PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 6 5 
2. “Note on a specimen of Iron Amianthus.” By the Rev. J. 
Magens Mello, M.A., F.G.S. 
The accompanying specimen was found at the bottom of one. of 
the Wingeworth iron-furnaces, near Chesterfield, and was given to 
me by Mr. Arthur Carrington, one of the owners, 
The furnaces have been lately blown out for repairs, and in the 
mass of slaggy refuse at the bottom a thin layer of the curious pro- 
duct known as iron amianthus was interposed between the sand 
and the iron refuse. 
The red sand at the bottom of the furnace was converted in its 
upper part into a compact hard white sandstone, an inch or two in 
thickness, and upon the top of this the Iron Amianthus occurred in 
snow-white fibrous masses, the fibres radiating in a concentric 
manner, and forming more or less botryoidal concretions, somewhat 
resembling hematite in appearance, and separated by extremely 
thin plates or septa of iron, by which the entire mass is divided into 
irregular prisms of about half an inch in diameter. 
A similar product is described by Percy as occurring in the blast- 
furnaces of the Harz, and is said to consist almost entirely of fibrous 
silica, with a few specks of iron and graphite, and minute cubes of 
nitro-cyanide of titanium. Both graphite and titanium occur in 
the Wingeworth refuse ; the graphite is found in thin plates, the 
nitro-cyanide of titanium in masses of crystals. 
Percy states that the origin of the iron amianthus is found in 
the oxidation of the silicon, which is separated in greater or less 
degree under the same conditions as graphite, and is oxidized at a 
high temperature. 
The following specimens were exhibited :— 
Microscopie Sections and Rock-specimens, exhibited by Dr. H. 
Hicks, F.G.S8., in illustration of his paper. 
Speeimens of “ Iron Amianthus,” exhibited by the Rey. J. Magens 
Mello, M.A., F.G.S., in illustration of his Note. 
May 28, 1884. 
Prof. T. G. Bonney, D.Sc., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 
John George Goodchild, Hsq., Geological Survey of England 
and Wales, 28 Jermyn Street, 8.W.; Alexander Johnstone, Ksq., 
Blairlodge School, Polmont Station, N.B.; and John Taylor, Ksq., 
M. Inst. C.E., 6 Queen Street Place, E.C., were elected Fellows, and 
Professor G. Meneghini of Pisa, a Foreign Member of the Society. 
The List of Donations to the Library was read. 
