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MEERSCHAUM , a See also: German word designating a soft See also: white
See also: mineral sometimes found floating on the Black See also: Sea, and rathei suggestive of sea-foam (Meerschaum), whence also the French name for the same substance, ecume de mer
.
It was termed by E
.
F
.
Glocker sepiolite, in allusion to its remote resemblance to the " See also: bone ". of the See also: sepia or cuttle-See also: fish
.
Meerschaum ie an opaque mineral of white, See also: grey or cream colour, breaking with a conchoidal or See also: fine earthy fracture, and occasionally though rarely, fibrous in texture
.
It can be readily scratched with the nail, its hardness being about 2
.
The specific gravity varies from 0.988 to 1.279, but the porosity of the mineral may See also: lead to error
.
Meerschaum is a hydrous magnesium silicate with the See also: formula H4Mg2Si3O10, or Mg2Si308.2H20
.
Most of the meerschaum of commerce is obtained from See also: Asia Minor, chiefly from the plain of Eski-Shehr, on the Haidar See also: Pasha-See also: Angora railway, where it occurs in irregular nodular masses, in alluvial deposits, which are extensively worked for its extraction
.
It is said that in this See also: district there are 4000 shafts leading to See also: horizontal galleries for extraction of the meerschaum
.
The See also: principal workings are at Sepetdji-Odjaghi and Kemikdji-Odjaghi, about 20 M
.
S.E. of Eski-Shehr
.
The mineral is associated with See also: magnesite (magnesium carbonate), the See also: primitive source of both minerals being a See also: serpentine
.
When first extracted the meerschaum is soft, but it hardens on exposure to solar heat or when dried in a warm See also: room
.
Meerschaum is found also, though less abundantly, in See also: Greece, as at See also: Thebes, and in the islands of Euboea and See also: Samos; it occurs also in serpentine at Hrubschitz near Kromau in Moravia
.
It is found to a limited extent at certain localities in See also: France and See also: Spain, and is known in See also: Morocco
.
In the See also: United States it occurs in serpentine in Pennsylvania (as at Nottingham, See also: Chester county) and in See also: South Carolina and See also: Utah
.
Meerschaum has occasionally been used as a substitute for See also: soap and See also: fuller's See also: earth, and it is said also as a See also: building material; but its chief use is for See also: tobacco-pipes and See also: cigar-holders
.
The
natural nodules - are first scraped to remove the red earthy See also: matrix, then dried, again scraped and polished with See also: wax
.
The rudely shaped masses thus prepared are sent from the See also: East to Vienna and other manufacturing centres, where they are turned and carved, smoothed with See also: glass-paper and Dutch rushes, heated in wax or stearine, and finally polished with bone-ash, &c
.
Imitations are made in See also: plaster of See also: Paris and other preparations
.
The soft, white, earthy mineral from Ungbanshyttan, in Vermland, Sweden, known as See also: aphrodite (d¢,See also: pbs, foam), is closely related to meerschaum
.
It may be noted that meerschaum has sometimes been called magnesite (q.v.)
.
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