Friedrich Mohs

Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs (29 January 1773 29 September 1839) was a German geologist/mineralogist. Mohs, born in Gernrode, Germany, studied chemistry, mathematics and physics at the University of Halle and also studied at the Mining Academy in Freiberg, Saxony. After assuming the position of a foreman at a mine in 1801, Mohs moved in 1802 to Austria, where he was employed in trying to identify the minerals in a private collection of a banker. In 1812 he moved to Graz where he was employed by Archduke Johann in his newly established museum and science academy, which was subsequently divided into the Joanneum and the Graz University of Technology As part of this task, he started classifying minerals by their physical characteristics, in spite of their chemical composition, as had been done traditionally. This emphasis on physical characteristics was at odds with the prevailing chemical systematics. However, both Theophrastus and Pliny the Elder had compared the relative hardness of minerals known to them in the ancient world, including diamond and quartz. They knew that diamond could scratch quartz, so showing it to be harder. This became the basis of the hardness scale developed by Mohs. Minerals are now classified by chemical characteristics, but the physical properties are still useful in field examination. In 1812, Mohs became a professor in Graz, and moved six years later to Freiberg, Saxony, before finally settling down to practice his profession in Vienna in 1826. Mohs died during a trip to Agordo, Italy in 1839, at the age of 66.

Friedrich Mohs (Gernrode, actual Alemania, 1773 - Agordo, actual Austria, 1839) Minerlogo alemn. Mohs fue profesor en las universidades de Graz, Friburgo y Viena. Su nombre est asociado al mtodo que desarroll para la determinacin de la dureza de los minerales, segn el cual la dureza es la capacidad de una sustancia slida para resistir la deformacin o abrasin de su superficie. En la escala que ide, llamada escala de Mohs, la dureza relativa de los minerales se clasifica en orden creciente de dureza en base a diez minerales comunes: talco, yeso, calcita, fluorita, apatito, feldespato, cuarzo, topacio, corindn y diamante.

Friedrich Mohs Los valores de dureza de un mineral, entendida como la resistencia que opone el mismo a la abrasin o al rayado, estn ntimamente relacionados con la naturaleza del enlace predominante en el cristal. Estos valores van desde los mnimos de los compuestos que estn ligados por fuerzas de Van der Waals (como el talco), hasta valores mximos de minerales con enlaces homopolares (como el diamante). Para evaluar la dureza es tan importante la distribucin geomtrica de las partculas como la relacin entre ellas; la dureza es una propiedad vectorial y no depende tanto de la estructura como de la carga y distancia de las partculas. Cuanto ms pequeos son los tomos o iones del mineral, mayor es la dureza del mismo. Todava actualmente la escala de dureza ms utilizada en mineraloga es la de Mohs. El ilustre cientfico alemn eligi diez minerales y los dispuso por orden creciente de dureza. Segn esta escala, al estudiar un mineral, ste debe quedar situado entre dos trminos consecutivos. As, se dice que la dureza de la biotita es de 2 a 3, porque se sita entre el yeso y la calcita. La biotita pude rayar el yeso, pero no la calcita; la calcita, en cambio, puede rayar la biotita. Cuando se requieren valores ms precisos para determinar la dureza (lo que se denomina dureza absoluta), se recurre a aparatos como esclermetros o durmetros, o se aplican los mtodos de la abrasin.
(Gernrode, agora Alemanha, 1773-Agordo, ustria real, 1839) Aleman mineralgica.Mohs foi professor na Universidade de Graz, Freiburg e Viena.Seu nome associado est mtodo que desenvolve para a determinao da dureza dos minerais, segundo a qual a dureza a capacidade de uma substncia resite abraso slide da deformao superfcie.Ide na escala chamada escala de Mohs, a dureza relativa dos minerais so classificados em ordem crescente de dureza com base em dez minerais comuns: apatita gesso, talco, calcita, fluorita, feldspato, quartzo, topzio, corindny Diamond

Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839)

Born as the son of a merchant on 29 January 1773 in Gernrode/Harz. He studied mathematics, physics and chemistry at the University of Halle/Saale. He completed his studies in these disciplines as well as in mechanics at the Mining Academy at Freiberg/Sachsen. One of his teachers in Freiberg was the mineralogist and geognostician Abraham Gottlob Werner, who introduced Mohs to mineralogy and geognosy. In 1801, Mohs became a pit foreman at the Neudorf/Harz mine. He came to Vienna for the first time in 1802 in order to sort and annotate the important collection of the banker J.F. van der Nll. (This collection was incorporated into the Imperial Mineralogical Collection in 1827). With his systematic classification of the realm of minerals, Mohs was in conflict with most of the other mineralogists of the time, due to his preference for physical attributes as the principles of classification (i.e., shape, cleavage, hardness, and specific weight), as opposed to the chemical composition of the minerals. In 1812, Mohs was appointed Professor of Mineralogy at the Joanneum in Graz. During this time, he developed the Mohss Scale of Hardness. His stay in Graz was only of short duration and in 1817, he succeeded his teacher, A.G. Werner, at the Mining Academy in Freiberg. In 1826, Mohs was appointed Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Vienna. However, he held his inaugural lecture at the Imperial Mineralogical Cabinet where in 1834, he also held the post of custodian concurrently with his professorship. In 1835, Mohs left the Mineralogical Cabinet upon his appointment as mining counsellor at the Mining University in Leoben. Mohs died on 29 September 1839 during a trip to Italy
Mohs, Friedrich (1773 - 1839). Minerlogo alemn. Mohs fue profesor en las universidades de Graz, Friburgo y Viena. Su nombre est asociado al mtodo que desarroll para la determinacin de la dureza de los minerales, segn el cual la dureza es la capacidad de una sustancia slida para resistir la deformacin o abrasin de su superficie. En la escala que ide, llamada escala de Mohs, la dureza relativa de los minerales se clasifica en orden creciente de dureza en base a diez minerales comunes: talco, yeso, calcita, fluorita, apatito, feldespato, cuarzo, topacio, corindn y diamante.

A Escala de Mohs quantifica a dureza dos minerais, isto , a resistncia que um determinado mineral oferece ao risco, ou seja, retirada de partculas da sua superfcie. O diamante risca o vidro, portanto, mais duro que o vidro. Esta escala foi criada em 1812 pelo mineralogista alemo Friedrich Mohs com 10 minerais de diferentes durezas existentes na crosta terrestre. Atribuiu valores de 1 a 10. O valor de dureza 1 foi dado ao material menos duro da escala, que o talco, e o valor 10 dado ao diamante que a substncia mais dura conhecida na natureza. Esta escala no corresponde dureza absoluta de um material. Por exemplo, o diamante tem dureza absoluta 1.500 vezes superior do talco. Entre 1 e 9, a dureza aumenta de modo mais ou menos uniforme, mas de 9 para 10 h uma diferenas muito acentuada, pois o diamante muito mais duro que o corndon (ou seja, que o rubi e a safira).1

Dureza Mineral Talco (pode ser arranhado facilmente com a unha) 1 Gipsita (ou gesso) (pode ser arranhado com unha com um 2 pouco mais de dificuldade) Calcita (pode ser arranhado com uma moeda de cobre) 3 Fluorita (pode ser arranhada com uma faca de cozinha) 4 Apatita (pode ser arranhada dificilmente com uma faca de 5 cozinha) Feldspato / ortoclsio (pode ser arranhado com uma liga de 6 ao) Quartzo (capaz de arranhar o vidro. Ex.: ametista) 7 Topzio (capaz de arranhar o quartzo) 8 Corindon (capaz de arranhar o topzio. Exs.: safira e rubi) 9 Diamante (mineral mais duro que existe, pode arranhar 10 qualquer outro e arranhado apenas por outro diamante)

Frmula qumica Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 CaSO42H2O CaCO3 CaF2 Ca5(PO4)3(OH-,Cl,F-) KAlSi3O8 SiO2 Al2SiO4(OH-,F-)2 Al2O3 C

A escala de dureza Mohs usada em mineralogia, no entanto, existem outras escalas de dureza utilizadas em cincia dos materiais, tais como:

Dureza Brinell Dureza Rockwell Dureza Rockwell superficial Dureza Webster Dureza Vickers

Friedrich Mohs Friedrich Mohs is famous in the gem world as the creator of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. His scale is still widely used today. But who was Friedrich Mohs and how did he come to create his scale? Mohs was born to a merchant's family in the town of Gernrode in Germany in 1773. After attending school at Halle, he went on to study at the mining academy at Freiberg, where he was greatly influenced by his teacher, Abraham Werner. Werner inspired the young Mohs with a lifelong interest in mineralogy and geognosy, or the geological study of materials forming the earth. In 1801 Friedrich Mohs moved to Austria, and began work in two Friedrich Mohs different capacities. He was employed as a foreman at the Neudorf mine in the eastern Harz Mountain region, but of more interest to Mohs with his passion for rocks, was his second job - he was hired by a rich Austrian banker, J.F. van der Null who had a large mineral collection which was in need of a curator. Mohs' task was to sort the collection into categories, and to identify those

materials which were still unknown. This was a great challenge for Mohs as at the time, there was no accepted way to categorize minerals. Using the same reasoning as botanists, who sorted plants and animals with similar physical characteristics into genus groups, Mohs began examining the minerals for common properties which would allow him to group them together for identification. Although this approach was widely criticized by the mineralogical establishment of the time, it was to ultimately bring him fame, as one of the main physical properties Mohs concentrated on was the hardness of the material in question. Mohs noted that certain minerals could be used to scratch the surface of other minerals, so he reasoned that this scratch test could be used to rank minerals by their hardness. In this way he eventually ranked all the minerals according to their hardness. The scale ranged from the softest mineral, talc, to the hardest, diamond. Around 1810 Mohs gave up his job as mine foreman and in 1812 became a professor of mineralogy in Gratz where he finalized his work on hardness. Creating a scale of one to ten, he assigned each mineral a value, which was to become the Mohs' Scale of Hardness. In 1817, Mohs replaced his mentor Werner, who had died, as a tutor at the mining academy in Freiberg, where he worked for nine more years, until he was appointed as a professor of Mineralogy at the University of Vienna. Mohs ended his remarkable career as a mining advisor at the Mining University in Leoban and died aged 66, while holidaying in Italy. Friedrich Mohs was born on January 29, 1773 in the German town of Gernrode. His parents were merchants. He was well-educated. His early studies were in physics, chemistry and mathematics. Later on he took advanced studies at the mining academy in Freiberg, Germany. One of his professors at the academy was Abraham Werner who is another important figure in mineralogy. Dr. Werner inspired Friedrich Mohs interest in minerals. In 1801 Mr. Mohs moved to the country of Austria. One of his jobs there was as the curator of a private mineral collection that was owned by a banker named J.F. van der Null.

a curator is a person who takes care of a collection of some kind. Mr. van der Null wanted his collection to be organized into categories. He also wanted Mohs to identify the many unknown minerals in his collection. Believe it or not, in the early 1800s no one had created a system for identifying minerals. So, Mr. Mohs started to study the different physical properties of minerals as a way to identify them. He noticed that some minerals are very soft, others are extremely hard. He also observed that harder minerals could scratch softer ones. With this in mind,

Friedrich Mohs decided to develop a scratch test where he could determine the hardness of a mineral. To make his scratch test more accurate and helpful, he carefully observed many minerals and created a list of 10 minerals that he arranged from softest to hardest.