Search the Dictionary

A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, and also massive, of a brown to green color, rarely sulphur yellow and blue. It is a silicate of alumina and lime with some iron magnesia, and is common at Vesuvius. Also called idocrase.

A mineral water found at Vichy, France. It is essentially an effervescent solution of sodium, calcium, and magnetism carbonates, with sodium and potassium chlorides; also, by extension, any artificial or natural water resembling in composition the Vichy water proper. Called also, colloquially, Vichy.…

A greenish chloritic mineral common in certain igneous rocks, as diabase, as a result of alternation.

A mineral occurring in small six-sided tabular crystals of a green or yellow color. It is a hydrous vanadate of copper and lime.

A dark brown or black mineral, occurring in prismatic crystals imbedded in limestone near Warwick, New York. It consists of the borate and titanate of magnesia and iron.

any earthy deposit containing gold enough to pay for washing it; -- so called among gold miners.

ling wax, found in connection with certain deposits of rock salt and coal; -- called also mineral wax, and ozocerite.

-- Well room. (a) A room where a well or spring is situated; especially, one built over a mineral spring. (b) (Naut.) A depression in the bottom of a boat, into which water may run, and whence it is thrown out with a scoop. -- Well sinker, one who sinks or digs wells. -- Well sinking, the art or process of sinking or…

Of or pertaining to A. G. Werner, The German mineralogist and geologist, who classified minerals according to their external characters, and advocated the theory that the strata of the earth's crust were formed by depositions from water; designating, or according to, Werner's system.

A provincial name given in England to basaltic rocks, and applied by miners to other kind of dark-colored unstratified rocks which resist the point of the pick. -- for example, to masses of chert. Whin-dikes, and whin-sills, are names sometimes given to veins or beds of basalt.

Barren of wit; destitute of genius. Examiner.

hairs on the surface of certain plants. Dead pulled wool, wool pulled from a carcass. -- Mineral wool. See under Mineral. -- Philosopher's wool. (Chem.) See Zinc oxide, under Zinc. -- Pulled wool, wool pulled from a pelt, or undressed hide. -- Slag wool. Same as Mineral wool, under Mineral. -- Wool ball, a ball or…

Wood coal, or charcoal; -- so called in distinction from mineral coal.

ng or containing yttrium or the allied elements; as, gadolinite is one of the yttriferous minerals.

A rare metallic element of the boron-aluminium group, found in gadolinite and other rare minerals, and extracted as a dark gray powder. Symbol Y. Atomic weight, 89. [Written also ittrium.]

A mineral of a violet-blue color, inclining to gray and white. It is a hydrous fluoride of cerium, yttrium, and calcium.

A term now used to designate any one of a family of minerals, hydrous silicates of alumina, with lime, soda, potash, or rarely baryta. Here are included natrolite, stilbite, analcime, chabazite, thomsonite, heulandite, and others. These species occur of secondary origin in the cavities of amygdaloid, basalt, and lava,…

A mineral wax, vert similar to ozocerite. It is found at Zietrisika, Moldavia, whence its name.

An abundant element of the magnesium-cadmium group, extracted principally from the minerals zinc blende, smithsonite, calamine, and franklinite, as an easily fusible bluish white metal, which is malleable, especially when heated. It is not easily oxidized in moist air, and hence is used for sheeting, coating galvanized…

Native zinc oxide; a brittle, translucent mineral, of an orange-red color; -- called also red zinc ore, and red oxide of zinc.