tals
were at first supposed to be tourmaline, but were identified by Dr.
Kunz; many of these crystals were ruined by lapidaries who
unsuccessfully tried to cut them, as the very highly facile cleavage
of spodumene caused the mineral to flake.
Kunzite
is entirely distinct from the green variety of spodumene (hiddenite),
the beautiful gem mineral found at Stony Point, Alexandra County, North
Carolina, and from the transparent yellow variety reported by a
mineralogist named Pisani to have been found in Brazil, and, since its
discovery, produced in sufficient quantity to come into use as gems.
Spodumene—it
is also sometimes called tri-phane—in its general characteristics is a
member of the pyroxene group, and is the only gem mineral, besides
lepidolite and tourmaline, which contains a considerable proportion of
lithium. The chemical composition of spodumene is: silica, 64.5;
alumina, 27.4; and lithia, 8.4. Spodumene is fusible before the
blowpipe; its hardness is 6% to 7; specific gravity, 3.1-3.2; lustre,
vitreous. Spodumene is commonly white or grey, and because of that it
was named, the word spodumene being derived from the Greek spodios, meaning ash-coloured. Most of the
