Useful Knowledge 4th ed Minerals Vol 1 of 3 by William Bingley

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Title: Useful Knowledge: Minerals. Volume 1 (of 3).
or A familiar account of the various productions of nature

Author: William Bingley

Release Date: September 14, 2018 [EBook #57898]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

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Useful Knowledge: 4th ed. Minerals. Vol 1 of 3

Frontispiece to Vol. I. see Page 237.

Comparative Height OF Mountains, Cities AND Lakes

British Islands Continent of Europe Islands not British Asia America

(Click on image to see a larger version.)

J. Shury sculp.

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE:

OR

A FAMILIAR ACCOUNT

OF THE

VARIOUS PRODUCTIONS

OF

Nature,

MINERAL, VEGETABLE, AND ANIMAL,

WHICH ARE CHIEFLY EMPLOYED FOR THE USE OF MAN.

Illustrated with numerous Figures, and intended as a Work both of Instruction and Reference.

BY THE

Rev. WILLIAM BINGLEY, AM. FLS.

LATE OF PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, AND AUTHOR OF ANIMAL BIOGRAPHY.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I. MINERALS.

FOURTH EDITION.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY;

HARVEY AND DARTON;

AND C. AND J. RIVINGTON.

1825.

i

C. Baldwin, Printer,
New Bridge-street, London.

ii

PREFACE.

The mode in which instruction has hitherto been conveyed, on the peculiar subjects of the present work, has chiefly

been by small books, in question and answer, denominated catechisms. But such, however respectable in themselves,
or however advantageous for children, are wholly insufficient for persons who are in search of extended knowledge,
and desirous of furnishing their minds with useful information.

On these subjects there has not hitherto been published any work in which they are collectively to be found; nor

could a knowledge of them be obtained but by the consultation of many and expensive writings. That they are generally
important to be known will not probably be denied.

It has consequently been the object of the author to compress all the interesting information that could be obtained

respecting them, within as narrow a compass, and at the same time to render this information as entertaining, and as
devoid of technical words and phrases, as possible.

The scheme of the work will, it is hoped, be found sufficiently simple. The passage in smaller characters at the head

of each article, is in general so arranged as to reply to the questions, “What is?” “What are?” or “How do you know?”
For instance: “What is flint?” (See Vol. I. p. 53.) The answer will be found thus: “Flint is a peculiarly hard and compact
kind of stone, generally of smoke-grey colour, passing into greyish white, reddish, or brown. It is nearly thrice as heavy
as water, and, when broken, will split in every direction, into pieces which have a smooth surface.” The author is aware
that, in many instances, the definitions are defective: but this has, in general, arisen from a necessity of rendering them
short, and at the same time of using such terms as would be likely to convey information to the minds of persons who
have had no previous knowledge of the systems of natural history.

After the definition, a further illustration sometimes follows; and in the large characters will be found a brief detail of

the history and uses of the object described. The articles are numbered, for the greater convenience both of reference
and explanation, but particularly the latter. Thus, under the explanation of Carbon, it is stated that “in combination with
oxygen (21) it forms carbonic acid (26), and that it is the chief component part of pit-coal (217), petroleum (213), and
other bituminous substances.” By a reference to the numbers inserted, each of the words, against which they stand, will
be explained: whilst at least three of them would otherwise have been incomprehensible by the generality of unscientific
readers.

It must be remarked that the reader will not here find an account of every production of nature, which is employed

for the use of man, nor even all the uses of such objects as are described. The most important of the productions, and
the principal of the uses, are all that he trusts can reasonably be required in a work of the present extent. On this ground
it is that a great number of animals, which are in request only for food, have been wholly omitted.

The figures that are inserted have been drawn upon as small and economical a scale as was compatible with a

sufficiently accurate representation of the objects to which they relate. If the reader be desirous of reference to further
illustration, he will derive much satisfaction from the invaluable figures of Mr. Sowerby in his British and Exotic
Mineralogy, and English Botany, and Woodville’s Medical Botany; as well as from those in Dr. Shaw’s General
Zoology, and Bewick’s Histories of Quadrupeds and British Birds. There are also many figures of useful animals in the
author’s own work, entitled “Memoirs of British Quadrupeds.”

iii

iv

v

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

THIRD EDITION.

Since this work was first printed, the author has made in it considerable improvements. The

first volume, particularly, contains many additional articles, and more than half of it has been
re-written. The plates also have been re-engraved. For the plate of the mountains a new drawing
has been made, that the scale might be extended, and many particulars might be introduced
which before were omitted. For the plates of vegetables every drawing has been corrected; and,
in place of such figures as were most defective, new ones have been inserted.

Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury,
London, 1st March, 1821.

vi

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

FRONTISPIECE.

This is explained in pages 236, 237.

PLATE I.

Fig.
MINERAL DEPOSITS.

1.
Horizontal beds or strata.

a. Veins or dykes.

2.
Bending strata.

3.
Minerals in detached masses.

4.
Disjoined strata.

b. A fault.

PLATE II.

CRYSTALS, &c.

5.
Octohedron.

6.
Rough diamond.

7.
Profile of a brilliant-cut stone.

8.
Profile of a rose-cut stone.

9.
Plane of a table-cut stone.

10.
Plane and profile of the Pitt diamond.

11.
Dodecahedron.

12.
Rough garnet.

13.
Six-sided pyramids, joined base to base.

14
Regular four-sided prism.

15.
Six-sided prism.

16.
Cube.

17.
Four-sided pyramid having a rhomb for its base.

PLATE III.

SECTION OF ROCKS.

I. Primitive Rocks.

Fig.

1.
Granite.

2.
Gneiss.

3.
Mica-slate.

4.
Clay-slate.

a. Lime-stone.

b. Quartz.

5.
Primitive lime-stone.

vii

viii

II. Secondary Rocks.
1. Transition Rocks.

6.
Grey-wacka.

7.
Transition lime-stone.

2. Floetz Rocks.

8.
Old red sand-stone.

9.
Alternating strata of lime-stone and sand-stone.

III. Alluvial Deposits.

10.
Alluvial strata of clay, gravel, &c., &c.

The BINDER is desired to insert all the Plates, except the Frontispieces, immediately after the Explanations in

the respective Volumes.

Pl. 1. Vol. I.

J. Shury. sculp.

Sections of Strata &c.

Pl. 2. Vol. I.

CRYSTALS &c.

Pl. 3. Vol. I.

Section OF Rocks. J Shury sculp.

ix

xi

xiii

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

1

MINERALS.

INTRODUCTION.

1. Minerals are natural bodies destitute of organization and life: and Mineralogy is that branch of natural science

which treats of the properties and relations of such bodies.

MINERAL DEPOSITS.

2. If we penetrate beneath the surface of the earth, we observe there a very remarkable arrangement. Instead of a

generally uniform appearance, as we see on the surface, we pass through divers substances, as clay, gravel, sand, and
numerous others, deposited in beds or strata of various thickness, from a few inches to a great many feet (Pl. I. Fig.
1). These lie, for the most part, nearly horizontal: but in some instances, particularly in mountainous countries, they take
different degrees of inclination; and, in places where the country consists of gently sloping hills and vales, the beds have
a waving or bending form (Pl. 1, Fig. 3). The strata of which the earth is composed, as deep as the curiosity or the
necessities of mankind have induced them to explore, satisfactorily demonstrate the wisdom which has been displayed
in the arrangement of materials requisite for the use of men and animals.

The first layer is frequently a rich, black mould, formed almost wholly of animal and vegetable remains. This yields

sustenance to the vegetable productions; and thereby becomes the actual, though not the immediate, support of the
whole animal creation.—Beneath this is often found a thick bed of clay, that furnishes to man a substance of which to
make bricks, tiles, various kinds of pottery, and innumerable other articles for the comfort of social life.—Next are
deposited vast beds of gravel, that are of use in numerous points of view.—Underneath this are the infinitely varying
strata of sandstone, limestone, &c. which not only serve for the construction of buildings, and for other important
purposes, but also frequently surround mines which contain the valuable metals.—Beneath a slaty stratum are usually
discovered those immense beds of coal so requisite for the comfort, and, in some situations, even for the existence of
man.

These strata, it is true, are not always found together, nor are they always discovered in the same order; but the

statement will suffice to show the general nature of their arrangement.

3. Minerals are sometimes observed in detached masses of various size, and situated at various depths in the earth

(Pl. I, Fig. 1).

4. They are also found in a kind of natural clefts which cross the regular mineral beds or strata in different directions

(Pl. I, Fig. 1, a, Pl. I, Fig. 4, b). When these contain metallic ores, they are styled veins; but when they contain only
stony or earthy matters, the miners call them dykes. They vary much both in magnitude and length. Six thousand feet
are considered an unusual length for veins, though, in some instances, veins have been traced upwards of four miles.
Few veins extend more than 1200 feet below the surface of the mountains in which they are situated. They are usually
much inclined; but they sometimes descend in a direction parallel with the beds of rock in which they occur.

5. At the places where dykes or veins pass through the earth, they occasionally disjoint the strata in a very singular

manner (Pl. I, Fig. 4). Some of the coal strata, for instance, are thrown down or raised on one side of a dyke upwards
of a hundred yards; and the miner, after penetrating through this dyke, instead of finding the same coal again, meets, on
the opposite side, with beds of stone or clay. Hence he is frequently at a loss how to proceed in searching for the coal
of which he is in pursuit; and hence it is that to such dykes the peculiar name of faults has sometimes been given.

6. In England the metallic ores are generally found in veins, that form a considerable angle with the regular strata.

This in Cornwall is uniformly the case. And it is remarkable, concerning the veins of tin and copper of that county, that
they run in a direction nearly east and west; whilst the dykes, or veins of other substances, run for the most part north
and south.

7. The thickness of veins, and the quantity and quality of the ores they contain, differ in every mine. Some are only a

few inches wide, whilst others extend to the width of several feet. The vein at Dalcooth mine, in Cornwall, varies from
two or three to forty feet and upwards; and, in some parts, it contracts so as to be little more than six inches across.

8. In Cornwall the first traces of tin and copper are usually found at the surface of the ground, and thence to the

depth of 80 or 100 feet beneath; and it is said that no miner has ever yet seen the bottom of a vein, although several
have been wrought to the depth of more than 1000 feet. The veins of these metals have, in some instances, been
worked to the length of three or four miles.

9. It is frequently observed that metallic veins are separated, from the substances they intersect, by a thin wall, or

lining, of minerals different from these substances, and also by a layer of clay on each side of the vein. It is also
remarked that the same substance which forms the outer coat of the vein is often intermixed with the ore, or forms
layers alternately with it. This has usually the denomination of matrix or gangue.

10. There are few mines of any considerable depth that would not be flooded with water from internal springs were

not means adopted for drawing off this fluid. The steam engines that are employed for this purpose in some of the
Cornish mines are so powerful as to discharge incessantly, both by night and day, a quantity of water, equal to at least
1000 gallons, or near twenty hogsheads, every minute.

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