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Bible Encyclopedias
Axinite
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or a mineral consisting of a complex aluminium and calcium boro-silicate with a small amount of basic hydrogen; the calcium is partly replaced in varying amounts by ferrous iron and manganese, and the aluminium by ferric iron: the formula is HCa 3 BAl 2 (SiO 4) 4. The mineral was named (from a iv17, an axe) by R. J. Haiiy in 1799, on account of the char acteristic thin wedge-like form of its c anorthic crystals. The colour is usually clove-brown, but rarely it has a violet tinge (on this account the mineral was named yanolite, meaning violet stone, by J. C. Delametherie in 1792). The best specimens are afforded by the beautifully developed transparent glassy crystals, found with albite, prehnite and quartz, in a zone of amphibolite and chlorite-schists at Le Bourg d'Oisans in Dauphine. It is found in the greenstone and hornblende-schists 01 Batallack Head near St Just in. Cornwall, and in diabase in the Harz; and small ones in Maine and in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Large crystals have also been found in Japan. In its occurrence in basic rather than in acid eruptive rocks, axinite differs from the boro-silicate tourmaline, which is usually found in granite. The specific gravity is 3.28. The hardness of 61-7, combined with the colour and transparency, renders axinite applicable for use as a gemstone, the Dauphine crystals being occasionally cut for this purpose.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Axinite'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/axinite.html. 1910.
