The customary illumination by a ‘coverglass’ inclined at 45 degrees is replaced by a double reflection. The beam from the horizontal collimating tube is first reflected from a highly reflecting mirror at the back of the unit, then downward from a coverglass placed at the top of the unit. With this arrangement the coverglass is inclined at less than 22½ degrees to the axis of the microscope, with a similar reduction of the angle of incidence. The correction ratio for rotation by upward passage of light through the coverglass is now reduced from 6:5 to the almost negligible value 21:20. There is a corresponding improvement in the homogeneity of extinction over the microscope field.

Olivine composition can be rapidly and accurately obtained by using standard (Straumanis-mounting) 57·3 mm X-ray powder cameras. A determinative curve based on analysed natural olivines has been constructed by plotting the mol. % Fo against the spacing of back-reflection line 174. The regression equation for the composition range Fo100 to Fo30 is

Fo (mol. %) = 4151·46−3976·45 d174

using Fe-Kα1 radiation. The fayalite end (Fo30 to Fo0) of the determinative curve shows a relatively sharp break from a straight-line relationship of d-spacing versus composition. Practical applications of the determinative curve are briefly presented.

A diagram of the relationship between d174 and % forsterite in olivines is presented in fig. 1 of the preceding paper by Jambor and Smith. In this note, statistical aspects of Jambor and Smith's data are considered in detail and compared to equivalent data by Yoder and Sahama (1957). This analysis leads to the conclusion that the relationship of mol. % Fo and d174 or d130 can be expressed as a straight line for Fo > 30 %. Olivines with Fo < 10 % are not related to this straight line.

Various crystalline and X-ray amorphous forms of aluminium hydroxide prepared from sulphate and chloride solutions by varying the mole ratio of NaOH to Al3+ have been characterized by chemical analysis and X-ray diffraction. When the NaOH/Al ratio is 3 or 3·3, crystalline Al(OH)3 in the form of bayerite, nordstrandite, gibbsite, or mixtures is obtained in several hours. When the ratio is 2·75 or below, no Al(OH)3 is evident and the products are X-ray amorphous and remain so even after ageing for six months. Chemical analysis indicates that the amorphous precipitates are basic aluminium sulphates or chlorides. In the 0 to 2·1 range of NaOH/Al, the composition of the products is constant, being approximately Al(OH)2·2X0·8. In the 2·1 to 2·75 range, a continuous series of basic salts, of composition ranging from Al(OH)2·2X0·8 to Al(OH)2·75X0·25, is obtained.

It is possible to determine the directions of the optic axes of a biaxial crystal mounted on a spindle stage—and hence the angle 2V and the directions of α, β, γ—from only four measured extinction positions. The method is a generalization of the one proposed by Tocher (1962); but in the present procedure it is not necessary to determine first the optic axial plane.

A new method of determining the optic axes from a few extinction measurements is presented. It is based on the progressive elimination of those parts of the stereogram in which it is obvious that the optic axes cannot lie. It has two applications: as a valid method in its own right, if applied systematically; and as a reconnaissance technique. The second application permits, for example, the recently presented trisogon technique to be rapidly and economically applied over a very small fraction of the stereogram instead of over its whole area.

Two spectrochemical methods of feldspar determination are described: one based on the flame spectrophotometer; the other on the quartz spectrograph. For the first method, unknown feldspars are dissolved in a mixture of hydrofluoric and perchloric acids and diluted to 1 : 104. Percentages of Or and An are determined by comparison with dissolved feldspar standards at the same dilution; percentages of Ab are estimated by difference. For the second method, unknown feldspars are burned, unadulterated, in the cathode of the spectrograph arc and a visual estimation is made of the intensities of the following lines: Na5688, Na5683, Ca4455, Ca4435, Ca4425, K4047, K4044, Ca3644, K3447, Na3303, Na3302, and Ca3159. The estimated intensities are then substituted in two empirically determined functions:

(ICa4455+ICa4435+ICa4255+ICa3644+ICa3159)−4/3(INa5688+INa5683+INa3303+INa3302)and (3INa5688+3INa5683+2INa3303+INa3302)−43(4IK4047+3IK4044+2IK3447) .

From the algebraic values of these two functions, the compositions of the unknown feldspars, expressed as percentages of Or, Ab, and An, are read directly from a chart based on results obtained from feldspar standards of known chemical composition.

Kehoeite, a hydrated zinc aluminate-phosphate, produces an X-ray powder diffraction pattern with interplanar spacings similar to those of analcime, viséite, and pollucite. The diffraction maxima appear to be compatible with a cubic (or pseudocubic) lattice with a 13·7 Å. It is concluded that kehoeite is essentially isostructural with analcime and that its framework is composed of linked tetrahedra: (AlO2)−, (H3O2)−, and (PO2)+, as was found to be the case for viséite, which contains (SiO2) in addition. Calculations of the density, the number of oxygens in the unit cell, and the chemical composition are consistent with the structural formula Zn5·5Ca2·5(H2O)32[(Al16P16(H3)16)O96].

An occurrence of kyanite in the inner aureole of a granodiorite intrusion is described from south-western Ghana. Greenschist facies phyllites have been elevated to the amphibolite facies and the regional strike of these country rocks has been disrupted by the intrusion, so that clear evidence is available of the time relationships. It is concluded that the kyanite crystallized as the result of the forceful intrusion of the granodiorite, probably under epizonal conditions.