racters 



3§S, DESCKIPTIO:!^ OF PHOSPHATED COPPER. 



VI. 



Description of Phosphated Copper: By Mr. Hersart, ' 



Mine Engineer*. 



' V ' 



Essential cha 1 HOSPHATED coppcr, ■whatever be its form, is of a 

 Tcry dark or bottle green on its surface; but internally of 

 a fine emerald green, bright and shining or mixed with re- 

 flections of black. 



It is soluble without cflervescence in nitric acid, to which 

 it gives a sky blue colour, as it does to ammonia. Iron 

 precipitates copper from the nitric solution. 



Its specific gravity is 4"070ol. 



It is easily scraped with a knife, scratches pure carbonats 

 of lime, and is scratched by common glass. 



The powder is always of a lighter green than the mineral 

 in substance. 



In thin pieces it is transhicid. 



The fracture of its crystals is lamellar, that of the drusy 

 specimens fibrous. The latter has not the brilliancy of the 

 former, but in some specimens it exhibits a silky or satiny 

 lustre. 



Before the blowpipe the phosphate of coppcr fuses 

 easily, producing first a brittle globule, dull, and of an 

 ashen or blackish colour. If we continue to heat the 

 'globule on a piece of charcoal with the addition of any 

 Icind of grease, a small button of red copper will be ob- 

 tained ; but a part will still remain in the state of blackish 

 scoria;. This residuum dissolves in nitric acid with cffer- 

 ■vescence, giving it a sky-blue tinge. 



If the phosphate of copper be fused before the blowpipe 

 "with borax, we obtain a bright red glass. 



'•v^ Abridged from the Journal des Mines, Vol. XXIV, p. 331. 

 Phosphate of copper not being much known to mineralogists, we 

 imagine the following description will be found interesting, as it 

 lias just been drawn up on the spot where the mineral is found, and 

 as it differs in some respects from tjie descriptions hitherto pub- 

 lished : while, having been made from a great number of speci- 

 B^eas^ it appears to us to deserve coniideuce. French Ed. 



. . Phosphated 



