Cryolite (TYPE LOCALITY) - late 1800s with label

Item Description

This crystalline Cryolite is from the famous, now extinct, TYPE LOCALITY in Greenland. Substantial in size, this single piece is translucent, white, and has good luster in parts. A rare Na-Al halide, Cryolite was originally used as aluminum ore and later in the electrolytic processing of the aluminum ore bauxite. Old material, mostly from the 1800s and early 1900s, this small cabinet specimen is highly representative of the species. From MINDAT: "A curious mineral. The colourless material seemingly disappears in water due to the proximity of their refractive indices.Historically, cryolite was used as an aluminium ore and later in the electrolytic processing of the aluminium ore bauxite....Ivigtut was the World's only mine for cryolite, used as a solvent of bauxite in aluminium production and before that to produce opaline glass." Previously in the Miller collection from the 1800’s, after which it went to James B. Cone and the Wadsworth Atheneaum, and then to the Loomis Chaffee School (this label style is known to have that history). From the large worldwide collection of historical minerals, of George Elling of New Jersey.