MEERSCHAUM. This German name is applied to a certain mineral, in consequence of its lightness, softness, and white colour, which suggest a resemblance to “sea foam.” In like manner it is called in French écume de mer. By the German mineralogist Glocker it was termed sepiolite, in allusion to its resemblance to the so-called bone of the-sepia or cuttle-fish. Possibly the fact that pieces of meerschaum, washed out of their matrix, are occasionally found floating on the Black Sea, may have led to the association of the mineral with marine products. Meerschaum is an opaque earthy mineral, of white, greyish, or yellowish colour, compact in texture, and breaking with a conchoidal or fine earthy fracture; it adheres to the tongue, and is so soft as to be scratched by the nail, its degree of hardness being about 2 or 2 ’ 5. Its specific gravity varies from 0 988 to 1 ’279; hence it floats in sea-water until saturated. Meerschaum is a hydrated silicate of magnesium, represented by the formula Mg 2 Si 3 O 8 + nII 2 O. The value of n, according to some analyses, is 2. Most of our meerschaum comes from Asia Minor, especially from the plains of Eski-shehr, where it occurs in nodular masses, of variable size and irregular shape, distributed through the alluvial deposits of the plain, which are systematically worked for its extraction by means of pits and galleries. The mineral is associated with magnesite, or carbonate of magnesium, and has probably been derived from the neighbouring mountains, where a similar carbonate is found in connexion with serpentine. Meerschaum is found also, though less abundantly, in Greece and in some of the Grecian islands; at Hrubschitz in Moravia, where it occurs in a serpentinous matrix; and in Morocco, where it is used, when soft and fresh, ...as a substitute for soap; while a coarse variety is found at Vallecas near Madrid, and is employed as a building stone. Meerschaum also occurs iu South Carolina.
By far the greatest quantity of meerschaum is used in the manufacture of tobacco-pipes, a purpose for which it is well iitted,l>y its porosity. The nodular masses ure first roughly scraped in order to remove the red earthy matrix; they are· then dried, scraped again, and finally polished with wax. In this state the rudely-shaped nodular pieces are sent from the East principally to Vienna and to various parts of Germany. The pipe-bowls, after having been tuι ned and carved, are rubbed with glass-paper and Dutch rushes; they are next boiled in wax, spermaceti, or stearine, and afterwards subjected to careful polishing with bone-ash, chalk, &c.
An imitation of meerschaum for common pipes is made of hardened plaster of Paris, treated with paraffin, and coloured by gamboge and dragon’s blood. A peculiar preparation, into which potato largely enters, is said to have been successfully employed in France as a substitute for meerschaum.
