Pumpellyite-(Mg), Quartz

Unknown Owner

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A last piece of the one single specimen that had a natural fault in the middle, and cracked apart on the way to me in the mail (though to tell the truth, it was a clunker and I would have trimmed it anyhow) ...A superb thumbnail was the result! Note that this specimen was presented to Washington Roebling (1837-1926) on or near his deathbed as a gift from the eminent Dr. Palache. It must have ended up with Roebling's friend Gage shortly thereafter either by further gifting or by sale from the collection. This specimen would come with a color copy of the original label. Originally the mineral was described under the name "lotrite" from the southern Carpathian Mountains (Murgoci, 1901). Charles H. Palache, who in 1920 made the first systematic study of the secondary minerals in the altered copper lodes for the Calumet and Hecla Copper Mining Company, noted a green mineral which he believed to be a new mineral closely related to the zoisite-epidote family. Unaware of Murgoci's earlier work, he submitted a manuscript to Calumet and Hecla describing the "new" mineral, proposing to call it "kearsargeite." B.S.Butler didn't like the name, and Palache changed the manuscript by crossing out "kearsargeite" and penciling in "pumpellyite," in honor of Raphael Pumpelly, the noted l9th century U.S. Geological Survey geologist who made many contributions to the knowledge and understanding of copper minerals and the copper deposits of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Comes with photocopy of original label sold with the larger specimen. 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 cm