1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cryolite
CRYOLITE, a mineral discovered in Greenland by the Danes in 1794, and found to be a compound of fluorine, sodium and aluminium. From its general appearance, and from the fact that it melts readily, even in a candle-flame, it was regarded by the Eskimos as a peculiar kind of ice; from this fact it acquired the name of cryolite (from Gr. κρύος, frost, and λίθος, stone). Cryolite occurs in colourless or snow-white cleavable masses, often tinted brown or red with iron oxide, and occasionally passing into a black variety. It is usually translucent, becoming nearly transparent on immersion in water. The mineral cleaves in three rectangular directions, and the crystals occasionally found in the crevices have a cubic habit, but it has been proved, after much discussion, that they belong to the anorthic system. The hardness is 2.5, and the specific gravity 3. Cryolite has the formula Na3AlF6, or 3NaF·AlF3, corresponding to fluorine 54.4, sodium 32.8, and aluminium 12.8%. It colours a flame yellow, through the presence of sodium, and when heated with sulphuric acid it evolves hydrofluoric acid.
Cryolite occurs almost exclusively at Ivigtut (sometimes written Evigtok) on the Arksut Fjord in S.W. Greenland. There it forms a large deposit, in a granitic vein running through gneiss, and is accompanied by quartz, siderite, galena, blende, chalcopyrite, &c. It is also associated with a group of kindred minerals, some of which are evidently products of alteration of the cryolite, known as pachnolite, thomsenolite, ralstonite, gearksutite, arksutite, &c. Cryolite likewise occurs, though only to a limited extent, at Miyask, in the Ilmen Mountains; at Pike’s Peak, Colorado, and in the Yellowstone Park.
Cryolite is a mineral of much economic importance. It has been extensively used as a source of metallic aluminium, and as a flux in smelting the metal. It is largely employed in the manufacture of certain sodium salts, as suggested by Julius Thomsen, of Copenhagen, in 1849; and it has been used for the production of certain kinds of porcelain and glass, remarkable for its toughness, and for enamelled ware.
Although cryolite is known as “ice-stone” (Eisstein), it is not to be confused with “ice-spar” (Eisspath), which is a vitreous kind of felspar termed “glassy felspar” or rhyacolite. (F. W. R.*)