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GeneralValleriite -- Named for?

25th Sep 2009 14:41 UTCGerald Allen Peters

Can anyone clarify for whom Valleriite is named after?

Mindat says -- "Goran Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742), Swedish mining engineer."

Dana, Seventh Edition says -- "Swedish mineralogist G. Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742)"

Dana, Sixth Edition says -- "Swedish mineralogist Vallerius"

Handbook of Mineralogy says -- "Johan Gottschalk Wallerius (Vallerius) (1709–1785), Swedish chemist and

mineralogist"

I suspect that the name should attributed to Goran Wallerius, but would like an expert opinion.

Thanks.

25th Sep 2009 16:05 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

Named after Goran Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742).

25th Sep 2009 16:25 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

That doesn't help :)

We now have:

Mindat says -- "Goran Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742), Swedish mining engineer."

Dana, Seventh Edition says -- "Swedish mineralogist G. Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742)"

Dana, Sixth Edition says -- "Swedish mineralogist Vallerius"

Handbook of Mineralogy says -- "Johan Gottschalk Wallerius (Vallerius) (1709–1785), Swedish chemist and

mineralogist"

Marco E. Ciriotti says -- "Goran Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742)

What we need is to find the oldest reasonable reference.

25th Sep 2009 17:10 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

The reference is:

Blomstrand, C.W. (1870): On some new Swedish minerals and the composition of pyrrhotite. Öfversigt af Kungl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens

Förhandlingar (Stockholm), 27, 19-27.

25th Sep 2009 17:44 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

Thanks Marco!

25th Sep 2009 18:11 UTCJim Ferraiolo

Dana 5th edition , appendix II - (through Jan. 1875) lists the named for as "Swedish mineralogist Vallerius".

Chester's Dictionary of the names of minerals (1896) gives J.G.Wallerius (Vallerius).

Both reference the original paper, which I do not have a copy of.

25th Sep 2009 23:25 UTCGerald Allen Peters

Thanks Marco, Jolyon and Jim.

Blomstrand, C.W. (1870) -- as the oldest reference seems to point to Goran Wallerius (Vallerius) (1683-1742)

Chester's Dictionary of the names of minerals (1896) -- seems to point to Johan Gottschalk Wallerius (Vallerius) (1709–1785)

I guess the confusion in my own mind still remains. For my purposes I will add a note to my database saying "or perhaps..." and list both names, giving priority to Goran Wallerius.

It is a bit sad that early papers (and unfortunately some recent ones) give only initials and a last name. Suppose the author who chose the name knew who the person was, and perhaps the scientific community at the time knew, but those folks have long ago passed away and the exact recipient is "lost" to posterity, or at least ambiguous.

Mindat is the best mineralogical site on the internet -- thanks Jolyon, you are doing a super job -- and I certainly value the expertise of the responders.

For the past week or so I have been trying to fill in the blanks in my database with the complete name, birth and death years, etc. for each valid species. Began with Abelsonite and am now on Vauxite. Only a couple of hundred to go...

The internet is great for doing research but I am finding that once an "error" is made, it is replicated multiple times.

Had a hard time with Schirmerite. Sometimes given as J.F.L. Schirmer, J.H.L. Schirmer, Mr. Schirmer, Jacob Schirmer, Frederick J. Schirmer. Finally found a auction catalog that shows an assay report giving the name as Jacob F.L. Schirmer (www.holabirdamericana.com/HKA-Spring2008-Cat1/COLORADO.htm) and also a Denver Mint report giving Frederick J. Schirmer (http://books.google.com/books?id=MIYuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=frederick+schirmer,+mint&source=bl&ots=Q4wPqzJPB8&sig=s4as0E57S3OprintvYROJJy9e2c&hl=en&ei=mj-9SrT6M5HqsQOO-fg5&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=frederick%20schirmer%2C%20mint&f=false). Putting them together, resolved the name to "Jacob Frederick L. Schirmer." Was still unable to find what the initial L. in the name stands for, or the birth or death years. It has been very time consuming, but somewhat fun. I guess you can call it Historical Mineralogy.

Based on the above, the Mindat entry showing JHL Schirmer is, I believe, in error.

Again, thanks to all who responded.

26th Sep 2009 10:41 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

The reference of the type-description of schirmerite is:

Genth, F.A. (1874): On American tellurium and bismuth minerals. Amer. Phil. Soc. Proc., 14, 223-231.

26th Sep 2009 15:36 UTCOlav Revheim Manager

I did a search on libris.kb.se, and wikipedia.se, the Swedish library database for Wallerius, and found the following:

Goran Wallerius ( 1683-1744) has puplished a book on the use of mathematics and physics for the mining industry. First edition printed 1744, the second edition was printed 1747. Note that the year of his death is different in the library database than for the mineralogy references.

In Swedish libraries, there are 151 titles attributes to Johan Gottschalk Wallerius. These span from soil chemistry, mineralogy, hydrology, metal chemistry, mining geology and history and so on, printed in Latin, Swedish, French and English. According the the Swedish Wikipedia, he was one of his generation's finest scientists. There is no doubt that he must have been known to a much wider (international )audience than Goran.

None of this is directly related to which of them the mineral is named after, but Goran was probably never known outside Sweden. If the mineral in deed is named after Goran, it would be an easy mistake to belive that the mineral was named after the much more famous John Gottschalk.

27th Sep 2009 17:55 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

Yes Olav, I know as Goran death 1744, too. I don't know which of two dates is the correct one.

Goran was a member of the same academy of Blomstrand and most of the papers that he wrote were published on the same Öfversigt af Kungl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar.

27th Sep 2009 22:41 UTCJohan Kjellman Expert

Always go back to the sources - ALWAYS!

And quite many of them are these days online: http://books.google.com/books?id=PmAYAQAAIAAJ&q=valleriit&dq=valleriit&lr=&as_brr=0&hl=sv

cheers

27th Sep 2009 23:11 UTCJohan Kjellman Expert

Göran Wallerius died 1744, he was elected into the Academy 1742:

http://books.google.com/books?id=KL44AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PT8&dq=%22g%C3%B6ran+wallerius%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&hl=sv#v=onepage&q=%22g%C3%B6ran%20wallerius%22&f=false

I did not know any of this five minutes ago. Not that it matters but it proves the point that it is better to check the references/sources rather than just to refer to them ad infinitum. It's a good policy.

For those of you who don't know J. G. Wallerius:

http://www.minrec.org/libdetail.asp?id=1460

cheers

28th Sep 2009 09:46 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

Very well. Many thanks Johan. My deductions were erroneous. Sorry.

29th Sep 2009 09:54 UTCJohan Kjellman Expert

would be good if the info went into the valleriite page, i.e. Johan Gottschalk in - Göran OUT!

cheers

29th Sep 2009 11:29 UTCMarco E. Ciriotti Manager

Done.

7th Aug 2011 03:42 UTCMark Ivan jacobson

"Jacob Frederick L. Schirmer." Was still unable to find what the initial L. in the name stands for, or the birth or death years. It has been very time consuming, but somewhat fun. I guess you can call it Historical Mineralogy.

For his death information see the Engineering & Mining journal of 1878, Vol 25, p. 42.

Mark Jacobson

7th Aug 2011 03:43 UTCMark Ivan jacobson

7th Aug 2011 16:50 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

Schirmerite page updated.

Thanks Gerald for your time-consuming work!

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