I suppose I should only reply witherite answer.
The date given for Dr Withering's analysis is 1784, presumably Watt found it
shortly before, does this predate the Wellhope discovery?
Mike Shaw
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Forbes <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Witherite.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Shaw <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 21 February 2002 20:58
> Subject: Re: Witherite.
>
>
> >According to the 'Notice concerning the Shropshire Witherite' by Arthur
> >Aiken (an 1811 paper to the Geological Society) the mineral was first
> >discovered by James Watt at Anglesark. Apart from Snailbeach, about which
> he
> >is writing he knows of only one other location where the mineral had
been
> >found and that was in a mine near Neuberg in Upper Stiria (sic), that
> >information was from Klaproth, Analytical Essays, I. 389.
> >
> Thanks for the reference to this paper. However in the North Pennines
> corner we have Westgarth Forster. His 1809 "Treatise on A Section of the
> Strata" contains the following footnote:
>
> "There is a mine in Wellhope, in the County of Northumberland, belonging
to
> Colonel Beaumont, containing the common cauk spar, or barytes, in the
upper
> beds, which changed its matrix in the great limestone, and contained the
> aerated or carbonated barytes. It lies mostly in the cavities or shakes
of
> the vein, in round balls, and, when broken, it is striated as diverging
from
> the centre." (page 85).
>
> This is witherite, and the mine in Wellhope probably gave access to the
> Nentsberry Haggs vein system - well-known today as a source of witherite.
> So, even if Arthur Aiken hadn't been told, witherite had been recognised
in
> the North Pennines at a time before he wrote his paper.
>
> No offence to Anglesark, but I'm not sure their case is proven!
>
> A final thought - will this argument wither away?
>
> Ian
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