Edouard Bastarache Inc. on tue 23 mar 04
Hello Paul,
hoping this little research will help.
1-Bitstone (English)=Trennschicht (German), in Kapseln, bestehend aus
Schamotte oder calcinierter Flint, from Bernd Pfannkuche's
dictionary=consisting in small boxes made up of chamotte (refractory clay)
or calcined flint.
Schamottekapsel=fireclay box, saggar, sagger.
2-Leukonin=Sodyum antmuanet
Sodyum metantimuanet
NaSbO3
Leukonin
3-Mennige (German)=Red Lead.
4-Zaffer (German)=Zaffre (English)
Zaffer \Zaf"fer\, n. [F. zafre, safre; cf. Sp. zafra, safra, It.
saffera, G. zaffer; all probably of Arabic origin. Cf.
Zaphara.]
A pigment obtained, usually by roasting cobalt glance with
sand or quartz, as a dark earthy powder. It consists of crude
cobalt oxide, or of an impure cobalt arseniate. It is used in
porcelain painting, and in enameling pottery, to produce a
blue color, and is often confounded with smalt, from which,
however, it is distinct, as it contains no potash. The name
is often loosely applied to mixtures of zaffer proper with
silica, or oxides of iron, manganese, etc. [Written also
zaffre, and formerly zaffree, zaffar, zaffir.]
Later, time to hit the sack.
"Ils sont fous ces Quebecois"
Edouard Bastarache
Irreductible Quebecois
Indomitable Quebeker
Sorel-Tracy
Quebec
edouardb@sorel-tracy.qc.ca
http://sorel-tracy.qc.ca/~edouardb/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/smart2000/index.htm
http://www.digitalfire.com/education/toxicity/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Lewing"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 9:52 PM
Subject: Bitstone, leukonin, mennige, & zaffer
> Bill Jones gave me a book out of the library of ACerS at NCECA. It's a
> catalogue from the Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co. of New York, who
were
> a ceramic materials supplier in 1930. These four substances were listed
in
> their "Highest Grade Materials for Ceramic Purposes", and I have no idea
> what they are. Neither did anyone I could find at NCECA, nor Hamer &
Hamer
> or my regular desk dictionary. Anyone got a clue what bitstone, leukonin,
> mennige, or zaffer are?
> We did figure out what smalte is (impure cobalt ore) and kryolith (
natural
> cryolite ore) and Purple Cassius (gold (chloride, I think) to be used as a
> china paint colorant) and steatite (soapstone, similar to talc). And we
> figured schwartz oxyd was some kind of black stain.
> But those four stumped us.
> By the way, in addition to 23 different forms of black china paint, these
> people sold 5 kinds of uranium, 6 kinds of silver, 8 forms of nickel, 5
> forms of lead, 9 forms of cobalt, 3 forms of cadmium, 4 forms of barium,
and
> 10 forms of antimony!
> They did not sell masks, filters or haz-mat suits.
> Paul Lewing, Seattle
>
>
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Paul Lewing on tue 23 mar 04
Bill Jones gave me a book out of the library of ACerS at NCECA. It's a
catalogue from the Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co. of New York, who were
a ceramic materials supplier in 1930. These four substances were listed in
their "Highest Grade Materials for Ceramic Purposes", and I have no idea
what they are. Neither did anyone I could find at NCECA, nor Hamer & Hamer
or my regular desk dictionary. Anyone got a clue what bitstone, leukonin,
mennige, or zaffer are?
We did figure out what smalte is (impure cobalt ore) and kryolith ( natural
cryolite ore) and Purple Cassius (gold (chloride, I think) to be used as a
china paint colorant) and steatite (soapstone, similar to talc). And we
figured schwartz oxyd was some kind of black stain.
But those four stumped us.
By the way, in addition to 23 different forms of black china paint, these
people sold 5 kinds of uranium, 6 kinds of silver, 8 forms of nickel, 5
forms of lead, 9 forms of cobalt, 3 forms of cadmium, 4 forms of barium, and
10 forms of antimony!
They did not sell masks, filters or haz-mat suits.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
Richard Aerni on tue 23 mar 04
Paul,
I found leukonin in what looks like a Hungarian website...it lists leukonin
as hydrate of antimony SbH3. (a form of stibnite)...
Likewise, mennige, in a German website :42500 Mennige, Bleimennige,
Saturnrot
Chemische Zusammensetzung : Pb3O4 oder Pb2PBO4
So, it seems to be a lead oxide or lead phospo-borate.
Also, this website indicates it is synonymous with minium:
http://www.mindat.org/min-2721.html
Zaffer
Zaf=B4fer
n. 1. A pigment obtained, usually by roasting cobalt glance with sand or
quartz, as a dark earthy powder. It consists of crude cobalt oxide, or of
an impure cobalt arseniate. It is used in porcelain painting, and in
enameling pottery, to produce a blue color, and is often confounded with
smalt, from which, however, it is distinct, as it contains no potash. The
name is often loosely applied to mixtures of zaffer proper with silica, or
oxides of iron, manganese, etc.
Bitstone gets a lot of hits in German, but seems to have another, computer
business related meaning in today's world. Perhaps someone else will find
this one.
Best wishes,
Richard Aerni
Bitstone
Snail Scott on wed 24 mar 04
At 06:52 PM 3/23/04 -0800, you wrote:
>Anyone got a clue what bitstone, leukonin,
>mennige, or zaffer are?
Zaffre is the term used in Piccolpasso's book
(written in Italian during the Renaissance)
for the mineral used by the majolica potters
to make blue. It's the only word that isn't
translated in the English version into a more
conventional term.
-Snail
Janet Kaiser on fri 26 mar 04
No, Paul, sorry, I have not a clue except for Mennige. That is
red lead in German. "Minium" too according to my Langenscheid
German-English/English-German dictionary, so that puts it into a
sort of "obsolete" category. Vermillion being a much more
familiar word to most of us these days... Whether your list means
the red lead substance or a vermillion colour is hard to tell of
course. It is alphabetical or in groups, or what?
Hope someone else can help with substances... But really the
problem with these old company catalogues, is that they would
often invent names for themselves so that a product or "raw
material" could be called Lewingstone, Lewingtite or Lewing Oxide
(for example) when perfectly normal and common names or proper
nouns would actually be bath stone, talcum and iron oxide.
Whether any were renamed because they specifically came from the
site of the "Lewing Clay and Cermanic Supplies Company", were
mined by them, ground, bagged or simply sold by them is debatable
and often unknown except where there are complete company records
to refer to... That is sadly very unusual in modern times where
not only "time is money" but companies are no longer the keepers
of historical records. Well how can they if they only exist for a
few years?
I have often noticed that you folks in the USA also are at a
disadvantage because of the many different languages your
citizens would have spoken... The use of Mennige here is
indicative of this. Presumably at some point it was decided to
"norm" all the names so that there was less confusion...?
Interesting question of a linguist! There is probably a Doctorate
in this simple thought!!!
Sometimes I think the suppliers and manufacturers who invented
some of the names (and did not just take a "foreign" or "exotic"
word one of the hired hands could supply) must have been terribly
romantic at heart or frustrated classical scholars or poets...
They were certainly "artists". I mean they dreamt up some pretty
obscure names, often based in the Classics beyond just Greek and
Roman words...
Besides all that... Imagine how modern day spin doctors and
advertising agents would inflate much of our everyday goods and
materials beyond any credulity if they were given the total
freedom of those times of few laws & regulations, never mind
watch-dogs or regulators... =B0!=B0 Our "Trade Description Acts"
have a lot to answer for! :o)
Leukonin would at first guess be "whiting" having been subjected
to that sort of privatising /personalising or simple sexing up
treatment! However a look at the Oxford Concise of 1933 has loads
of chemical stuff besides the pathological under leucho... and
leuco. Nothing under leuko... with a "K" though. Reason for this
indicated under Leuch=E6mia ..."less correctly: leuc- and
leuk=E6mia". Wow..!! Waddah you know?!?
All entries naturally appear to be referring to white, very light
coloured or colourless in some way, leuco- (or leuc- if it comes
before a vowel) because it means white in Greek. From "Leucate"
salt of leuco acid on, it is all double-dutch to me and only
being visible with the help of a strong magnifying glass these
days all I can say it that there is no entry for "Leukonin" .
Nearest is "Leukoline" which is apparently exactly like
"quinoline" and derived from oil-tar!
Sorry, but light fading here so cannot check out further.
Ugh! Just "thought" (I am so SLOW sometimes!). Zaffer... This is
US spelling, right!!!??? Zaffre is cobalt... Comes from the word
for "Saphire" used by Italian Maiolica painters, if I remember
rightly. I am not going to look in the dictionary now, as I was
on my way to bed and got sidetracked by your intriguing subject
line... But am going to see who just sent an e-mail over 6 Mb
first??? It took over an hour to download... I hope it is a good
pound's worth!?!?
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
>Anyone got a clue what bitstone, leukonin, mennige, or zaffer
are?
*** THE MAIL FROM Paul Lewing ENDS HERE ***
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