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MEERSCHAUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 73 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MEERSCHAUM , a See also:

German word designating a soft See also:white See also:mineral sometimes found floating on the See also:Black See also:Sea, and rathei suggestive of sea-foam (Meerschaum), whence also the See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:error. Meerschaum is a hydrous See also:magnesium silicate with the See also:formula H4Mg2Si3O10, or Mg2Si308.2H20. Most of the meerschaum of See also:commerce is obtained from See also:Asia See also:Minor, chiefly from the See also: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 See also:solar See also: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 See also:Euboea and See also:Samos; it occurs also in serpentine at Hrubschitz near Kromau in See also: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 See also:Pennsylvania (as at See also:Nottingham, See also:Chester See also: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 See also: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 See also:Vienna and other manufacturing centres, where they are turned and carved, smoothed with See also:glass-See also: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, See also: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.).

End of Article: MEERSCHAUM

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