Cat's Eye - Uleksit
Characteristics of the mineral.
Another stone with the effect of the cat's eye is ulexite (boronatrocalcite, a mineral of the subclass of water borates, NaCa (B5O9) x8H2O, in products often synthetic and very widely used). For the characteristic shine, color and flickering elongated strip of light, polished ulexites are often called cat eyes. The name ulexite originated on behalf of the German chemist GL Uleks. Pretty soft mineral. It occurs as a hypergenic mineral in lake sediments, a substitution product in clayey gypsum-bearing rocks of salt domes. Boron ore. In nature, the ulexite most often forms fine-fibrous solid masses. The ulexite crystallizes in the monoclinic system and forms fine-grained solid masses or radial-radiant aggregates of white color. Due to thin parallel fibers, the effect of a bright eye appears.
The structural feature of the cell is long chains consisting of monomers whose chemical composition reflects the formula B5O6 (OH) 6. Owing to these parallel strands, the ulexite crystals have an amazing property. Light passes without distortion in only one of three mutually perpendicular directions. Therefore, in popular literature, the ulexite is called TV-stone (television stone).
In the second half of XX century. Was created a simple technology for the production of synthetic stones, precisely repeating the composition and structure of the ulexite. Such an inexpensive synthetic material is used in glass fiber optics. With it, and jewelry made of gold and silver. The artificial ulexite is colorless and chemically pure and can be colored by impurities in any color during the crystallization process, it has the most pronounced phenomenon of running glare during rotation.
All that is massively and cheaply sold in stores as costume jewelery (beads, bracelets) is imitation and fake ulexite in glass (imitation is easy to obtain from cheap fibrous borosilicate glass). All that is mass sold in jewelry stores in factory jewelry from gold and silver under the name of a cat's eye - samples of a synthetic colored ulexite of jewelry quality (indicated on the label).
Poisonous and radioactive dangerous stones and minerals
** - poisonous stones and minerals (mandatory check in the chemical laboratory + explicit indication of toxicity).
** - radioactive stones and minerals (mandatory check on the standard dosimeter + ban on open sales in the case of radioactivity over 24 milli / g / h + additional measures of population protection).
All rare stones are subject to mandatory inspection at the standard dosimeter for the permissible level of radiation and in the chemical laboratory for the absence of poisonous and evaporating components that are dangerous to humans and the environment.
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