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Fig. 9:
Natural (left) and
artificial fluorite.
10
9
Reason for Abbe’s
trip to Switzerland
16 February 1889, lecture by Dr.
Edmund von Fellenberg during a
meeting of the Natural Research Society
in Bern, Switzerland: About the
Fluorite of Oltschenalp and its Technical
Utilization. “An historical, scientific
memorandum for later times”.
…In our Alps calcium fluoride or
fluorite is no rarity and is quite frequently
found in the area of protogine
(gneiss granite), the various
types of gneiss and crystalline slate
and sometimes with excellent coloring
and interesting crystal shapes…
In 1830, on a scree slope at the
foot of the Oltschikopf (2235 m) on
the Oltscheren mountain pasture,
some Alpine enthusiasts discovered
fragments of a shining, spathic
mineral of outstanding transparency
that they naturally thought to be
rock crystal.…
…The mineral emerged from
oblivion again in the summer of
1886. When visiting mineral inspector
B. Wappler in Freiberg (Saxony)
during his search for water-clear fluorite,
Dr. Abbe, professor of physics at
the University of Jena, had seen
pieces of this material which Wappler
had received from me in exchange
for minerals from Saxony many years
before.
…Wappler indicated that he had
received the pieces from me and
correctly stated that they had been
found in the lower Haslithal in the
canton of Bern in Switzerland. Acting
upon this information, Professor
Abbe traveled immediately to
Switzerland to visit me. He showed
me a piece of transparent fluorite
and asked me whether I could tell
him where this mineral could be
found in Switzerland.
Source: Mitt. Naturf. Ges. Bern (1889)
p.202-219
Innovation 15, Carl Zeiss AG, 2005