Szakáll Sándor - Weiszburg Tamás szerk.: A telkibányai érces terület ásványai (Topographia Mineralogica Hungariae 2. Miskolc, 1994)

A telkibányai opál („Telkebanyerstein") története (Papp Gábor)

Topographia Mineralogica Hungáriáé Vol. II. 199-207 Miskolc, 1994 A TELKIBÁNYAI OPÁL („TELKEBANYERSTEIN") TÖRTÉNETE History of the Telkibánya opal ("Telkebanyerstein") Papp Gábor Abstract The first reference to the Telkibánya opal is found in a book of Túróczi (1768). The first detailed review was given by Augustini (1773), but the international knowledge of the mineral was due to a report of Delius (1777). Born (1790) and foreign geologisttravellers as Townson (1797), Esmark (1798) and Beudant (1822) also contributed to this "fame". The most comprehensive description of the mineral and the locality was published by Fichtel (1791). The mineral was originally called as Chrysoprase, chrysolite or hyacinth because of its greenish yellow colour. Delius (1777) considered it a mixture of opal and chalcedony, while others (e.g. Ruprecht, 1784) classed it as a pitchstone. Augustini (1773) and Born (1790) correctly described the mineral as opal, this opinion was supported by the chemical analyses of Bergmann (1778) and Klaproth (1797). Some authors (e.g. Fichtel, 1791; Lenz, 17%) regarded "Telkebanyerstein" (stone from Telkibánya) as a separate species. Because of its characteristic colour the Telkibánya opal got several varietal names like chrysopal (i.e. golden yellow opal), wax-opal, honey-opal, amberopal etc. The (post-) volcanic genesis of the mineral was recognized by Fichtel (1791), further details were given by Beudant (1822) and Richthofen (1860). The Telkibánya opal was quarried in the second half of the 18th century for making ornamental pieces. The prospecting originally may have aimed at the noble opal found on the same place. The utilization of the Telkibánya opal was limited by the easy development of cracks in the stone and the quarry was abandoned soon. The place of occurrence of the mineral was first accurately described by Fichtel (1791), than Kitaibel (mscr. 1803, publ. 1945), but fell into oblivion and was re-discovered only in 1978 by mineral collectors. Results of modern geological and mineralogical study of the occurence and the mineral were reported by Gyarmati et al. (1986) and Takács (1994). Összefoglalás A telkibányai opált 1768-ban említette először Túróczi. Első részletes leírását Augustini adta (1773), míg nemzetközi ismertsége Delius (1777) cikkének volt köszönhető. Később Born (1790), Townson (1797), Esmark (1798) és Beudant (1822) is tárgyalta. Az ásvány és lelőhelye legrészletesebb korabeli ismertetését Fichtel (1791) közölte.