Article Suggestions

Are there any articles you would love to see in the new Mindat Magazine? Here's a few suggestions of my own, things I would like to see written, please comment with your own ideas, or if you'd be interested in writing one of these articles!

My Choices:

1) Meteorite Mineralogy
2) The Great Himmelsfurst Silver Fraud
3) Minerals of Antarctica


What would you choose?

Greetings Jolyon,

Based on a common topic in several of the message board forums, how about "nature vs. nurture", mans continueing quest to produce artificial minerals and crystals. I think there is enough examples both historic and contemporary to even make this subject a regular column.

Bob

Very good idea.

Jolyon

how about the presentation from mineral museums from all around the world? not only the big ones but also the smaller and regional collections. I myself am very intrested in the museum history and how the collections are curated etc ..
just a suggestion ;-)
Paul Bongaerts

J you going to have photos as well?


KOR
E

Yes, there will be photos and diagrams with articles

Erm....i got another idea too ;-)
an article about Elba island? hihihihi

Sarah

I love rocks. My entire existence revolves around rocks. I have a pet rock, a brother rock, and I swear my parents are rocks too. This is a true story.

YAY

Hi Jolyon

I agree, I'd really like to see something regarding The Great Himmelsfurst Silver Fraud.

A friend, Don Edwards, wrote a very illuminating letter about his experiments and success in growing wire silver simply using a crucible over a Bunsen burner (see Min Record, Vol 32, No 1, p72 - Jan-Feb 2001). There is also a picture of one 3.5 cm high. An old (1919) German paper regarding the formation of wire silver that was referred to in Dana sparked his initial interest. People that have seen his growths have found it difficult to believe they were "home made". I rather expected his letter to generate a flurry of responses, but MR chose not to publish a letters page in subsequent issues.

It generally appears that the "mineral establishment" has closed ranks, as there are too many vested interests in not proving these very expensive silvers to be fakes. My own feeling is that they may not necessarily have been deliberately manufactured, but may have been formed in cracks in an old smelter that has now been dug up. The are records of wire silver forming this way and it would help explain the flat bases and remarkable purity of the Himmelsfurst pieces!

It would be good to see the debate resurrected and a consensus reached.

ian jones

how about a mineral of the month type thing... or other monthly changing things for example mine of the month, location to collect minerals of the month, ECT.....

here is another idea maybe interview proffesionals

I like the Idea Of Antartic minerals. But here is another idea have a article on rare Barium minerals like Gillespite macdonaldite traskite ? From sites like the esquire claims exspecialy #7 I would try to supply pics

That sounds good!

I have another idea Flourite Perhaps English fluorite

Bob I like your idea I know somone who makes cabashons of quartz and makes tiny cracks in it and fills it with gold and can make $200 American dollars of that.

Dear Jolyon,
How about an article on Brushy Creek Mine. I went on a field trip recently, August 19, to Brushy Creek Mine in Missouri. Done a search on Mindat.org and you have a lote of information and photos on Brushy Creek lead mine.
Hope you are doing well,
Dennis W. Haas

Dear Jolyon, I have just broken into rockhounding and i would like to do an article for you on the Manhan mines (aka loudville mine), it seems to have a very spotty history. I live in Easthampton where the mines are located and there are some very extensive dump sites located along the river. There have been some very cool finds there in the past and i hope to find some nice specimens to have for the article too.

That would be great!

Jolyon

There are two important news af historical value, as I have written articles about in danish: se www.stenvennerne.dk Lapidomanen 2003:1 and 2005:2 and 3.
Muschistonite is refered in a german magazin Archäologie 2002 as coming from an Bronze-age mine in Karnab, Uzbekistan and Muschiston, Tadzichistan, first discovered by Litvinsky in 1950, but only published in russia. This article are very important to review the whole conception of the socalled Bronze-age.
Nature 11th February 1999 had an article from France, where they analyses paintings from Egypt 2000-1200 BC and they found Galenite, Cerussite,Laurionite and Phosgenite in the paintings.

Hi Jolyon,
I have a completed article that you may be interested in posting on the Mindat website. I have it as a PDF file. The title is: "Ag-Cu-Pb-Bi Sulfosalts New to Darwin, Inyo County, California." The article includes a number of SEM and photomicrographs showing the various sulfosalts in the veins. Also included are microprobe data for the minerals. If you are interested please let me know.

Cheers,
Gail

How about a "Mindat Caption Competitions - Best Of" feature?
I know I'm being frivilous, but all the best publications have a frivolous page of some sort don't they?!
Competitions: Spot the Difference, Crossword, Sudoku... How about a resident cartoonist?
Any idea what Jim Davis or Gary Larsson are doing these days?


OK, I'll get my coat!

KOR

GOR

Hi Gail,

I would love to more about your article. It sounds like just the thing we need. Have you publishe dit yet?

Cheers,
Mark

If this is going to be an ongoing effort, I found myself being very attracted to having regular articles from various museums, small and/or large, national or regional,from around the world ie: invite a focus from one museum each issue. Let the curator go wild and give us a virtual view of their stuff.

What a way to get international exposure for distant or even local museum collections, that might otherwise not even be known or whose specimens aren't able to be well exposed, since most museums have limitations on displaying due to financial constraints [I have heard that very few have more than a few percents of their entire collections available for viewing].

The idea of the mineral of the month, normally would turn me off, but if this dimension was added to a museum section, then invites could be given to museums everywhere to show , for example, their best or most unique Erythrite or Pyrite or whatever, that month. Then we would have a window into the best of the best in specific minerals each and every month..

Does this appeal to anyone?

Hi, Jolyon

Antartica Minerals sounds good.
How about an article about famous people (politicains, moviestars, popstars,
sportsmen, etc, etc,) who also are mineral collectors.

Greetings from the Netherlands.
Leon Hupperichs

text on fluorescence done and sent!