| | The finding of a new mineral is not an every day occurrence, and causes a degree of interest in the scientific world. Beryllonite is comparatively a new mineral, the first specimens having been discovered by Mr. Sumner Andrews of Lawrence, Mass., in 1886, in Stoneham, Me.; and this locality, so far as is known, is its only habitat. Mr. Andrews did not at that time think he had discovered a new mineral, and it was not until 1888 that it attracted any attention.
Stoneham is a locality noted for rare mineral deposits. Tourmalines, beryl, phenacite (sic. phenakite), herderite and topaz are to be found upon the mountains of this town. Another new mineral was found a few years ago in the same locality, and named Hamlinite, after Dr. A. C. Hamlin of Bangor, Me., who is greatly interested in Maine minerals.
In 1888, Mr. Sumner Andrews, with his brother, Mr. Charles G. Andrews of South Paris, and Mr. Loren B. Merrill of Paris Hill, while searching for minerals on McKee mountain, came upon quite a quantity of crystals and fragments of this unknown variety, embedded in soil, or in loosely brecciated mass. The material in which these crystals and fragments were found was evidently derived from a granite vein, and associated with albite, smoky quartz, mica, columbite, cassiterite, beryl, apatite and tripilite (sic-triphylite). The abundance of these crystals in this particular vein, which was evidently not its original matrix, with their transparency, led to a wish for identification, and specimens were sent to Professor Edward S. Dana and Horace L. Wells, also to Mr. H. Hensoldt,* school of mines, Columbia College, New York, who decided that they were of a new variety. The name which they suggested, and by which it has since been called, was beryllonite.
The crystals show a highly perfect basal cleavage, yielding a smooth, lustrous surface, a secondary cleavage exactly at right angles, a third pinacoidal cleavage, and sometimes, faintly indicated, a fourth cleavage paralleled to a prism of 60 degrees. Twins are common. The refractive power of the mineral is a little above that of quartz. The crystalline faces are apt to be dull and show etched figures-the result of some solvent upon them. There is quite a number of fluid inclusions to be seen under a microscope of high power. The chemical analysis of beryllonite is NaBePo.
originally from: Goldthwaite Mineral Magazine
† Brooklyn Daily Eagle Newspaper, 1841 - 1902 Online. - Help sustain this valuable resource with a contribution to The Brooklyn Public Library Foundation.
* Heinrich Hensoldt, Ph.D., Columbia University |
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