Chippers’ ChatterChippers’ ChatterNewsletter of the Chesapeake Gem & Mineral Society

Baltimore, Maryland <chesapeakegemandmineral.org>

Volume 59, Number 8September, 2015

Program Notesfrom Tony Wilner

It’s a delight to be able to welcome back to our podium Dr. Wayne Sukow. You will recall that Wayne spoke to us in 2014 about “Copper Agates”.

A retired as physics professor and department chair at the Univ. of Wisconsin, River Falls, he’s also served as director of the Division of Elementary, Sec-ondary and Informal Education at the National Science Founda-tion in Washington, DC. In addi-

tion, Wayne has been active in the Eastern Federation serv-ing as President in 2006 and later as Director of the EFMLS Wildacres Workshop.

This month, Wayne will share with us a program on “Iris Agate”. In Greek mythology, Iris was identified as Goddess of the Rainbow. The rainbow was her shimmering robes as she carried messages from the Gods on high to mortals on earth. We suggest that Iris Agate was her abode on earth and to the discoverers she granted views of the more colorful and intense “Extreme Iris” in agates from around the world.

The program begins with an explosion of color from a variety of agates and continues with close up views of these agates to see the extreme iris. Extreme iris’s intensity, hues, new colors and color changes as the camera is moved slight-ly will continue to amaze. Another feature of some extreme iris patterns is their 3-dimensionality, which adds a new in-sight into agate structure and perhaps formation.

Although most Iris agates reveal their extreme iris colors when white light is transmitted through a very thin slice of the agate a very few (3) shows extreme iris when light is reflected from the agate. We have photos of one

in Wayne’s collection. Photos in Wayne’s program were taken by Peter Rodewald, a noted agate collector and agate photographer.

Numerous authors have stated that the iris effect is evidence that the density of fortification bands is 15,000 to 21,000 bands per inch. In this program we present a new model for the cause of iris in agate that enables an understanding of how the wide array of new colors is produced. Naturally, this has implications for understanding how agates are formed and the essential need for a mechanism for long-range pattern control.

Don’t forget that you still have time to earn points in our 2015 Participation Contest -- bring in a “Mineral of the Month, workshop creation for the Showcase, bring re-freshments, or write an article for CC.

We hope that you’ll join us on Friday, September 11th. The meeting, at Westchester Community Center begins at 7:30 pm.

Close up photographs of extreme Iris Agate. Photos by Peter Rodewald and used with

the authors permission

Page 2 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

Members of the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical & Lapidary Societies

Affiliated with the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies.

The Chesapeake Gem & Mineral Society was established in order to al-low its members to gain knowledge and skills in various phases of the Earth Sci-ence field. Through field trips, exhibi-tions, and cooperation with other soci-eties, we endeavor to further not only our own knowledge, but also that of the general public. Meetings are held on the 2nd Fri-day of each month except August at the Westchester Community Center, 2414 Westchester Ave; Oella, MD.. Meetings begin at 7:30 P.m. and visitors are al-ways welcome. Dues are $15 for individuals, $25 for family memberships.

Officers:President - Barb Kays

<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Vice President - John Buchleitner<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Recording Secretary - Earle Pfetzing

Corresponding Sec’y - Patty Lortie<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Treasurer - Steve Weinberger<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Past President - Richard Hoff<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Directors: 2015 2015-16 Russell Byers Jim Hooper Steve Dyer Richard Meszler

Editor:Carolyn Weinberger

<cscrystals2 at gmail.com>

Deadline is the 15th of each month.

Non-commercial reprint permission granted to non-profit organizations unless

otherwise noted.

ChesapeakeGem & Mineral

Society

A Few Words From Barbara by Barbara Kays, President

A warm welcome back to everyone. A break was nice; but it is even better to get back into the swing of things. Schools have started, leaves are turning, and autumn begins in just a few days. It seems as if we were just gathering at the Johnsson’s farm for another evening of food and fun. A big “Thank you” to Richard for gathering the prizes for the games and running the Rock Bingo games. Of course, the Johnsson fam-ily once again outdid themselves by providing such a beautiful setting for our picnic. We certainly had plenty of reasons to celebrate in July! Hopefully some of you had time to do some gem/ mineral related activities. We even found gems featured at a 2 1/2 day symposium we attended which featured doctors from all over the US speaking on the latest ideas on how to treat and live with some of Becky’s related medical problems. We stopped at a hand/ finger splint booth to order some more finger joint splints . At the end the salesperson asked if we wanted to see some they had made up in gold with gems set in them. Becky found one that looked like a diamond en-gagement ring. My favorite featured a delicate open weave with an amethyst. A big “thank you” to Mary Chandler, Paul Senstad and Liz Stanne for agreeing to be on the nominating committee. They will be talking to some of you starting this month asking if you would be willing to be nominated for President, Vice-pres-ident, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, and Treasurer as well as two new Directors. If anyone has a calling to fill one of these offices, please talk to a member of the nominating committee to let them know. We also have commitees to fill. Hopefully most of you will continue. I do know we need to find another person to take over scheduling field trips. Please talk to me if you are interested.

I’m having a short board meeting starting at 6:45 just before our September 11th meeting. I’m asking all current officers and directors to attend (let me know if you cannot). We’ll be looking at any issues brought to our attention by members.

See you at 7:30 on September 11th!

Nibbles ‘N Noshesby Liz & Wendy Stanne

We had a great turn-out for the picnic in July! Thanks go out to the Johns-son family for their hospitality and use of their lovely home and garden. The weather was perfect, and the tables full of delicious food brought by our mem-bers including a separate table just to hold all the cakes was fabulous.

Refreshments in September will be brought by Richard Hoff, the Kays fam-ily and Dianne Odland.

Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015 Page 3

July “Meeting” Review

Although there were no meetings in July or August, about 50 members and friends gathered at the Johns-son home in July for our annual club picnic. The eve-ning was perfect, with pleasant weather, great food, excellent conversation, a fun ugly rock contest and our traditional Rock Bingo.

During the course of the evening we celebrated the 90th birthday of Virginia White (with a cake of course and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday”), the graduation of Karin from Shady Side Academy, Karl and Rachel from U of B, and Zach from Stevenson University (with a cake). In additon we also congratulated Rachel and Zach on their engagement and forthcoming marriage (and yes, with an-other cake). And, as if that wasn’t enough, we celebrated Kathy Kaneda’s birthday too (with a Smith Island cake).

And, best of all, a good time was had by all

Howard Co. Show - Help Neededby Lynne Emery

Chesapeake will have our usual information table at the Gem Cutters show later this month at the Howard County Fairgrounds.

Dates are: Saturday, Sept 26, 10 am - 6 pm. Sunday, Sept. 27, 10 am - 5 pm.

We need volunteers to be at our table both days to inform the public about our wonderful club. A lot of our members are also members of Gem Cutters, so they are obviously otherwise committed.

There will be a sign up sheet at our Sept meeting. Please dedicate an hour or two that weekend to help our efforts. And remember, those who sign up to help in advance, receive free admission to the show.

Personalsby Lynne Emery

We are glad to hear that everything went so well with Steve Weinberger’s surgery, and that he is recuperating on sched-ule. We appreciate Carolyn let-ting us know, and keeping us in-formed of his ongoing progress.

Congratulations to Wendy Stanne on her retirement this

summer. Enjoy - you deserve it.

Patty Lortie’s foot is much improved and she is back at work.

I hope everyone is well and had a wonderful summer.

Birthday Wishes

Sapphire and Lapis are the birthstones for September. We wish a very happy birthday to the following members:

3 - Patricia Smith 7 - Dave Fordyce 10 - Linda Watts 11 Michael Sturdevant 12 - Barbara Buchleitner Trinh Phan Barbara Senstadt 13 - Dave Mitchell 16 Joe Lastner 20 - Lynne Emery Sam Fields 22 - Jeff Cessna Lyle Peterson

You can read more about sapphire later in this issue.

Page 4 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

Septembrian Nodules? No, Septarian Nodules. But it is September so I thought the two might go together.

Septarian Nodules belong to a group of minerals called concre-tions. Concretions are formed when sedimentary mineral parti-cles are glommed together by min-eral precipitates that act like glue. Concretions often form around a ‘nucleus’ often of material differ-ent than the surrounding sedimen-tary environment. In their forma-tion concretions often take on a spherical or oval form and come in varying sizes from tennis ball to boulders weighing hundreds of pounds. As the precipitate solution

hardens it makes the concretion more resistant to weather-ing and erosion than the sedimentary strata that in which they were initially formed. There are many different kinds of concre-tions from the septaria to moqui marbles and many others.

And there is a distinction between concretions and nod-ules. Concretions are formed from mineral precipitation around some kind of nucleus and tend to remain as such. Nod-ules are concretions that have changed parts of their make up by various influences such as shrinking, expanding, infusions of other precipitates or materials and thus have changed so that you might say a nodule is a converted or replaced concre-tion. Both terms, concretion and septaria come from Latin origins and so the Septarians have been found an interesting mineral from ancient times. The word ‘concretion’ is derived from the Latin con meaning ‘together’ and crescere meaning ‘to grow’. Septaria also comes from Latin septum; ‘partition’. In the case of Septarian nodules the interiors appear to have been stressed to cracking points creating ‘separations’ and

in-filled with later materials that make striking patterns that have become very col-lectable and sought after.

Descriptions dating from the 1700’s also attest to the fact that nodules have long been regarded as mineral curiosi-ties. Due to the variety of un-

usual shapes, sizes and compositions, concretions have been thought to be dinosaur eggs, animal and plant fossils (pseudo fossils) extraterrestrial debris or human artifacts. Once cleaved or sawn they may reveal varying nucleus materials including limestone, calcite crystals, and actual fossil bits. Later infusions of calcite transformed into aragonite that further defined the cracks and gaps in the denser matrix. Septarians often have a high clay content that has replaced sandstone, shale, or mud-stone. Sawn nodules can be polished to make very good look-ing specimens and if a nodule ‘goes to pieces’, the pieces can be tumbled and polished for display and jewelry. Septarian nod-ules are frequently seen at mineral and gem shows either as whole nodules or polished pieces.

Septarian Nodules are fairly well distributed globally. A major US locality is the state of Utah near Zion National Park. Another is Moeraki, South Island, New Zealand. This is a locality where huge Septarian boulders are weathering out along the beaches on the coast. They can be as large as 9 feet in diameter and weigh hundreds of pounds. Haven’t seen any at a show yet, but they’ve got to be pretty impressive. The Wessex Coast of England is an-other locality where nodules are found in ocean cliffsides. Do you have a favored nodule or piece(s) that would make a good example? Please bring it to the next meeting to example a fine mineral that some rock hounds may not have known about. No Septarian nodules? Bring along a favorite concretion or two to show some natural wonders.

References: Wikipedia.org Mindat.org Rock and Gem magazine, Aug. 2014, vol. 44, issue 08 Smithsonian Handbooks Rocks and Minerals, Pellant, Chris, Covent Garden Books 2009 Field Book of Common Rocks and Minerals, Loomis, Freder-ick Brewster G.P. Putnam’s Sons 1948 Rock and Gem, Bonewitz, Ronald Louis, DK Publishing, 2008

PS – The birthstone for September is not Septarian nodules. It is Sapphire. Ay, corundum!Calcite Septarian Nodule

San Juan Co. Utah

Moeraki BouldersOtago Coast, New Zealand

Septarian NodulePinch Collection, Canadian

Museum of NatureOttawa, Canada.

Mineral of the Monthby Jim Hooper. All photos from Wikimedia Commons used under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License

Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015 Page 5

Bernie and I went to the Springfield Mass. gem and mineral show for the first time in early August. Though we have heard about the show from our friends that attend annually, seeing 200 dealers was quite something.

You enter the hall with the display cases in front of you. This year the promoter himself - Martin Zinn - was the exhibitor. And OMG!!!, 50 cases of spectacular mineral specimens. The variety and perfection of the crystals was just OMG! And this is only part of his collection.

For those of you who have been to Tucson, this would not be unusual, but for Bernie and me, we have never seen this level of minerals outside the Smithsonian. (We did take photos of some of the cases, but unfortunately I left my camera in the beach bag, so I couldn’t include them here.)

The show had a fairly good variety of dealers, but we were most impressed with about 5 mineral dealers whose speci-mens were beyond spectacular. OMG! I was speechless! I think some of these were even better than the Smithsonian. OMG! This year both Bob Jones and his son Evan were guest speakers. We were excited to finally meet Evan, because we have seen photos of him in most of the mines, caves, and “ holes “ that Bob has been in for the last 20 years. Evan spoke on the Milpillas Mine in Sonora Mexico. The variety and quality of minerals from that location is outstanding. We are long time fans and friends of Bob and his wonderful wife Carol, and were lucky enough to spend some time with them as well. It was a long drive, but it was definitely worth the trip this year. If you have also never been there or to Tucson, I would definitely recommend going. OMG!

OMG!by Lynne Emery

Gypsum, var. SeleniteNaica Mine, NaicaChihuahua, Mexico

Photo: S. Weinberger

American Pharoah ran stunning victories to achieve horse-racing’s Triple Crown during 2015. It had been 37 years since Affirmed had last won all three races, a Califor-nia-sized drought you might say. You may recall in 2014 a horse named California Chrome almost made it, winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but unable to fin-ish first in the longer Belmont Stakes. Well, I just waited more than 15 years to finally find my California chrome. For those who know of my passion for Maryland chromite and Tyson mining family history, about 20 years ago in my re-search I first saw mention of chromite mines in California in published reports. As the eastern U.S. sources of chromite be-came depleted after the Civil War, the Tysons turned to Califor-nia ores for a decade or two to supply their Baltimore Chrome Works. By 1900 they were obtaining most of their ores from Turkey, but California had been an important domestic source. I read of some chrome mines in Northern California in the Klamath Mountains. I did a little research here and there in USGS publications and started a small file on the subject. In the late 1990s while conducting research in Vermont on various Tyson mining interests such as the Elizabeth Cop-per Mine, I found several letters from the 1880s about the Ty-son chrome dealings in California, then more correspondence from the 1920s and 1930s as they were trying to dispose of some assets or obtain royalties from them. I contacted the Del Norte County Historical Society by mail in 1999 and a retired lady named Carol Cleveland served as a local researcher for me. For a small fee she was very helpful in finding and copying for me everything in their files related to the chrome mines, most of it being about the French Hill mine. We had an enjoy-able exchange of information and several contacts by e-mail, and she even got me copies of several land records and an ore specimen from the mine through a friend. Now I had a decent file of material that I would review from time-to-time, hoping someday for an opportunity to visit California. Well, this year was that opportunity with the 25th An-nual Mining History Association Conference being held in Virginia City, Nevada, home of the famous Bonanza known as the Comstock Lode, a rich silver and gold mining district. We flew to Portland, Oregon and visited the coast and ex-plored the Columbia River Gorge before seeing all the ma-jor volcanic peaks in Oregon. After Crater Lake we headed to Crescent City, California for the weekend, a nice-sized

California Chrome, A Different Takeby Johnny Johnsson photos by Karin Johnsson

continued on page 6

Page 6 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

tsunami-prone community on some flats by the Pacific Ocean, backing up against the redwood-forested slopes of the Coastal Range and Klamath Mountains. I had tried to make some advance local contacts, but either people were deceased or I received no response, so I was on my own in trying to find any chrome mines. Through published re-ports as late as the 1940s and Google Earth, I had a pretty good idea of the location of the mines I wanted to see, but was unsure of the road quality or ruggedness of the terrain we might have to traverse to reach them. Well, like California Chrome vying for the Triple Crown, we went two for three, but I was very pleased with the re-sults. After a 5 or 6 mile drive up steep National Forest roads in the mountains above Smith River, the road narrowed and roughened and we reached a stopping point where we could go no further. All we had was a Chevy Impala rental car. It was about a ¾-mile hike in from where we parked down to the French Hill chrome mine. This mine was reportedly opened about 1886 and a good supplier of chrome ore for the Tyson Mining Company. According to mining-ephemera dealer Fred Holabird who researched a college geology the-sis on this mine, the serpentinite here is overlain by gravels, and in washing away the gravels with a hydraulic monitor to recover gold, the chromite deposit in the serpentine was consequently uncovered and discovered.

Geologically the serpentinites that help form the Klam-ath Mountains in northern California are part of the Jose-phine Ophiolite, “one of the largest and most spectacular slabs of old oceanic crust in North America (Alt & Hynd-man, p. 99).” A complete section of oceanic crust and upper mantle from pillow basalt and sheeted basalt dikes through layered gabbro and peridotite is found in this Jurassic belt. Blocks of older material dip east, stacked upon blocks of pro-gressively younger material by thrust faults. It is the serpen-tinite that has been metamorphosed from dense peridotite by seawater and heat that contains potential chromite de-posits. Serpentine became California’s state rock in 1965, the first state to do so. It was almost removed from its posi-tion in 2010 due to public fears of chrysotile asbestos found within it. Interesting how things can transform from being a source of pride to becoming one of disdain.

Atop places like Gasquet Mountain, small chromite grains have weathered from serpentinite source rocks in a concentration up to 2%. Fine beach sands containing up to 7% chromite have also been found and mined along the

long arcing beach just south of Crescent City (Alt & Hynd-man, p. 100). I tried my hand with a gold-pan on this beach and recovered a nice black sand concentrate of unknown quality, but I would like to think it contains a reasonable percentage of chromite. It is much finer and more difficult to pan than the coarse chromite sands of Maryland. The ultra-mafic rocks are also sometimes a source of platinum, which miners sometimes found along with the gold in the local gravel placers.

At French Hill I explored the mine-site while Dawn and Karin found some shade from the hot sun and looked at wild-flowers. I was in my element trying to interpret the site relative to mining reports and maps from the 1940s, whereas open cut mining had occurred at least up into the 1950s. I’m not sure I fully understood it, but the most obvious western workings with some evidence of shafts and adits were actually newer, and the large eastern open cut had gone through the older un-derground workings. Hundreds of tons of ore had been mined by the Tyson Mining Company in the 1880s, then the American Exploration & Construction Company leased the mine from the Tysons during World War I and mined more ore. During World War II a new unrelated company Tyson Chrome Mines, Ltd. of San Francisco leased the site from Letitia Nimick (a daughter of James W. Tyson, Sr.) of Bayhead, New Jersey and mined some 25,000 tons of ore by 1946, making French Hill one of the larg-est suppliers of wartime chromite.

On the ground there was chromite to find all about (in fact Karin had found the first piece on the old mine road as soon as we got out of the car), including an old steel box or

California Chromecontinued from page 5

continued on page 7

HIgh Grade Chromite at the French Hill Mine

Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015 Page 7

truck bed with some 20 tons of high-grade chrome ore. Since we needed to carry anything out uphill in the heat and fly it home with luggage weight restrictions, we probably only gathered 50 pounds of specimens, but there were some 100+

pounders I coveted. For me French Hill was the Kentucky Der-by. On the way out of the mountains we stopped and waded in the cool waters of Smith River to refresh our feet.

The Tysons had two other chromite mines in Northern California, Copper Creek (aka Low Divide or Rowdy Creek) dating to 1886, and Mountain View (aka High Divide). These were located much farther north in a large serpentine bar-rens, closer to the town of Smith River than Crescent City. After hiking in redwood forests and exploring coastal tidal

pool near Crescent City, we determined to hunt for more Tyson chrome sites. Roads were better into this area and we made it to the vicinity of Low Divide, but could not see or reach the Copper Creek chromite mine, deep in the incised

California Chromecontinued from page 6

French Hill East Open Cut

French Hill Mine road - chromite road fill

French Hill Mine looking west

A view of the High Divide area

Hydraulic Monitor from French Hill

continued on page 8

Page 8 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

valley and out of view from any vantage point we had. This was pretty rugged mountainous ter-rain. That was my Belmont, too long and I missed a win.

Fortunately my Preakness was find-ing the Mountain View mine, right on the 2,500-foot ridge by the road, overlooking the fog-engulfed Pacific Ocean some 10 miles to the west. This site made much more sense according to my maps and I was able to locate shafts and foundational features from prior operations. Dawn and Karin found some very interesting wildflowers in these serpentine barrens. I forgot to mention that along the for-est road between Low Divide and High Divide they found clusters of insectivorous pitcher plants growing in a seeping roadcut. The Mountain View chrome mine dates apparently to 1868, when chromite was discovered and mining claims were located in the familiar names of several faithful Tyson Mining Company lieutenants and business partners from Maryland. Each individual then sold his interest in these

claims to the Tyson Min-ing Company for $20 each (a month’s miner’s wages at the time). Names like Ephraim Triplett (from Sol-diers Delight), Thomas and Owen Reisler (from the Liberty Mine in Frederick

California Chromecontinued from page 7

County), among some 20 others appear in the land transfer re-cords in California. I doubt all of these gentlemen traveled the ar-duous journey to the West Coast, but Owen Reisler certainly did and I suspect he located mineral claims in the names of the others for later transfer. The Mountain View mine yielded hundreds of tons of chromite ore that was shipped by wagon to nearby coastal ports, then made the long voy-age around Cape Horn to the Baltimore Chrome Works in Baltimore. There it was used to make chromium chemicals and yellow paint pigments.

The Tysons dominated the chrome business in Califor-nia and elsewhere by purchasing all available ores through agents such as Lewin Wethered working with merchants like Kruse & Euler in San Francisco. The chromite was bought at prices based upon shipping cost and location in order to control a steady supply and a profitable margin for the company. The Mountain View mine not only oper-ated between 1868 and 1880 at a minimum, but became active again during both World Wars when chromite was needed for the war efforts. We found a number of ore specimens on the ground and then had to leave to head down the Coast. Nevertheless, you can bet I enjoyed my weekend foray into potential Triple Crown territory, win-ning two of three and finding my California Chrome.

Selected Sources David Alt & Donald W. Hyndman, Roadside Geology of Northern and Central California, Mountain Press Publish-ing Company, Missoula, Montana, 2000 Francis Wells, Fred Cater, Jr., & Garn Rynearson. Chro-mite Deposits of Del Norte County, California, in Geological Investigations of Chromite in California, California Division of Mines Bulletin 134, Part I-Klamath Mountains, Chapter 1, November 1946. Del Norte County Land Records, Book “D”, pages 145-147, 1868. Also, mining notice filed May 6, 1870.

Pitcher plants at the Low Divide

Shaft at the Mountain View Mine

Panning for chromite at the beach

Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015 Page 9

The examples we set for the kids around us are pro-found. Whether it’s our own kids, the neighbors kids, the playground kids, the kids in the grocery store, or the kids on our field trips, kids are watching what we adults do.

Have you every taken note of the oft-repeated safety message recited by airline flight attendants just pri-or to take off? There is a section in

their message about loss of cabin pressure and the resulting need to take the now-dangling-infront- of us oxygen masks, pull them out to straighten (un-kink) them and, place the masks on our faces. After we are wearing the masks, we are then directed to place them on the kids traveling with us. There is a reason why we are told to place them on our faces first before placing them on the kids faces. When a kid sees the mask on us first, they will understand that it is safe and right thing for them to do as well. Like it or not, for better or worse, we set the examples kids learn to adopt.

Just as with aircraft safety, field trip safety is important and if adults set a good example, it can make an impression on kids. Kids will mimic, adopt, accept, follow and learn from the examples we set. Safety issues are no exception to that essential nature of kids.

Kids, for the most part, want to grow up, be adults, and do the things adults do. If we, as responsible adults, set good examples that pathway to adulthood will be that much safer for the child.

On the next rock collecting adventure, think about put-ting your proper footwear on first, wearing your safety goggles first, placing gloves on your hands first. On our upcoming rock

collecting outings please mind where you toss your leaverite, mind how you use your collecting tools, pay attention to how we interact with our fellow rockhounds -- the kids are watching.

Now, even if the kids are hundreds of feet away from where we are working kids will do what they do best. The curious nature of kids and the little sponges in their heads will absorb the sights of our actions, the words we speak, and take note of our behavior. Even without your being aware, kids are watching us -- that is their nature.

What if the kids around us are far away from our loca-tion, too far away to see the details of whether or not we are wearing safety glasses? Should the adults in such an instance let their guard drop and dismiss wearing goggles, or gloves, or using proper tool technique? Well, adults are just grown up kids and we need to protect ourselves too!

Perhaps you have noted the incredible tendency of kids to show up just as we make our greatest mistakes (such as not wearing those goggles). Even without kids around, we adults still deserve to be safe too. It’s just that, with kids around, we need to extra vigilant with our setting a good, or even a great, example for them to soak up.

Also, please consider this -- by our setting a good ex-ample, the parents of the kids around us will have a much easier time teaching kids the right things to do because everyone around the kids will be doing the right things -- what a great relief for a parent of young children! It’s no fun for a parent to have to keep saying to their child, “No, don’t do what they are doing.” or “No, that guy over there is not following the safety rules for the trip.”

Be safe, act safe, set a safe example, and see the smiles. Be safe ‘cause your safety matters.

Safety Matters: The Exampleby Ellery Borow, from EFMLS News, Sept. 2015

Page 10 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

Endowment Fund Tickets - Last Chanceby Carolyn Weinberger

The September Chesapeake meeting will be your last chance to purchase AFMS Endowment Fund tickets. All monies collected are invested in the Endowment Fund with interest used for several AFMS projects that benefit our club including the purchase of several digital programs that can be borrowed for use at meetings, badges for clubs with organized Juniors programs and more.

The prizes that you might win if you hold a lucky ticket are: #1 Copper specimen, a mine tag and stock certificate from the Upper Peninsula, MI. #2 - Howelite and onyx agate necklace and earring set. #3 -Large Withlacoochie River agatized coral head #4 - a fossil fish specimen from the Green River Forma-tion in Kemmerer, WY. #5 -Tampa Bay Coral pair #6 - Framed Diplomystus fish fossil and a willow leaf fossil from the Green River formation in WY. #7 - An agate bola tie #8 - A calcite with celestine specimen from the La Mo-hina Mine in Sonora, Mexico. #9 - Pair of jade fruit sculptures #10 - Sterling silver necklace with variscite pendant. #11 - Namibian verdite slab with owl etching #12 - Stellerite specimen from Rudniy, Kazakhstan. #13 - Gold brachiated red jasper pendant set in silver. #14 -Three ocean jasper eggs #15 - Dendritic quartz wire-wrapped pendant #16 - Dichroic glass wire-wrapped pendant #17 - Mookite carving #18 - Herkimer “Diamond” with Argentum silver pendant #19 - Metal nail trilobite sculpture #20 - Green and purple fluorite carving #21 - Calico onyx neccklace and earrings #22 - Heart shaped opal

Tickets cost $5 each or 5 for $20. We’ll have pictures available at the September meeting. See Carolyn for tick-ets or, if you’ll not be at the meeting, send your check, payable to “AFMS Endowment” along with a stamped self-addressed envelope to

Carolyn WeinbergerPO Box 302

Glyndon, MD 21071-0302

Thanks for your support, and with luck, will be one of the lucky winners. If so, I’ll bring your prize back to you and have it at the November meeting.

The Sapphire is a one of the gems of the mineral corun-dum . It can be any color except red . Red corundum is, of course, Ruby . It has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness. Chemically it is aluminum oxide . A non-gem form of corundum is emery and is gener-ally black. Various trace elements give corundum its various colors and pure corundum is colorless. The specific gravity is 4.00 and is double

refractive with refractive indices of 1.762 and 1.770 (with small variations) .

The sapphire of the Old Testament is probably lapis la-zuli , although by the time of the second breastplate it could very well have been corundum sapphire except for the prob-able size . The sapphire is said to have powers to thwart poi-sons and to influence spirits . Witches were said to be able to work wonders using a sapphire . Necromancers used the sapphire to help them understand oracles.

A color change sapphire (blue in daylight and violet in artificial light) was said to be able to tell the virtue of a loved one. If the color changed while being worn then the lady was said to be unvirtuatious. But timing the wearing so that part of the time was under artificial light usually rigged the test. The star sapphire is said to be able to guard against the Evil Eye and witchcraft of all types. The three crossing lines that make up the six-pointed star are said to represent faith, hope, and destiny .

Beginning in the eleventh century the sapphire was used as an Ecclesiastical stone in rings . So you who were born in September have a choice of any color of sapphire except red .

Bibliography George Frederick Kunz, (Reprint 1989) The Curious Lore of Precious Stones; Bell Publishing Company , New York , NY Anna S. Sofianides and George E. Harlow, (1990) Gems& Crystals From the Museum of Natural History ; Simon & Schuster, New York, NY Richard T. Liddicoat, Jr . (Twelfth Edition 1993) Hand-book of Gem Identification; Gemological Institute of Amer-ica, Santa Monica, California

Sapphire - Birthstone for Septemberby B. Jay Bowman

Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Licenced

under Creative Commons Attribution-Share.

Page 11 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

Auctions - Lynne and Bernie Emery

Directory (address changes) Patty Lortie Field Trips - Russell Byers

Greeters - Barbara Buchleitner

Hospitality - Liz & Wendy Stanne

Committee Chairpersons

Mineral of the Month - Jim Hooper

Personals/Announcements/ Sunshine - Lynne Emery and Patricia Smith

Programs - Richard Hoff, Keith Kaneda & Tony Wilner

Safety - Johnny Johnsson

Show - Bernie & Lynne Emery

Showcase - Steve Dyer

Telephone Chain Lynne Emery Phylllis Dyer Dawn Johnsson Mary Chandler Liz Stanne Wendy Stanne

Almosthadite - refers to a specimen of which the ma-jor portion remains on public display in a remote quarry.

Cantrememberite - one of the more common specimens typically from locations generally unknown in the present time.

Droppedite - a collection of cleavage fragments repre-senting a high quality cabinet specimen formerly on display.

Nolabelite - one of a class of minerals or fossils of rela-tively little value appearing in most private collections.

Cantquitespellite - resembles a specimen in the Univer-sity collection with an even longer and more complex name.

Oncehadite - used in reference to extremely unusu-al specimens traded at rock shows before true identify was realized.

Usedtohavite - a secondary form of specimens includ-ing marcasite, best recognized by the permanent brown ring where the specimens formerly sat on the shelf.

Humor in Mineralogyby France Vore from the Post Rock, March 2003

Page 12 Chippers’ Chatter – September, 2015

Carolyn Weinberger PO Box 302 Glyndon, MD 21071-0302

Upcoming EventsSeptember: 7: Labor Day - display your flag!

11: Chesapeake club meeting with Wayne Sukow speaking on Iris Agates - 7:30 pm at Westchester Com-munity Center. Board of Directors meeting begins at 6:45

13: Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset. Happy New Year; have a sweet year.

22: Yom Kippur begins at sunset.

23: Baltimore Mineral Society meeting - annual Tuc-son review. Natural History Society of Maryland, 7:30 pm.

26-27: 51st annual Atlantic Coast Gem & Mineral Show; Howard Co. Fairgrounds, West Friendship, MD.

October: 6: Gem Cutters Guild of Baltimore meeting at Mead-ow Mill. Photographing gems and minerals - 7:30 pm.

9: Chesapeake auction - begins at 7:30 pm. If selling, be sure to reserve with Bernie one week in advance. 9 - 11: Desautels Micromount Symposium, Friends School, N. Charles St; Baltimore. Registration and info: - <baltimoremineralsociety.org>.

21-25: AFMS/SCFMS Convention & Show, Austin, TX

25: GLMS/DC auction. Women’s Club of Bethesda, 5500 Sonoma Rd (off Old Georgetown Rd (MD 187 ). Pre-view starts at noon, auction at 1 pm.

28: Balto. Mineral Society meeting; Natural History Society of Maryland - 7:30 pm.

November: 3: Gem Cutters Guild of Baltimore meeting at Meadow Mill. Denise Nelson will speak - 7:30 pm.

13: Chesapeake club meeting. Westchester Commu-nity Center - 7:30 pm.

26: Thanksgiving