Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 11:24 am Posts: 7523 Location: Rome, Italy
i'd suggest freakingcat to repost here the samples he posted on the other thread, otherwise they'll be difficult to find again, just a wild guess. ciao alberto
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:29 am Posts: 64 Location: Thailand
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If you haven't called us mad yet, now it's the time. We present a piece of facetted Arsenic - Arsenic is notoriously poisonous to multicellular life due to the interaction of arsenic ions with protein thiols. Of course we are aware of the dangers of Arsenic and our cutters have not been exposed to any health hazards.
If you want to facet Arsenic, you have to take precautions, wear a mask, gloves, best preform, facet and polish the material outside and rinse afterwards all equipment. Store the faceted gem out of the reach of kids, who might think it's a nice shiny candy
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 5:04 pm Posts: 1642 Location: Walnut Creek, CA
I can see a good market for faceted arsenic in the segment of gifts for ex-wives, mothers-in-law, etc. You can also use one of those Chinese Cadmium-based alloys mountings, to save some $ and make the gift truly "special"...
Anyway, luckily my piece of potentially facet-grade realgar (not too toxic anyway) is still safe (and appreciated as a mineral specimen) and of no use to me.
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:29 am Posts: 64 Location: Thailand
In former Ceylon a tradition of peace rings existed. One ruler gave a ring with a nice Ekanite buzzing with radiation to another ruler. Took some time until the radiation killed the gift recipient. Battle won!
I can see a good market for faceted arsenic in the segment of gifts for ex-wives, mothers-in-law, etc. You can also use one of those Chinese Cadmium-based alloys mountings, to save some $ and make the gift truly "special"...
Anyway, luckily my piece of potentially facet-grade realgar (not too toxic anyway) is still safe (and appreciated as a mineral specimen) and of no use to me.
After the death of Napoleon in exile and under guard on St Helena in the middle of the S. Atlantic, it was a popular French myth that that the perfidious Brits has slowly poisoned him to death with Arsenic. I believe that it was only quite recently that this myth has been comprehensively disproved (by the French authorities who are the custodians both of his mortal remains (Des Invalides, Paris) and also, I believe the house on St Helena where he was kept under arrest and died.
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:29 am Posts: 64 Location: Thailand
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Another beautiful member of the Arsenic family. Realgar, α-As4S4, is an arsenic sulfide mineral, also known as "ruby sulphur" or "ruby of arsenic". It has only a hardness of 1.5 to 2 and was a challenge to facet!
The rough crystals sometimes come in big sizes, incredible beautiful, but they might have some invisible hairlines and cleavages. The only way to be able to facet them is to hit the crystal gently on the table so that it breaks along the cleavage lines. If not, the real gar will definitely break during the polishing process. On long exposure to light, realgar disintegrates into a reddish-yellow powder, requiring that specimens be protected from light exposure. So best to keep it in the darkest corner of your vault!
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:54 pm Posts: 46 Location: Colorado
Kerensky wrote:
After the death of Napoleon in exile and under guard on St Helena in the middle of the S. Atlantic, it was a popular French myth that that the perfidious Brits has slowly poisoned him to death with Arsenic. I believe that it was only quite recently that this myth has been comprehensively disproved (by the French authorities who are the custodians both of his mortal remains (Des Invalides, Paris) and also, I believe the house on St Helena where he was kept under arrest and died.
I thought I read somewhere the Little Emperor's bedroom walls on Saint Hilaire were lined with malachite or at least had some green paint tinted with malachite.......
Joined: Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:29 am Posts: 64 Location: Thailand
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Potassium alum, potash alum is the potassium double sulfate of aluminium. Its chemical formula is KAl(SO4)2 and it is commonly found in its dodecahydrate form as KAl(SO4)2·12(H2O). It is commonly used in water purification, leather tanning, fireproof textiles, and baking powder. It also has cosmetic uses as a deodorant and as an aftershave treatment. This gemstone dissolves in water!
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