Timeline of the discovery and classification of minerals

Milestones

Neolithic Age, and after it

• Neolithic Age beginning about 10,200 years ago: flint tools, jade tools, kaolin earth, copper, gold, silver and rocksalt. Locally, beads of turquoise and lazurite are found.
• * Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia, dating back to the 10th–8th millennium BC.
• * Note: nephrite is a microcristalline variety of tremolite ; white nephrite is almost pure tremolite and iron gives nephrite its green colour.
• Bronze Age, Near East, Europe, Indian Subcontinent.
• * Chalcolithic Age beginning about 7,000 years ago: copper, gold, silver, mercury.
• * In the early Bronze Age, lead was used with antimony and arsenic.
• * The use of meteoric iron–nickel alloy has been traced as far back as 3500 BC.
• Iron Age, Ancient Near East, India, Europe.
• Illustration, Torah, Septuagint, Vulgate, Douay–Rheims Bible, Book of Numbers 31:22: Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin. Book of Exodus 28:16–20 cites following decorative stones : It shall be foursquare and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span both in length and in breadth. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: in the first row shall be a sardius stone, and a topaz, and an emerald : In the second a carbuncle, a sapphire and a jasper. In the third a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst : In the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl. They shall be set in gold by their rows. Book of Revelation 21:19–20: And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper: the second, sapphire: the third, a chalcedony: the fourth, an emerald: The fifth, sardonyx: the sixth, sardius: the seventh, chrysolite: the eighth, beryl: the ninth, a topaz: the tenth, a chrysoprasus: the eleventh, a jacinth: the twelfth, an amethyst.
• * Suggested combined translation: a red aggregate of microgranular speckled ferruginous "chalcedony" ; corundum, var. sapphire; "chalcedony", var. onyx; beryl, var. emerald ; "chalcedony", var. agate ; "chalcedony", var. sard ; topaz ; beryl, var. aquamarine; olive greenish yellow fosterite, var. peridot ; "chalcedony", var. chrysoprase ; red pyrope ; quartz, var. amethyst. Note: the fosterite–fayalite solid solution series is called olivine.
• Illustration, Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian funerary practices: a natural material found in Wadi Natrun is used. The iconic gold burial mask of Tutankhamun, has inlays of turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian and coloured glass. Eye shadow using black galena, green malachite, stibnite, lead or coal, for instance.
• Illustration, Persian Empire and Babylonian Empire: blue glazed bricks, for instance.

Greco-Roman and Byzantine period, mainly

• Greco-Roman period:
• * De Anima Libri III of Aristotle. Description of mercury.
• * Theophrastus
• **
• ** Illustration: amber, chrysocolla, agate, cinnabar, orpiment, realgar. First brass appears in the middle of first century BC in the Roman Imperium, zircon and tourmalines are not found on ancient art works.
• * The oldest known pills were made of the zinc carbonates hydrozincite and smithsonite. Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc.
• * De architectura of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Libri X, vol. VII, Caput 8. Note: description of natural mercury from the Cilbian fields near the former Greek city of Ephesus.
• * Book V: Minerals, description of melanterite and chalcanthite.
• * Naturalis Historia : of Gaius Plinius Secundus.
• ** Volumes: liber xxxv ; liber xxxvi ; liber xxxvii .
• ** Illustration: turquoise, tourmaline, almandine, moroxite, limestone, magnetite, emery, atramentum sutorium, misy from Cyprus. Note: alabandicus of Pliny is a garnet worked at Alabanda.
• * Pliny the Younger, Epistulae : description of calcite and beryl.
• Damigeron de Lapidibus, "Orphei Lithica" . Note: describes curing of ailments by 30 stones.
• Isidore of Seville Etymologiae.
• Turkish traveller Muḥammad Abū'l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal: Ibn Hawqal "The Face of the Earth".
• Abū al-Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bīrūnī : Al-Biruni The Book Most Comprehensive in Knowledge On Precious Stones. He considers "zarnarrud" and "zabarjad" the same mineral.
• Uzbek scholar and physician, Avicenna. He wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived.
• Illustration, elements known to the ancients : carbon, sulfur, iron, arsenic, antimony, zinc, copper, lead, silver, tin, gold, mercury.
• Marbode.
• Albertus Magnus. Isolation of arsenic.
• Prior to the Spanish conquest :
• * Pre-Columbian Americans used platinum.
• * Ancestral Puebloans traded with turquoise.
• Illustration:
• *Realgar from Arabic "rahj al-gahr". Salammoniac, for rocksalt mined by Amun's Temple, Egypt. Trabzonite for Trabzon, Turkey.
• * There are three large peridots probably from the 12th century in the Shrine of the Three Magi in Cologne Cathedral, they were believed to be emeralds.
• * Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom: the Black Prince's Ruby was given in 1367 to its namesake, Edward of Woodstock.

After the fall of Constantinople (after 1453)

• Leonardi "Speculum lapidum".
• Theophrast von Hohenheim, Swiss-born physician: description of bismuth and naming of zinc.
• Calbus Freibergius Ein nützlich Bergbüchlin, Erffurd: Johan Loersfelt. Note: description of bismuth.
• Georgius Agricola, he is "father of mineralogy".
• *Bermannus sive de re metallica . Notes: based on "Ein nützlich Bergbüchlin", mention of fluorite.
• *De Ortu & Causis Subterraneorum, liber v. Note: description of talc.
• *De natura fossilium, liber x. Note: mention of alabandite.
• *De re metallica, liber xii. Note: description of salammoniac.
• * Illustration: borax, marcasite, lazurite, wolframite, orpiment.
• Alchemist Alexander von Suchten
• * De Secretis Antimonij liber vnus, Straßburg ; Zween Tractat, Vom Antimonio, Mömpelgard ; Antimonii Mysteria Gemina, Leipzig
• Alchemist Johann Thölde. He is probably one of the authors behind the pseudonym Basilius Valentinus and so he published about antimony. He published works by Alexander von Suchten and he published under his own name too, so his literature isn't clear.
• Alchemist
• * The book has a chapter about antimony. The isolation of antimony was accomplished in the German territory at this time.
• of Conrad Gesner, description of cerussite and alunite.
• 1603, Italian shoemaker and alchemist Vincenzo Cascariolo discovers that calcinated baryte from Mount Paderno has a luminescence.
• Théodore de Mayerne, Swiss-born physician who treated kings of France and England: calomel's description.
• Song Yingxing "Tiangong Kaiwu" : description of kaolin earth from Gaoling or Kauling, Fuliang County.
• * Note: common kaolin earth bearing iron oxide and organic impurities can be used in the earthenware production, but not in the porcelain production.
• Note: first definitive work of modern mineralogy.
• Note: it was written with the help of 'de Boodt's' book.
• Note: Johann Jacob Sener, professor of physics and mathematics, Akademie zu Halle; he named "minera plumbi viridis".
• Hennig Brand, discovery of phosphorus.
• John Woodward, founder by bequest of the Woodwardian Professorship of Geology at Cambridge University. He collected and catalogued over 35 years nearly 10,000 specimens; they are in five walnut cabinets now in the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. He named a mineral of his collection "corinvindum" ; and he had a specimen of "minera plumbi viridis".
• *
• ** Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss naturalist, one of the four city physicians of Zürich; he held the chair of physics and mathematics.
• *
• He is one of the founders of modern stratigraphy and modern geology.

Lavoisier, Werner, Haüy, Klaproth, Berzelius and Dalton (after 1715)

• Georg Brandt, discovery of cobalt.
• Johan Gottschalk Wallerius. Note: he renamed Agricola's Lupi spuma, in Wolfrahm.
• *
• *
• Johann F. Henckel, his library was the origin of the Freiberg Mining Academy.
• *
• Saxony had to pay reparations after the Seven Years' War: the mining industry got stronger and the Freiberg Mining Academy was founded.
• Carolus Linnaeus "Liber iii – Regnum Lapideum". Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, species cum characteribus & differentiis. Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii, Homiae, 236 p. It develops the binomial nomenclature for the species of the Tree of Life.
• * Note: first description of dolomite. The binomial nomenclature could not be used for minerals; it is easier to administrate c. 5,000 valid minerals, isolation of nitrogen.
• Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, naming of oxygen and hydrogen, prediction of silicon and establishment of sulfur as an element.
• Note: first description of mellite.
• Note: René Haüy discovered that emeralds and beryls crystals are geometrically identical. He asked Vauquelin for a chemical analysis, and so Vauquelin found a new "earth".
• Carl Wilhelm Scheele, discovery of oxygen with Priestley; identification of molybdenum, tungsten, barium, hydrogen, and chlorine.
• * Note: Scheele stated that molybdena was neither galena nor graphite. Peter Jacob Hjelm isolated molybdenum from Scheele's molybdena.
• * Joseph Priestley, discovery of oxygen with Scheele.
• Note: 3 volumes and atlas.
• Note: based on the Abraham Gottlob Werner's lectures.
• Note: 2 volumes.
• Jean-Claude de la Métherie :
• * Note: 5 volumes, it cites René Just Haüy.
• * Note: 2 volumes.
• Christian August Siegfried Hoffmann :
• * Note: based on the Abraham Gottlob Werner's lectures, as well.
• * Note: years later Breithaupt expanded it.
• Johan Gadolin, discovery of yttrium.
• Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten :
• * Note: mineral collection organized by Nathanael Gottfried Leske and Abraham Gottlob Werner.
• *
• *
• René Just Haüy : He is "father of modern crystallography".
• * Note: 5 volumes.
• * Note: 2 volumes.
• William Gregor, discovery of titanium.
• Martin Heinrich Klaproth, discovery of uranium, zirconium ; establishment of tellurium, strontium, cerium and chromium.
• Jöns Jacob Berzelius, discovery of silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium.
• John Dalton, British physicist and chemist.
• French physicist André-Marie Ampère suggests the element fluorine.
• Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, discovery of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, boron ; isolation of chlorine, barium ; identification of aluminium.
• Amedeo Avogadro proposes the Avogadro's law.
• Note: 3 volumes.

Maxwell, periodic table, electron and mole (after 1815)

• 1828, William Nicol, Scottish geologist and physicist, He invented the Nicol prism, the first device for obtaining plane-polarized light.
• Note: 3 volumes.
• Johann Friedrich August Breithaupt :
• * Note: translated from the German, with considerable additions.
• * Note: 4 volumes.
• * Note: 4 volumes.
• Notes: 2 volumes, volume 256 of the Encyclopedie Roret ; first description of massicot.
• Note: Tables.
• Ernst Friedrich Glocker :
• *
• *
• ** Note: it redefines rocksalt and defines the mineral halite.
• Spectroscopy : Gustav Robert Kirchhoff and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen
• Brothers Gustav Rose and Heinrich Rose, German mineralogists.
• Carl Friedrich Rammelsberg, professor of inorganic chemistry, Berlin University.
• Karlsruhe Congress : on the meeting's last day reprints of Stanislao Cannizzaro's paper on atomic weights, in which he utilized earlier work by Amedeo Avogadro, were distributed. This definition on atoms and molecules made the efforts by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and Julius Lothar Meyer on the periodic table of elements, possible. The concept of atoms and molecules were known, but after the Congress the Avogadro-Ampère theory became accepted.
• Maxwell's equations.
• * The four pillars of physics: Isaac Newton, James Maxwell, Max Planck and Albert Einstein.
• Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, periodic table, with less than 70 elements in 1871.
• * Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran finds eka-aluminium, samarium and dysprosium ; Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac finds ytterbium and gadolinium ; Marc Delafontaine, Jacques-Louis Soret and Per Teodor Cleve discover holmium ; Lars Fredrik Nilson finds eka-boron ; Carl Auer von Welsbach finds praseodymium and neodymium and Clemens Winkler finds eka-silicon.
• Auguste Bravais : Bravais lattices.
• Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz : description of the carbon bonds in organic compounds.
• Ludwig Boltzmann, Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution.
• *
• Paul Heinrich von Groth suggests the possibility that spherical atoms reside at equivalent positions of space lattices.
• Leonhard Sohncke : Sohncke's space groups.
• Emil Wiechert and Joseph John Thomson characterise the electron.
• Henry Clifton Sorby, an English microscopist and geologist. His major contribution was the development of techniques for studying iron and steel with microscopes.
• Albert Einstein, "annus mirabilis" papers.
• Wilhelm Ostwald defines the mole, he received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and Svante Arrhenius are usually credited with being the modern founders of the field of physical chemistry.
• Max von Laue : diffraction of X-rays by crystals.
• Arthur Moritz Schoenflies und Evgraf Fedorov : characterisation of all 230 crystal space groups.
• William Lawrence Bragg and William Henry Bragg : law on the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. They are Nobel Prize for Physics laureates.
• 1912, Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Henry Hoover translate George Agricola's De Re Metallica to English. Note: many mining expressions/words were Mediaeval German expressions, these expressions/words did not exist in Classical Latin.
• Henry G. J. Moseley, Moseley's law.

100 years 'American Mineralogist' (after 1915)

• January 1916, scientific journal: American Mineralogist, first issue.
• 1916, X-ray powder diffraction: "Peter Debye – Paul Scherrer powder method".
• 1919, founding of the Mineralogical Society of America.
• Georg Menzer solves the first crystal structure of garnet.
• 1926, around 1,500 mineral species were firmly established at that time, the Roebling mineral collection lacked less than 15 of those.
• Carl Hintze : "Handbuch der Mineralogie" Leipzig: Veit.
• The structure of silicates:
• * Note: Felix Machatschki worked with Victor Goldschmidt as well as with William L. Bragg for a period of time.
• *
• *
• *
• *
• *
• Victor Moritz Goldschmidt founder of crystal chemistry: Goldschmidt classification, Goldschmidt tolerance factor and Goldschmidt's law. He is considered together with Vladimir Vernadsky to be the founder of modern geochemistry.
• 1941, foundation of the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards.
• 7 April 1947, International Union of Crystallography was formally admitted to International Council for Science .
• In 1948–1950, PhD candidate Raymond Castaing, supervised by André Guinier, built the first "microsonde électronique" at ONERA.
• * Publication Office national d'études et de recherches aéronautiques Nr. 55
• 1955, Mark C. Bandy and his wife Jean A. Bandy translate George Agricola's De Natura Fossilium to English.
• Max Hutchinson Hey ; British Museum, London.

International Mineralogical Association period (after 1957)

• 1958, foundation of the International Mineralogical Association, Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names. It is affiliated to the International Union of Geological Sciences.
• Note: this publication got delayed, as silicate minerals were being better understood.
• Note: main work is a series with 11 volumes.
• Michael Fleischer's "Alphabetical Index of New Mineral Names, Discredited Minerals, and Changes of Mineralogical Nomenclature, Volumes 1–50, The American Mineralogist". Note: "Glossary of Mineral Species" 1 ed. is based on it.
• 3rd International Molecular Sieve Conference : organisation of the International Zeolite Association.
• 1978, Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards is renamed International Centre for Diffraction Data. A lot of compounds have an 'ICDD Card'.
• 25 December 1993, beginning of the MinDat database; it goes online in October 2000.
• International Mineralogical Association's zeolite group and International Zeolite Association's zeolite frameworks have similarities.
• Note: webmineral.com's database.

IMA Master List of Valid Minerals period (after 1999)

• 2001, Mineralienatlas database goes online.
• Bernard Elgey Leake, Frank Christopher Hawthorne and Roberta Oberti : classification of amphiboles, mainly.
• Rruff Project, prof. Robert Downs, Mineralogy and Crystallography, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, funded in part by Michael Scott.
• 19th General Meeting of IMA, Kobe, Japan.
• * The merging of the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names and the Commission on Classification of Minerals resulted in the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification.
• * It was decided to create a website presenting the "official" IMA list of minerals.
• Nickel E H, Nichols M C IMA/CNMNC list of mineral names compiled by Ernest H. Nickel & Monte C. Nichols supplied through the courtesy of Materials Data, Inc.: it updates the Nickel-Strunz 9 ed mineral identifiers, with this publication the mineral database had increased from less than 3,000 to over 4,000 mineral species. Mainly through the work of Ernest Henry Nickel, Monte C. Nichols and Dorian G.W. Smith. The mineral list on the Rruff Project website was built up with the IMA/CNMNC list of mineral names.
• Robert M. Hazen, summary of mineral evolution in the geologic time context.
• October 2008: Erika Pohl-Ströher donates her mineral collection to the "TU Bergakademie Freiberg", Freudenstein Castle, "terra mineralia" permanent exhibition.
• Note: tetrarooseveltite is a member of the scheelite mineral group.
• * Moëlo et al. "Sulfosalt systematics: a review", sulfosalt minerals are redefined.
• Nickel E H, Nichols M C IMA/CNMNC list of mineral names compiled by Ernest H. Nickel & Monte C. Nichols supplied through the courtesy of Materials Data, Inc.
• Mineral group is redefined.
• 'The IMA Master List' : redefinition of amphibole minerals.

After 100 years 'American Mineralogist' (after 2015)

• Highlights:
• * Polyoxometalates : heteropolymolybdates, polyniobates, polytungstates, arsenovanadates.
• * Polysomatic series, e.g.: alnaperbøeite-(Ce) – perbøeite-(Ce) series, palygorskite – sepiolite series and epidote – törnebohmite series.
• * Microporous minerals.
• * Valid minerals with water as ligand, some even with crystallization water: polyphosphates, decavanadates, uranyl sulfates, tobermorites, titanium disilicates, pyrochlores, tellurium oxysalts, etc. E.g.: afmite, alunogen, bettertonite, ianbruceite, liskeardite, matulaite, penberthycroftite, schmidite, tvrdýite.
• IMA Master List, great mineral supergroups: alunites, apatites, pyrochlores, tourmalines, amphiboles, hydrotalcites, garnets, hollandites, epidotes, perovskites and seidozerites.
• IMA Master List, mineral groups and supergroups sharing the same name: sapphirines, pharmacosiderites, betpakdalites, gadolinites, dumortierites, mayenites, chevkinites, högbomites, labuntsovites.

Beginnings of the 'IMA Master List of Minerals'

• James A. Ferraiolo "Systematic Classification of Nonsilicate Minerals", Bulletin 172, American Museum of Natural History. Note: the Bulletin 172 was used to update the Dana IDs. The Nickel-Strunz IDs on webmineral.com are partially from his collaboration.
• John W. Anthony, Richard A. Bideaux, Kenneth W. Bladh, and Monte C. Nichols, Eds., Handbook of Mineralogy, Mineralogical Society of America, Chantilly, VA 20151-1110, US.
• Ernest Nickel & Monte Nichols. Mineral Names, Redefinitions & Discreditations Passed by the CNMMN of the IMA, updated 2004. Abbreviation : approved, revalidated and discredited minerals.
• 19th General Meeting of IMA, Kobe, Japan : it was decided to create a website presenting the "official" IMA list of minerals.
• Abbreviation : grandfathered, questionable and published without approval minerals. Note: questionable minerals that could not be discredited got grandfathered as well.
• Rruff.info/IMA database is built up based on 'IMA/CNMNC List of Mineral Names' compiled by Ernest H. Nickel & Monte C. Nichols, courtesy of Minerals Data, Inc. This list is the result of the GQN list and the ARD list.
• * Buserite's status is 'approved' :
• Courtesy of Minerals Data, Inc.; is released.
• * Orthochamosite is discredited:
• 'The New IMA List of Minerals' is released. Note: the CNMNC revised the 'ARD List of minerals', reducing the number of grandfathered minerals.
• * 'Metauranocircite II' gets dumped:,
• Note: nowadays, there are more or less hundred new minerals every year.

Handbooks on mineralogy/ petrology

The System of Mineralogy of James D. Dana

• 580 pages.
• 640 pages.
• 711 pages.
• * Note: 2 volumes; Vol. I, 320 pages and Vol. II, 534 pages. It uses for the first time a chemical classification system.
• 827 pages.
• 1134 pages.
• * James Dwight Dana; Edward Salisbury Dana First appendix to the sixth edition of Dana's System of mineralogy : Completing the work to 1899, 75 pages.
• * James Dwight Dana; Edward Salisbury Dana; William E Ford Second appendix to the sixth edition of Dana's System of mineralogy : Completing the work to 1909, 114 pages.
• * William Ebenezer Ford; James Dwight Dana Third appendix to the sixth edition of Dana's System of mineralogy : Completing the work to 1915, 87 pages.
• Note: 3 volumes; Vol. I, 834 pages, Vol. II, 1124 pages, Vol. III, 334 pages.
• 1872 pages. Note: a more compact edition.

Glossary of Mineral Species

• Note: no mineral groups section in this edition.

Strunz Mineralogical Tables

• * Note: corrected edition.
• * Note: reprint.

Rock-Forming Minerals series

Carl Friedrich Rammelsberg series

• * Erstes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie, Zweites Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie, Drittes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie, Viertes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie and Fünftes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie.
• *
• *

Carl Hintze

• Note: 6 volumes.
• Carl Hintze, Karl F Chudoba. Handbuch der Mineralogie : Ergänzungsband III: Neue Mineralien und neue Mineralnamen. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. Note: digital file.

Handbook for chemists and physicists (D'Ans Lax)

• Note: 3 volumes.

Max H. Hey