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British Mineralogy
Oxide of Uranite
- Class 3. Metals.
- Order 1. Homogeneous.
- Gen. 2. Uranium.
- Spec. 1. Oxygenizatum.
- Div. 1. Crystallized.
- Gen. Char. Dark brownish gray, dull, soft, brittle. Spec. Grav. 6.44. Difficultly fusible, Soluble in nitric acid.
- Spec. Char. Combined with a large portion of oxygen.
- Syn.
- Uranitic ochre. Kirw. 2. 303.
- Grun Uranerz. Emmerl. 2. 584.
- Urane oxidé. Haüy, 4. 283.
- Uran mica. Jameson.
- Uranglimmer. Werner.
Cornwall has produced this substance but vary sparingly. It is mostly imported from Bohemia, Saska in the Bannat, and Saxony, on a gangue composed of Pech-blende* in a decomposing state, and was first discovered by Klaproth in 1789. It has been confounded by many with Muriate of Copper, and with Green Mica. Ours was labelled as Muriate of Copper from Cornwall, and it appears not to have been well known when Mr. Rashleigh published his first part of Specimens of British Minerals, &c., for it was there called “Thin four-sided Crystals of bright Green Copper Ore from Carharrack.” Mr. Kirwan informs us of its being first taken for Green Mica by Werner, and afterwards for Calcolite.
The matrix of this specimen is Quartz, Arseniate of Copper, &c. Under the blowpipe it melts, becoming black.
- * A suboxide of Uranite.
