| Charity, Chiastolite and Other Wisdom
by Theo Steinhauer
|
Heat Stick
Beryllium is a rare metal which has the property of absorbing immense amounts of heat, hence the name heat stick. A spoon made of beryllium, if placed in a cup of coffee would immediately absorb all the heat, leaving a cold cup of coffee. It is used in the nose cones of rockets, making the exploration of space possible and new uses are being found for it every day in industry.
Petoskey Stone
Petoskey stone is a fossilized Devonian coral found only in Petoskey Michigan. Its origin has been traced back to the Devonian seas which covered Michigan's lower peninsula nearly 350 million years ago. The skeleton of this material was preserved and the original material was replaced by silicates in a process of petrification.
Adularia
Adularia is the name sometimes given to the finer grades of moonstone, of the translucent colorless to milky gem variety of orthoclase. This grade is primarily from Ceylon. When properly oriented and cut as a cabochon, it has an optical phenomenon of a floating billowy line of light that travels across the cab in a certain direction as the stone is turned. This peculiar effect is called adularesence. It is caused by diffuse light reflections from parallel intergrowths, in albite feldspar, which has a slightly different refractive index than the main mass of orthoclase.
What is Charity?
It is silence--when your words would hurt.
It is patience--when your neighbor is curt.
It is deafness--when a scandal flows.
It is thoughtfulness--for other's woes.
It is promptness--when duty calls.
It is courage--when misfortune falls.
Aragonite
In 1796 it was announced that a new mineral had been discovered at Molina de Aragon, in the Pyrenees of Spain. It was common practice, as it is today, to name the mineral after the locality where is was discovered, so the twinned pseudohexagonal crystals were called aragonite.
Aragonite and calcite are polymorphs of the same mineral, calcium carbonate. It is remarkable that these two minerals are not far behind quartz in abundance and variation of form, with calcite itself appearing in several hundred different crystal forms.
Glyptography
Glyptography is the art of stone engraving and the carving of small objects of art, including the cutting of cameos, intaglios and the cutting of seals. The oldest examples of this art is probably the cutting of seals by ancient Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. The scarabs of Egyptians follow as a close second. Perhaps the Japanese netsuke is about the best example of the practice of glyptography in modern times.
Chiastolite
Chiastolite is sometimes referred to as a macle and it is an opaque variety of andalusite, containing black carbonaceous inclusions. These inclusions generally have a definite arrangement, laying in two perpendicular planes, so that when cut crosswise, they present a figure somewhat resembling a cross.
Angstrom Units
Lightwaves, radio waves and the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum are measured in Angstrom units, sometime abbreviated A.U. which is simply a very small unit of length.
An inch contains 254,001,000 A.U. The following table shows the relations between the inch and several metric units, including the Angstrom unit:
1 meter=39.137 inches
1 millimeter=0.03937 inches
1 micron=0.00003937 inches
1 A.U.=0.000000003937 inches