Franklin Fluorescent Minerals

I realized I haven’t taken any photos of my fluorescent minerals using a digital SLR. I decided it was time, and took a practice run a few days ago. The results are promising, though I can see some areas for improvement.

All of the minerals below are from the Franklin/Sterling Hills area of New Jersey; famed for their bright and vivid colors when illuminated by short-wave UV light.

In terms of color, the red is calcite, and the green is willemite. They are the 2 most common minerals. Next is clinohedrite, coming in with the orange, except in the case of the wollostonite, which is also orange, and finally, the purple colored hardystonite.

Calcite and willemite.
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Calcite and willemite.
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Wollastonite and calcite.
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Barite and calcite.
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Nice 4-color: willemite, calcite, clenohedrite and hardstonite.
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Last week I had the honor and privilege of giving a presentation to our local Kiwanis club on the topic of collecting fluorescent minerals. The person who takes minutes takes very detailed minutes, including the names of the rocks I presented and so on. Given the slightly technical nature of the talk, I was given an opportunity to review the minutes before publication, to ensure that the rock names were spelled correctly and so on.

As it turns out, the last few paragraphs of the article as published in the paper were from an older, uncorrected version of the minutes. (I know how this happens because almost every entry I post needs a correction moments after it’s published, no matter how carefully I proofed it before publishing.) Unlike a dead-tree publication, I can fix my errors immmediately and no one’s the wiser; hard to do with printed material.

And so, here’s the correct final paragraphs from the article in today’s News-Record (the full article is in the extended entry area):

Mike works for HP via the internet and works on web services and consulting for HP labs. At HP Labs they create technologies for future HP products and his group is known as Research IT (information technology).

He acquired one of his websites, Little Sweden USA, from Marc Anderson who was no longer using it. He occasionally posts things about Lindsborg on it. He also does the Lindsborg Update for KSAL. He also now does podcasts, an easy way to listen to multi-media over the internet. He doesn’t usually put upcoming events on Little Sweden, but does mention some after they have occurred. He said he doesn’t want it to become just a calendar of future events.

On a personal note he said growing up in Lindsborg was one of the best things that ever happened to him, and gave him the background needed to cope with the California culture. Hewlett Packard dates back to 1939 when Bill and Dave started it in their garage, now a California Historical Site. They started with the philosophy “we can do well by doing good” involving beneficial things like community involvement. He said this is still important to HP. With that he stopped, received the Kiwanis pen of gratitude for the program. President John then thanked the guests for coming, said you are always welcome and appreciated, and come back. He then gave the bell another bang and said we could leave.

(more…)

And now, it’s time for something a little different. It’s not only rocks that glow when exposed to UV light; a few summers ago we discovered that the scorpions on Coronado Heights glow with a soft creamy color.

This brightly colored creamer is an example of uranium glass. Sometimes known as vaseline glass, depending on the color, uranium glass glows very brightly under long-wave ultraviolet lighting. A lot of this glass, part of the broader family known as depression glass, was manufactured in the Midwestern US between the 1920’s and ’40s. The addition of extremely minute amounts of uranium is what gives the glass its characteristic color in natural light; it’s also what glows so very intensely under UV light.

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I liked the turtle and the dessert cup so much I’ve included them as well. The turtle is actually the top of a 6 inch covered glass dish. The dessert cup represents the Rose Cameo design, circa 1931, and was sold by the Belmont Tumbler Company, Bellaire, Ohio.

English fluorite is one of the brightest of all fluorescent minerals, and this fine, 1″ crystal specimen, illuminated by longwave UV light, is a very nice example, indeed.

This nicely cut piece of Wernerite is from Canada. It’s about 3 inches long and glows a very bright yellow under long-wave UV light.