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Information about Meerschaum

 (help) is a soft white mineral sometimes found floating on the Black Sea, and rather suggestive of sea-foam (German: Meerschaum), whence also the French name for the same substance, écume de mer. It was termed by E. F. Glocker sepiolite, in allusion to its remote resemblance to the bone of the sepia or cuttlefish. Meerschaum is opaque and of white, grey or cream color, breaking with a conchoidal or fine earthy fracture, and occasionally fibrous in texture. Because it can be readily scratched with the nail, its hardness is placed at about 2. The specific gravity varies from 0.988 to 1.279, but the porosity of the mineral may lead to error. Meerschaum is a hydrous magnesium silicate with the formula H4Mg2Si3O10.

Most of the meerschaum of commerce is obtained from Asia Minor, chiefly from the plain of Eskişehir in Turkey, between Istanbul and Ankara, where it occurs in irregular nodular masses, in alluvial deposits, which are extensively worked for its extraction. It is said that in this district there are 4000 shafts leading to horizontal galleries for extraction of the meerschaum. The principal workings are at Sepetçi Ocağı (Sepetdji-Odjaghi) and Kemikçi Ocağı (Kemikdji-Odjaghi), about 20 miles southeast of Eski-Shehr. The mineral is associated with magnesite (magnesium carbonate), the primitive source of both minerals being a serpentine.

When first extracted meerschaum is soft, but it hardens on exposure to solar heat or when dried in a warm room. Meerschaum is found also, though less abundantly, in Greece, as at Thebes, and in the islands of Euboea and Samos; it occurs also in serpentine at Hrubschitz near Kromau in Moravia. It is found to a limited extent at certain localities in France and Spain, and is known in Morocco. In the United States it occurs in serpentine in Pennsylvania (as at Nottingham, Chester County) and in South Carolina and Utah.

Enlarge picture
A meerschaum pipe.
Meerschaum has occasionally been used as a substitute for soap, fuller's earth, and as a building material; but its chief use is for smoking pipes and cigarette holders. The natural nodules are first scraped to remove the red earthy matrix, then dried, again scraped and polished with wax. The rudely shaped masses thus prepared are turned and carved, smoothed with glass-paper and Dutch rushes, heated in wax or stearine, and finally polished with bone-ash, etc.

Meerschaum products traditionally were made in manufacturing centres such as Vienna. Since the 1970s, though, Turkey has banned the exportation of meerschaum nodules, trying to set up a local meerschaum industry. The once famous manufacturers have therefore disappeared. Nowadays, meerschaum pipes not obtained from Turkish producers are usually made of pressed meerschaum or African meerschaum, which are inferior in quality.

Imitations are made in plaster of Paris and other preparations.

The soft, white, earthy mineral from Långbanshyttan, in Värmland, Sweden, known as aphrodite (Greek: "sea foam"), is closely related to meerschaum.

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A mineral is a naturally occurring substance formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure and specific physical properties.
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German language (Deutsch, ] (help info ) ) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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Sepiolite is a clay mineral, a complex magnesium silicate, a typical formula for which is Mg4Si6O15(OH)2 • 6H2O. It can be present in fibrous, fine-particulate, and solid forms.
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Sepia may refer to:
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#a rich brown pigment derived from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish
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Sepiida
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Hardness refers to various properties of matter in the solid phase that give it high resistance to various kinds of shape change when force is applied. Hard matter is contrasted with soft matter.
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Talc (derived from the Persian via Arabic talq) is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula H2Mg3(SiO3)4 or Mg3Si4O10(OH)2.
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Magnesite is magnesium carbonate, MgCO3. Iron (as Fe2+) substitutes for Mg with a complete solution series with siderite, FeCO3. Calcium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may also occur in small amounts.
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Magnesium carbonate, MgCO3, is a white solid that occurs in nature as a mineral. Several hydrated and basic forms of magnesium carbonate also exist as minerals. In addition, MgCO3 has a variety of applications.
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Serpentine is a group of common rock-forming hydrous magnesium iron phyllosilicate ((Mg, Fe)3Si2O5(OH)4) minerals; it may contain minor amounts of other elements including chromium, manganese, cobalt and nickel.
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Motto
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Euboea, or Negropont or Negroponte (Modern Greek: Εύβοια Évia, Ancient Greek Εὔβοια Eúboia
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Samos City
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Moravskı Krumlov (IPA: [ˈmorafski: ˈkrʊmlof]; German: Mährisch Kromau) is a town in the Znojmo District, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic.
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Moravia (Czech and Slovak: Morava; German: (help info ) ) is an historical region in the east of the Czech Republic.
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Fuller's earth is any nonplastic clay or claylike earthy material that can be used to decolorize, filter, and purify animal, mineral, and vegetable oils and greases.

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pipe is a tool used for smoking. The designs of pipes vary considerably, but for the most part they are reusable and consist of a chamber, or bowl, in which the substance to be smoked is placed, a stem of some sort and a mouthpiece through which the smoked is inhaled.
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A cigarette holder is a slender tube in which a single cigarette is held for smoking, as opposed to a cigarette case, which holds many cigarettes for the purpose of carrying.
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