Talk:History of mineralogy

Modern history

The treatment of the subject seems to stop after the 17th century. Would be nice to see someone contribute something on the last 300 years of the development of the science. Geopersona (talk) 06:33, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

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Classed as C for quality

I assessed this as Class=C for lack of modern coverage, no X-ray, no mass spectrograph, not even thin sections or bead identification. The article may be limited by not having a Technology section after the early history. --Bejnar (talk) 01:31, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Undue weight

My opinion

Timeline of the discovery and classification of minerals follows the references cited on rruff.info/ima and college level chemistry basics, mainly

Early literature was: Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, Avicenna, Paracelsus, Johann Thölde (partially responsible of the literature under Basilius Valentinus, probably), Vannoccio Biringuccio, Georg Agricola, Anselmus de Boodt, Carl Abraham Gerhard and Christian August Siegfried Hoffmann (Abraham Gottlob Werner lectures)

Early mineralogists were: Nicolas Steno, Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, René Just Haüy

Periodic table of the elements and electron microprobe: Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, John Dalton, Humphry Davy, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Henry Moseley, fr:Raimond Castaing

Theory of space groups: Auguste Bravais, Leonhard Sohncke, Arthur Moritz Schoenflies, Evgraf Fedorov

Mole (unit) and Avogadro's constant: Amedeo Avogadro, Wilhelm Ostwald, Jean Baptiste Perrin

Silicate compounds, beginnings: overview on organic compounds by Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz, Felix Karl Ludwig Machatschki, William Lawrence Bragg

Mineralogy handbooks: James Dwight Dana, George Jarvis Brush, Edward Salisbury Dana, Carl Hintze, Karl Hugo Strunz, Christel Tennyson, Ernest Henry Nickel

Others: William E. Ford, Charles Palache, Harry Berman, Clifford Frondel, Michael Fleischer (mineralogist), Joseph A. Mandarino, Malcolm E. Back, John W. Anthony, Bladh Bideaux, Monte C. Nichols, Dorian G.W. Smith

IMA subcommitte to revise amphibole nomenclature: Bernard Elgey Leake, Frank Christopher Hawthorne, Roberta Oberti, mainly

Michael Fleischer (mineralogist): author of the article New Mineral Names, of the journal American Mineralogist (1941–1960), he accepted as new minerals only 311 of 583 species and he discredited 224 older mineral names. He was president of the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (CNMNC, 1959–1974). During this period of time many minerals were published without International Mineralogical Association's (IMA) approval. So many got discredited (or formally discredited) by a voting procedure afterwards. --Chris.urs-o (talk) 14:25, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Shen Kuo

The section on Shen Kuo documents achievements in fields like geomorphology and paleoclimatology, but what does it have to do with mineralogy? I tried finding better information, and the most interesting I have come up with so far is from The Arkenstone:

The astronomer and scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095) of the Song Dynasty made considerable studies of minerals and rocks. In a famous work called Chat by Dream Creek, mineral prospecting, mining activities and mineral utilization during Shen Kuo’s time are discussed. For example, Shen pointed out that bluestone (chalcanthite) contains water and can be refined into copper, and he predicted that the oil (petroleum) derived from rocks would be widely used in the future. Shen Kuo clearly described the crystal geometry and cleavage of gypsum, matching its crystal description in modern mineralogical textbooks.

However, I don't know how reliable the source is. There is also this quote from a Geological Society of London blog:

He is the source of our knowledge concerning the invention of movable type printing, as well the creator of a 1:900,000 scale topographic atlas of the Song territories and surrounding areas together with a raised relief map, documenting hundreds of minerals and their uses.

RockMagnetist (DCO visiting scholar) (talk) 02:33, 4 April 2018 (UTC)