Molar

“ It was proved that no destruction took place, but that an exact equivalent of the energy of the lost molar motion appears as that of the molecular motion, or motion of the smallest particles of a body, which constitutes heat. ”

“ The laws of motion of visible and tangible, or molar, matter had been worked out to a great degree of refinement and embodied in the branches of science known as Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Pneumatics. These laws had been shown to hold good, so far as they could be checked by observation and experiment, throughout the universe, on the assumption that all such masses of matter possessed inertia and were susceptible of acquiring motion, in two ways, firstly by impact, or impulse from without; ”

“ The molars, in fact, are animal grindstones, and the different degrees of hardness which the three component substances display, by wearing unevenly, always keep the grinding surfaces irregular or sharp. ”

“ For the Stones, which partake of the Nature of Metals, as Silver, Copper, or Iron, [13] melt in the Furnaces with them; either by means of the Humidity of the metalline Matter of which they partake; or of their own Nature: and in this Manner the Pyritæ also, and those Kinds of them called the Molares, melt with the Matter they. are laid upon in burning.
XX. Some absolutely affirm, that all Stones will melt in the Fire except Marble, which by burning is reduced to Lime: But this is saying absolutely, and of all, what ought only to be said in general, and of the greater Number. ”

“ It may be that there is a zone of matter beneath the structural rock and overlying the metallic nucleus which is penetrated by heat, now here, now there, and only these molten rocks are extravasated; or it may be that the solid state is limited by heat in one direction and by pressure in the other in such manner that all rocks flow under great pressure as do the metals. ”

“ Some, as salts of lime, abounding in a limestone country, may reasonably be attributed to the action of water passing through the rocks; others, as quartz, may be thought to require much heat for their solution; the clays and rolled fragments mark mechanical action of water; and thus, finally, it appears that the present aspect of mineral veins is the result of many secondary chemical, electrical, and mechanical actions, the general antecedent to which is the influence of a high temperature below the surface of the earth. ”

“ He conceives, therefore, that steam in the bowels of the earth having a temperature equal or even greater than the melting point of lava, and having an elasticity of which even Papin's digester can give but a faint idea, may convert rocks into liquid matter. ”

“ Hence it was a common opinion among the older Geologists that the condition of our globe is that of a vast central nucleus composed of molten mineral, and covered over with a comparatively thin external shell of solid rock. The most eminent Geologists, however, of the present day, hesitate to accept this opinion. They observe: (1) That we have not yet learned what the material is of which the interior of the Earth is composed; therefore we cannot tell for certain what degree of heat is sufficient to reduce that material to a liquid state. ”

“ MINERALOGY, the science which describes and classifies the different kinds of mineral matter constituting the material of the earth’s crust and of those extra-terrestrial bodies called meteorites. The study of minerals is thus a branch of natural history, but one in which certain of the exact sciences find an application. The determination of the composition and constitution of minerals is a chemical problem ”

“ By a contrary supposition to the one we have been forming, if the earth were suddenly transported into a very cold region, the water which at present composes our seas, revers, and springs, and probably the greater number of the fluids we are acquainted with, would be converted into solid mountains and hard rocks, at first diaphanous and homogeneous, like rock crystal, but which, in time, becoming mixed with foreign and heterogeneous substances, would become opake stones of various colours. ”

“ Further, it seems to have been rendered probable, from the density of rocky matter in the solid and liquid states, that a molten globe would solidify at the centre as well as at the surface, and consequently that the earth must not only have a solid crust of great thickness, but also a solid nucleus, and that any liquid portions must be of the nature of a sheet or of detached masses intervening between these. ”

“ The alteration in the specific gravity of metals in their chemical amalgams, interesting as the fact is in all points, is decisive in the present; for gravity is the sole inward of inorganic bodies—it constitutes their depth. ”

“ We have already compared the chemical elements to the alphabet and the minerals to words. We can now go a step further and compare rocks to sentences. We put words together to make sentences; nature puts minerals together to make rocks. A sentence does not have to be made up of a definite number of words, nor does a rock have to be made up of a definite number of minerals. Some rocks, such as granite, may be composed of several minerals. Others, such as dolomite and rock gypsum, consist of only one mineral. ”

“ The superficial crust of the earth,—by which is meant only that film, compared with its diameter, which is represented by a few miles in depth—is composed of distinct mineral masses, exhibiting peculiar physical conditions and a certain order of arrangement. These rocks appear to have resulted from two dissimilar causes; in one class the action of heat is evident, and in the other we have either the slow deposition of matter suspended in water, or crystallization from solution; an aqueous origin is indicated by peculiarities of formation in all the more recent rocks. ”

“ Seeing that some rocks are merely massive minerals, that is, large masses formed of one mineral species, while others consist of crystals or fragments of a variety of minerals, it may be well to remind ourselves of the distinction between minerals and rocks. We may define a mineral as a natural substance formed by inorganic action; its chemical composition is constant ”

“ With a view to enable our readers to understand more fully the prodigious force which rivers have been known to exert in the transportation of rocks, it may be useful to draw attention to one or two principles of physical science. First, we have the well-known law of Archimedes, that a solid body immersed in a liquid loses a part of its weight equal to the weight of the liquid displaced. Now solid rock as compared with water, bulk for bulk, is rarely more than three times, and often not more than twice as heavy. ”

“ Railways Electric Telegraphs Roads Bridges Tunnels Drains Artesian Wells Mines Ships Canals and Locks
NATURAL PRODUCTS. EARTHS.
All earths are metals in combination with oxygen: that is to say, they can all be separated into a metal and oxygen. The chief earths used are Alumina, found as clay or slate; Lime, found as chalk or limestone; and Silica, found as sand, flint, or rock-crystal. These, in various proportions, combined with some few other matters, form, by far, the greatest portion of the earth we dwell on. ”

“ The lecturer explained that the heat, causing the film of moisture to evaporate, brought the particles of salt sufficiently near to exercise the crystalline force, the result being the beautiful structure built up with such marvellous rapidity.
UNION OF MINERALOGY AND GEOMETRY.
It is a peculiar characteristic of minerals, that while plants and animals differ in various regions of the earth, mineral matter of the same character may be discovered in any part of the world,—at the Equator or towards the Poles; at the summit of the loftiest mountains, and in works far beneath the level of the sea. ”

“ If the upper portion of the solid rock is less dense than the fluid, while the lower portion is more dense, the fluid will not rise to the surface but will pass between the heavy and light solids and lift or float the latter. ”

“ Unlike water, all rocks contract on solidifying and expand on melting, and consequently the high pressures to which they are subjected in the earth’s interior—10,000,000 to 20,000,000 pounds per square inch—must raise their fusing-points enormously, and the probabilities are that they are solid, in spite of the high temperature. ”

“ Each mineral has its own characteristic internal structure and other properties. At ordinary temperatures, nearly all the minerals are solids rather than gases or liquids. (Water and mercury are the principal exceptions.) In addition, minerals are inorganic rather than being composed of plant or animal matter. ”

“ We know that we have earth, air, water, and we have seen in Chapter II that the earth’s crust is made up of many substances, rocks, coral reefs, clay, marl, feldspar, quartz, limestone, granite, etc., etc. These substances are composed of small particles, or elements, and are called minerals or inorganic substances. There is another class of substances, called organic, that are derived from living things or beings. ”

“ Thus, in analyzing the crust of the globe, we find at once two kinds of rocks, the respective work of fire and water: the first poured out from the furnaces within, and cooling, as one may see any mass of metal cool that is poured out from a smelting-furnace today, in solid crystalline masses, without any division into separate layers or leaves; and the latter in successive beds, one over another, the heavier materials below, the lighter above, or sometimes in alternate layers, as special causes may have determined successive deposits of lighter or heavier materials at some given spot. ”

“ When fluid substances are suffered to pass with adequate slowness to the solid state, or when solutions of solids are slowly concentrated by evaporation, or the solvent powers of the menstruum, gradually lessened by cooling, the ultimate particles of matter frequently so arrange themselves as to form regular geometrical bodies, familiarly known by the name of crystals. This wonderful property, which is possessed by a great variety of substances in the mineral kingdom, and by nearly all saline bodies, is resorted to for many useful and important purposes in the chemical arts. ”

“ The uses of these things are obvious, and seen and appreciated at once.—But so is every molecule of matter and aggregation of rock, in the largest amorphous mass as in the polished crystallized gem, assimilated by law and indurated for use. And when we see the structure of the entire globe so directly conducive to the well being of its numerously diversified families, we have the argument the same in the whole as in the parts, in the lumpish mass as in the order and symmetry of the bones, muscles, and organs of the animal frame. ”

“ In the rocks of the larger intrusive masses one may see with a powerful microscope exceedingly minute cavities, to be counted by many millions to the cubic inch, in which the gaseous water which the mass contained was held imprisoned under the immense pressure of the overlying rocks. ”

“ The whole mass of the globe having been melted, or liquefied, by fire, the internal is only a concrete or discreet glass, whose simple substance cannot receive any alteration by heat alone; there is, therefore, only an upper and superficial layer, which being exposed to the action of external causes united to that of the internal heat, will have undergone all the modifications, differences, and forms, in one word, of Mineral Substances, which their combined actions were enabled to produce. ”

“ But ours is that metals arise and effloresce at the summits of the earth's globe, being distinguished each by its own form, like some of the other substances dug out of it, and all bodies around us. The earth's globe does not consist of ashes or inert dust. Nor is fresh water an element, but a more simple consistency of evaporated fluids of the earth. ”

“ The atoms that now constitute the most solid rocks are in this state as tenuous as air, kept apart by the expansive force of heat, which prevents not only their mechanical union, but also their chemical combination. ”

“ Investigations carried as far down as we can go show that the interior of the earth consists 68of various kinds of rock, in which are contained many different kinds of metals. While there is reason for thinking that a high degree of temperature prevails deep in the earth, yet it appears evident, for other reasons, that, taken as a whole, it is solid and very rigid throughout. ”

“ The superficial portion of a cooling globe, consolidating from the center from a condition of igneous fusion, he conceived to have been the protoplasmic mineral matter, which, as transformed by the agencies of air, water, and internal heat, presented a history of mineralogical evolution as regular, as constant, and as definite in its results as that seen in the organic kingdoms. ”

“ Knowing the specific gravity of all stones, and dividing them into six groups, by taking a series of standard solutions selected from one or other of the above, and of known specific gravity, we can judge with accuracy if any stone is what it is supposed to be, and classify it correctly by its mere floating or sinking when placed in these liquids. ”

“ Now, if as fast as each particle is set free by putrefaction in a fluid or gaseous state, a particle equally minute of carbonate of lime, flint, or other mineral is at hand and ready to be precipitated, we may imagine this inorganic matter to take the place just before left unoccupied by the organic molecule. ”

“ If the pyrogenous rocks of every age be restored in imagination to their ancient state of fluidity, and their chemical constitution in this state be calculated from the analysis of their integrand minerals, we shall find a remarkable general analogy running through them, and be able to perceive, in some instances, the reason of those gradations in mineral characters, which link into one system a long series of seemingly different rocks. ”