Editing Ulexite (section)

== History ==

Ulexite has been recognized as a valid mineral since 1840, after George Ludwig Ulex, for whom the mineral was named, provided the first chemical analysis of the mineral.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ulex |first1=G.L. |title=Ueber eine natürliche borsaure Verbindung |journal=Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie |date=1849 |volume=70 |pages=49–52 |doi=10.1002/jlac.18490700107 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c036496969&view=1up&seq=61 |trans-title=On a natural compound of boric acid |language=German}}</ref> In a footnote on p. 51, the editor claimed that Ulex's mineral actually was the same mineral that the American chemist [[Augustus Allen Hayes]] had found in Chile in 1844:

{{quote
| ''"Es kann wohl keinem Zweifel unterworfen seyn, … ''Boronatrocalcit'' umgeändert werden."''
| It can surely be subject to no doubt that the mineral that was analyzed by the author is actually the hydroborocalcite of Hayes.  One thus owes to Mr. Ulex knowledge of the true composition of this mineral. — The name "hydroborocalcite" could then perhaps be switched to the somewhat more correct "boronatrocalcite".
| <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hayes |first1=A.A. |title=Borate of Lime. Borocalcius obliquus |journal=American Journal of Science |date=1844 |volume=46 |page=377 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001679438&view=1up&seq=405}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hayes |first1=A.A. |title=Hydrous borate of lime |journal=American Journal of Science |date=1844 |volume=47 |page=215 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001679439&view=1up&seq=239}}</ref><ref name="Ghose1978" />
}}

In 1857, Henry How, a professor at King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia discovered borate minerals in the gypsum deposits of the Lower Carboniferous evaporate deposits in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada where he noted the presence of a fibrous borate that he termed natro-boro-calcite,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=How |first1=Henry |title=On the occurrence of natro-boro-calcite with Glauber salt in the gypsum of Nova Scotia |journal=The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal |date=1857 |volume=6 |pages=54–60 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/82022#page/62/mode/1up |series=2nd series}}</ref> which was actually ulexite (Papezik and Fong, 1975).<ref name="Papezik" /> 

Murdoch examined the crystallography of ulexite in 1940.<ref name="Murdoch" /> The crystallography was reworked in 1959 by Clark and [[Charles L. Christ|Christ]] and their study also provided the first powder x-ray diffraction analysis of ulexite.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=J.R. |last2=Christ |first2=C.L. |title=Studies of borate minerals (V): Reinvestigation of the x-ray crystallography of ulexite and probertite |journal=American Mineralogist |date=1959 |volume=44 |pages=712–719 |url=https://rruff.info/uploads/AM44_712.pdf}}</ref> In 1963 ulexite's remarkable fiber optics qualities were explained by Weichel-Moore and Potter.<ref name = "Weichel-Moore" /> Their study highlighted the existence in nature of mineral structures exhibiting technologically required characteristics. Lastly, Clark and Appleman described the structure of ulexite correctly in 1964.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Joan R. |last2=Appleman |first2=Daniel E. |title=Pentaborate polyanion in the crystal structure of ulexite, NaCaB5O6(OH)6*5H2O |journal=Science |date=September 18, 1964 |volume=145 |issue=3638 |pages=1295–1296 |doi=10.1126/science.145.3638.1295|pmid=17802011 |bibcode=1964Sci...145.1295C |s2cid=98456855 }}</ref><ref name="Ghose1978" />