In doing some
research on a previous posting describing the mineral greenockite, my mind
started to wander as I began to daydream about the aptly named “six degrees of
separation.” This theory postulates that
anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through
a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries (Karinthy,
1929). The idea is similar to “the
friend of a friend of a friend…” and Karinthy wrote: a fascinating game grew out of this discussion. One of us suggested
performing the following experiment to prove that the population of the Earth
is closer together now than they have ever been before. We should select any
person from the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the Earth – anyone, anywhere at all.
He bet us that, using no more than five
individuals, one of whom is a personal acquaintance, he could contact the
selected individual using nothing except the network of personal acquaintances.
By 1961 a wide
variety of groups begin to embrace the idea---mathematicians (trying to
empirically prove the theory), psychologists (people who consider themselves
fortunate cultivate larger networks), computer programmers (punching thousands
of those IBM cards trying to write programs explaining the idea), screen
writers and especially those pop culture icons---college students! Three students (in1994) at Albright College
(Reading, Pennsylvania) developed a game that morphed into “Six Degrees of
Kevin Bacon”---an attempt to link any actor to Kevin Bacon in six connections
or less. The Bacon Number of an actor is the number of degrees of separation he
or she is from Mr. Bacon. The higher the Bacon Number, the farther away the actor
is from Kevin Bacon.
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Gabby Hayes 1953.
Public Domain photo courtesy of NBC.
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This Bacon Number
is an interesting phenomenon! Readers
should go to www.oracleofbacon.org to “play along.”
Some of us of a certain age may remember a character actor by the name
of Gabby Hayes, famous as the sidekick of Roy Rogers and for uttering such phrases
as "yer
durn tootin.” OK, I plugged Hayes’ name
into the Web site and came up with a Bacon Number of 3!
Gabby Hayes was in:
Man of Conquest (1939) with Ethyl May Halls
Halls was in An Act of Murder (1948) with Eda Reiss
Merin
Merin was in Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983)
with Kevin Bacon
In later years the
Social Networking program of Linkedin used the idea of a friend of a friend of a friend---the relationships. There are like a gazillion different versions
of Karinthy’s original thoughts floating around out there..
Now, I have not
succumbed to the short, gray days of winter and lost part of my senses (I use
bright natural daylight [5000k] light bulbs).
But, this is a geology Blog so how do minerals correlate with a Bacon
Number? Probably nothing, but I was again
wandering the other day and thinking about the obscure relationships between
some minerals—maybe I should develop a Werner Number (named for the Father of
Mineralogy). For example, using calcite
(CaCo3) as the center point (the Bacon?) what is the Werner Number
of dolomite [(CaMg(CO3)2]? I guess the answer is one since calcite
contains calcium as does dolomite. Well,
relating minerals via their chemical content is probably a bad idea---pretty
dull.
OK, what about the
relationship of greenockite [CdS], a cadium mineral that was the subject of a
recent posting, stromeyerite [AgCuS] a
silver copper sulfide mineral, and eudialyte, an extremely complex
silicate (without Cd or S). The simple answer for the first two minerals would
be the presence of the element sulfur in both minerals. The interesting
answer: the element cadmium was discovered by the chemist Friedrich Stromeyer
(Germany) in 1817. This discovery allowed later scientists to determine of the composition of, and name, greenockite. In turn, Stromeyer
later (1819) named the mineral eudialyte, and, in 1832, the mineral
stromeyerite was named to honor the chemist. So, cadmium, greenockite, eudialyte, and stromeyerite all have a relationship to Friedrich Stroymeyer--whoda thought?
After writing this
little tidbit I decided against the idea of pushing the Werner Number and stick
instead to writing about other obscure facts.
But, it was fun while it lasted, and especially when you don’t really
need to worry about the ifs, ands and buts!
Life’s short.
Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there’s no point in
sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands and buts.
Amy Winehouse
Friedrich Stromeyer
(1776-1835) was a German chemist who graduated from the University of
Gottingen. He studied under Dr. Johann
Gmelin, Professor of Medicine,
Chemistry, Botany and Mineralogy. A
gentleman with a wide range of interests, Gmelin published textbooks in a
number of fields including the 13th Edition of Systema Naturae (Carl Linnaeus) and Natursystem Des Mineralreiches 1778 (Natural System of the Mineral
System according to my magic Google translation). Stromeyer’s co-doctoral adviser was the
French professor Louis Nicolas Vauquelin who just happened to be the chemist
credited with discovering the elements beryllium and chromium. Great education!
After completing
his dissertation (evidently written in Latin: Commentatio Inauguralis
Sistens Historiae Vegetabilium Geographicae Specimen: History Inaugural Elevated Ideal Geographic History
Vegetables). Stromeyer graduated in 1800 (Philosophiae Dr.) and stayed on at
Gottingen to teach in the sciences.
Interestingly, Stromeyer’s first doctoral student was Leopold Gmelin
(1812) the son of his doctoral adviser.
And in another bit of serendipitous discovery, the American Mathematical
Society currently maintains a website (www.genealogy.ams.org) entitled Mathematics Genealogy Project---sort of a “Six
Degrees of Kevin Bacon” project. Stromeyer
had three doctoral students who had students and advisees who had…..etc. The end result is that Friedrich Stromeyer
has 2149 descendants! With a little
time, and interest, one could figure out the “Bacon Number” of each of these
descendants. Wow. Learning is fun.
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Specimen of massive stromeyerite ~6 cm. width
FOV. Arrows point to areas of blue weathered
stromeyerite--se below. Patches of pyrite and
chalcopyrite show up as golden blobs.
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Microphotographs of blue stromeyerite from specimen
above. Width FOV ~ 2.5 cm.
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OK, back to the
minerals. Several years ago at the
Denver Show I picked up a specimen of “stromeyerite, bornite, chalcocite and
pyrite” with good provenance data: “11
stope, 3100 feet level, Campbell mine, Bisbee, Cochise County, Colorado.” I made the purchase trying to supplement my
small collection of less well-known minerals containing silver---stromeyerite
is a silver copper sulfide. The specimen is composed of massive stromeyerite
that ranges in color and luster from a metallic dark gray weathering to a dark
blue to a shiny steel gray on fresh surfaces.
Two of the more distinguishing characteristics, at least for me, were
the conchoidal fractures and the softness (~2.5); it is easily
“scratchable.” However, the blue color
on weathered surfaces distinguishes it, I think, from similar appearing
chalcocite. Although there are patches of iridescent bluish bornite, it is
different in appearance from the blue stromeyerite. There are numerous blobs of chalcopyrite (soft) and pyrite. A few crystals of calcite were also
noted. According to MinDat, stromeyerite
forms in areas of hydrothermal activity where silver replaces copper in
bornite. I believe it also may replace
chalcocite, sphalerite and galena.
So that’s the
skinny, as far as I know, on stromeyerite.
In Colorado, stromeyerite has
been a major source of silver in many mining areas, yet it does not seem to be a “common
mineral” as I observe “minerals for sale” websites.
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the
sight of the stars makes me dream. Vincent Van Gogh
REFERENCES CITED
Karinthy, Frigyes,
1929, Chain-Links. Translated from Hungarian and annotated by Adam
Makkai and Enikö Jankó.