06-22
06-22. Samsonite #5.
Samsonite in a cube.
Moving from polyhedra to atoms to mineral. An unusual color scheme too, but I heard the light feels that way too over there – a little subdued, far from the equator, not too near to the pole either.
06-21
06-21. Samsonite #4.
From a resource by Bindi & Evain loosely called “the case in a Samsonite”.
06-20
06-20. Samsonite #3.
Almost packed and TSA ready! Study of a Samsonite mineral from St. Andreasberg, Hartz Mountains, Germany.
From a resource by Bind and Evain.
06-19
06-19. Samsonite #2.
Hard to be too serious with a such a name.
Surprisingly I found that the fellow who gave the name to the luggage brand did it in the early 1900s in Colorado – at the same time – that the mineral was being discovered in Germany. Was he aware of it? The story does not say, but it looks like there is plenty of room for good luggage design in the mineral unit cell!
From a resource by Bind and Evain.
06-18
06-18. Samsonite #1.
Mid-June. Many are already thinking about vacation time coming soon, I am sure. I found the perfect mineral for week #25 to prepare well for a long trip – a Samsonite!
No, not the luggage brand, but a very rare, tiny mineral found in 1910 in the Harz mountains in Germany. Who copyrighted the name first, the story doesn’t tell. My challenge for a week will be to try to pack all its atoms nice and tidy in their cubic box and get it cabin-luggage ready for a tour of the universe!
The Samsonite crystal is metallic black to steel black with no cleavage and a brittle to conchoidal fracture. It belongs to the Monoclinic group, is short, prismatic and has a symmetry of order P21/n. Because it is relatively soft (2.5 on the Mohs scale) it is of very little use for the industry. However because it is extremely rare and quite beautiful, it can be sold for thousand of dollars among gem collectors.
06-17
06-17. Calcite #7.
The original file was called “generalized spherical harmonic of calcite powders”. The experiment was done for the Journal of Applied Crystallography in 2005 and used X-ray diffraction to optimize the model orientation.
Again, I only read the experiment descriptive once done with the visualization. Fun all the same to capture some of the spirits behind the numbers.
From a resource by Sitepu & O’Connor
06-16
06-16. Calcite #6.
The case of the golden rhombus. Is there more to add? Nature in all its simplicity – spheres, triangles and a beautiful symmetry to add.
From a resource by R. Wyckoff. Crystal Structures of the calcite.
