-gray mineral, closely related to tetrahedrite. It is essentially a sulphide of arsenic and copper.