Donegalite: an exceptionally obscure synonym for wollastonite coined by Dublin-based chemist and mineral collector Charles R.C. Tichborne (~1838–1905)

Abstract

Abstract:A mineral specimen was found in the National Museum of Ireland - Natural History (NMINH) that was catalogued as 'donegalite'. This is not a mineral name approved by the International Mineralogical Association's Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification: it is an obsolete name. However, the name does not appear in the encyclopaedic Glossary of Obsolete Mineral Names (Bayliss 2000), a referenced list of about 30,000 discredited mineral names. Internet searches conducted up until 2017 on the mineral name ‘donegalite’ produced no substantive hits. The serendipitous find of an uncatalogued powder X-ray diffraction trace dating from 1983 in NMINH archives shows that ‘donegalite’ is the common mineral wollastonite. The name appears on a rare printed mineral label from Charles Robert Clarke Tichborne (~1838–1905), an English-born, Dublin-based analytical chemist. Tichborne appears to have coined the name for use in his private mineral collection, hence its extreme obscurity.