Mineralogy and Geology. 277 



diate contact of the two liquids; the sulphate of iron thus floats jbove 

 the sulphate of copper, and the apparatus fulfils all that is required. 

 At a temperature of 68° Fah., 10*73 feet of surface will receive 15*444 

 grs. of copper in 24 hours, perfectly pure, and immediately fit for ham- 

 mering or passing through the rolling-mill. This manufacture of cop- 

 per presents no difficulties, requires no refining, and gives no scoria. 

 The patentees consider that as a metallurgical result 50 per cent, of the 

 copper is obtained in sheets; 25 per cent, in fragments, which require 

 fusion ; and 25 per cent, of powder requiring subsequent refining. The 

 application of galvanism to smelting appears to be reduced to the sim- 

 plest form, and electrotypes on the largest scale can be obtained. 



II. Mineralogy and Geology. 



9 



1. M. Nordenskiold upon Diphanite, a new Mineral Species from 

 the Emerald Mines of the Ural in the neighborhood of Catherinenburg, 

 (translated from PoggendorfTs Annalen, Vol. 70, p. 554, and commu- 

 nicated for this Journal, by W. C. Lettsom.) — His excellency the min- 

 ister of the interior, M. Porowsky was so good as to transmit to me 

 for examination a specimen of considerable size from the well known 

 Emerald mines of the Ural, upon which in addition to a white mine- 

 ral resembling mica, there were several blueish, transparent prismatic 

 crystals, very similar in their appearance to apatite. 



Upon closer examination it turned out that these two substances, dif- 

 ferent as they are in appearance, are one and the same mineral, and 

 one that both by its superior hardness and by the difference of its be- 

 havior before the blowpipe, is quite distinct from either of those sub- 

 stances. 



The mineral in question, as I shall presently show, is one of the 

 °rder of hydrous double silicates and I propose for it the name Dipha- 

 ni; e, from fog and cpavfy, with reference to its presenting in different di- 

 rections a totally different appearance. 



, Diphanite occurs in regular six-sided prisms with a remarkably dis- 

 tinct foliated cleavage at right angles to its principal axis, and belongs 

 therefore to the rhombohedral crystalline system. No other terminal 

 P ,a nes than those due to the foliated fracture were noticed. 



The prisms when viewed sideways are of a blueish color, they have 

 a vitreous lustre and are transparent; but when viewed perpendicular 

 10 ^e cleavage, the mineral appears white with a pearly lustre, and is 

 no longer transparent unless indeed it is a very thin film that is under 

 examination. Its hardness ranges from 5 to 5-5 at most, upon a per- 

 Jfct cleavage-plane it is somewhat less. It is exceedingly brittle. 

 Surfaces due to mere fracture were not observed in consequence of its 

 6 f eat facility of cleavage. Its specific gravity varies from 3*04 to 307. 



"8 behavior before the blowpipe is as follows. In the closed tube it 

 assumes a deeper color, <rivin<* off an empyreumatic odor with a depo- 

 J ll °a of moisture, which" upon turmeric paper gives no indication ol 



* Pressure of fluorine. Alone, it becomes opaque, swells up and 



c °mes scaly, and in the inner flame fuses to an enamel without bub- 



the 

 be 



, ov.u.1^, aim 1U Ultt lUUCi uauiv iuov,o vw v%~ - — 



y" es - With bisulphate of potash it does not tinge the flame red. 

 rax " fuses readily to a transparent glass, which upon cooh 



ing par- 



