ROCKWOOD ROCKHOUND NEWS

January 2002

Congratulations to Our New Officers !
We are happy to announce that Joan Schlichter will be our new President, Peggy Nuske will remain our Vice President. Marianne Toenjes will become our new Secretary and Bob Morse will become treasurer. Claudia Uccello will continue to serve as Editor. We have several openings for Committee Chairpersons. It would be nice if we could fill these vacancies soon. Please think about serving in one of these positions.

Many, Many Thanks to our Retiring Officers!
Helen Heitland has graciously served as Secretary off and on for years and years!. Whenever we have needed a secretary Helen has stepped in, done the job and done it well. She even learned how to use the computer and e-mail her minutes. Thanks, Helen!

Thanks also go to Andy Larson for serving as our Treasurer for the last five years. That is a big job and Andy deserves a well-earned rest.
Our retiring President, Bob Morse, isn’t really retiring. He is playing musical chairs and is now serving as treasurer.

Thanks to the Larsons for Hosting the Christmas Party
The Grand Finale for the Year 2001 was a great Christmas Party. The weather was so nice that we were able to eat outside on the deck. Almost everyone was there, the food was delicious and the music was grand. (We have some very talented musicians and singers in our club.) Joan Schlichter played her dulcimer so we had a good old fashioned sing-a-long. The gift exchange (rocks, of course) was great fun. Thanks, Dianne and Andy for hosting. We all left happy!

Helen Heitland has had good news and bad news. Good news first! She won a ticket to go visit her daughter in Washington by having a winning essay in a contest held by Southwestern Airlines. The bad news is that she found out that one of her carotid arteries was 90% clogged. However, Helen planned on leaving the hospital after being “rotorooted” and heading to the airport.

Martha Cottrell is recovering from having surgery to repair a torn rotator cup. Other than the inconvenience, discomfort and all the associated hassle of an operation, she is doing well and starting rehab.

Good News!
The Greater St. Louis Association made a profit of $2964 at the show at Queeny Park last August. This profit is divided according to the amount of work each club contributed. Here is the division of profits:
Rock Hobby Club 6.49% or $192.43
Rockwood G & M 31.97% or 947.91
St. Louis. G & M 26.59% or 786.63
Mineral Area 4.16% or 123.34
Show Me Club 30.86/5 or 914.99

We earn points by serving as officers in the association, setting up, taking down, running hospitality , manning the ticket desk, putting in exhibits etc. We should all be very proud of ourselves!

Fore Sale!
Great bargains from former members

Cabouchon Machine
Bob Beckman, our treasurer for many years must sell his Star Diamond six-inch cabouchon machine, complete, including 1/4 h.p. electric motor. All in good condition. He has dropped the price to $50. Also for sale are several pounds of semi-precious rough, including some opal. Call anytime at 314-961-3114.

Minerals & Equipment
Another former member of our club, Bruce Babcock, is also selling equipment. He has an HP 8” diamond wheel, a stone shaper with 8”, a polishing wheel 4”diameter and an HP flat bed polisher.
Bruce also sent some beautiful pictures of calcite, selenite, Australian Divate, azurite, stibnite, quartz and a trilobite. Black and white does not do justice to the minerals so we will have colored pictures at the next meeting.
Bruce may be contacted at: 314-469-3923
e-mail: Babcock@swbell.net

News from Other Clubs

Helpful Hints

Walt Brundage of the Shawnee G &MS gets the sledge left in the water tray of his Genie into suspension, then dumps it into his chrysanthemums. He gets all kinds of different colors in the flowers from the mineral content of the sludge. Via Rockpile

Heat Treating Agates
Some agates respond well to heat treating to restore colors. For example, many Lake Superior agates have lost their vivid reds and oranges. The structures are intact but the color has faded to almost uniform light tans and browns. Heating them restores much of their original vibrancy.Some other stones that especially benefit are Brazilian agate and Carnelian. To treat, place a layer of clean sand or kitty litter 1/2 inch deep in a PyrexTM dish. Place a layer of slabs or rocks in the dish. Cover thinly with sand or kitty litter. Repeat until all rocks are used. Place in oven at lowest setting (150 degrees) for two hours. This drives out he moisture that could cause the stone to explode. then raise the temperature 50 degrees every 1/2 hour until 500 degrees is reached. Leave on for two hours at 500 degrees, then turn off the oven to let cool, preferable overnight. NO PEEKING! Allow container to cool completely to room temperature before opening the oven door. This process takes at least 10 hours of oven time. Via Gemrock

Know your Rocks
(From many Sources)
Leaverite: also known as dropite, junkite, and crudite. This type of rock should be discarded immediately. It constitutes 90% of most rocks. Includes Sourgrape agate and mutilated quartz.

Sack rock: this material which is stuffed into a sack but falls from the top as bearer struggles back to car. If taken home is tossed in corner and forgotten.

Wonder rock: You always wonder why you brought it home.
Braggin’ rock: Also called pocket or eatin’ rock. This material is licked, rubbed, spit upon or fondled until it assumes a near polish, passed around for admiration.

@”^^#* rock: A heavy, possible angular, rock that falls on your toe as soon as you have removed your hiking boots. Via Quarry Quips

Geology Today
By Margaret Pearson

Evidence of an ancient volcanic eruption so powerful it split the ancient supercontinent called Pangaea, created the Atlantic Ocean and spewed millions of square miles of searing lava that extinguished much of the life on Earth has been pieced together from hundreds of basalt outcrops that rim the Atlantic coasts. “This is one of the biggest things that ever happened in the Earth’s history,” said paleontologist Paul E. Olsen of Columbia University. “This gigantic, igneous event seems to have occurred in an amazingly brief amount of time.” The new theory is that in the space of just a few million years half of all marine species and almost as many species of reptiles and other land animals died. This set the stage for the age of dinosaurs. This adds weight to the theory that mass extinctions were not caused by collisions with asteroids but by the fierce internal volcanics of the planet itself.
Via The Trilobite