[meteorite-list] Heat-treating tektites

From: Norman Lehrman <nlehrman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:32:56 2004
Message-ID: <20040329205516.79369.qmail_at_web80104.mail.yahoo.com>

Rob & list,

The last post clarifies the question a bit. A few
years ago I received a large shipment of Lei gong mo.
Included with these were a couple of dozen specimens
with strong carnival-glass-like patinas, a full
rainbow of submetallic colors. I have seen weaker
examples of this sort of patina on old bottles that
have been through fires. My guess was that the
tektites may have been through a warehouse fire or
some such thing. Clearly there is some process that
will cause tektites to develop carnival-glass type
films, and I don't think it is a natural process or we
would see this more often. While not exactly a change
in the glass color, this can yield a profound change
in appearance. I would be interested to hear if
anyone knows anything about the manufacture of
carnival glass.

Cheers,

Norm Lehrman
(http://tektitesource.com)


--- "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com> wrote:
> Thanks, everyone, for their inputs on the effects of
> heating tektites.
> My reason for posing the question was that a friend
> told me about a
> mineral dealer (in Ventura County, CA, I believe)
> who was selling
> heat-treated tektites in a variety of unusual
> colors. I told my
> friend that it sounded suspicious to me, but that I
> wasn't a tektite
> expert and would ask "The List". Consensus here
> seems to be that
> the process of heating up a tektite to white hot and
> then letting
> it cool back down produces no major color
> alterations. However,
> I need to get back to the friend to find out if
> these unusual
> colors were transparent or opaque. If the latter, I
> suppose it's
> possible that someone could simply "paint" a tektite
> (though I
> question the motives for doing so). But I can't
> think of a process
> where you would get, say, a red or blue transparent
> tektite using
> a moldavite as your starting point.
>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>
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Received on Mon 29 Mar 2004 03:55:16 PM PST