XIV. Description of a New Ore of Tellurium.

Abstract

It occurs coarsely disseminated, and crystallized in perfect hexagonal plates striped on the edges. It has the whitish hue of tin. Its fracture displays a perfect foliation, but only in one direction. It has a strong metallic lustre; a moderate flexibility; considerable softness, and feels heavy. Before the blowpipe it burns with the colour and smell of tellurium, and has the same action with acids. The precipitate by water burns upon charcoal like tellurium; but after its sublimation a small metallic button remained of the colour of silver, malleable, but too minute for further examination; for on account of the rarity of the substance, I could only devote a single grain to this examination. It is found in the Orndal copper mine, accompanied by copper pyrites, and a small intermixture of sulphuret of molybdenum. The mine is called Mosnap, and has been full of water for several years. The vein lies in mica slate. I met with the same ore in Hungary, in the collection of my friend M. Gerhard, who gave me a specimen of it; but as he did not know from what part of Hungary it came, he did not value it. For this reason I omitted taking notice of it in the journal of my travels through Hungary and the Bannat of Temeswar. It is easily distinguished from molybdena, by its colour and its habitude before the blowpipe.