Old photographs lined the walls, cases displayed mining equipment, mineral samples, glass telephone insulators.
Standing next to a tall beige cabinet filled with drawers of mineral samples at the museum, Dr. Charles Mandeville, a volcanologist there, holds two large rocks.
When the plane landed, customs officials found that a shipment labelled "mineral samples" actually contained more than three thousand pounds of gold bars.
The very hottest goods in other categories include cross-stitch samples featuring fairies, Budweiser tap handles, Mrs. Beasley dolls, pre-1980 trombones and cornets, fluorescent mineral samples, scratch-and-sniff stickers, Dakota china, postcards from Eastern Europe with views of towns, Disney timepieces and reindeer figurines.
In 1908 Clark mounted an expedition to Northern China, leading 40 men in an attempt to map out the terrain, measure the weather and pick up a few mineral samples and small animals along the way.
Upon development, the photographic plate revealed silhouettes of the mineral samples, and, in subsequent experiments, the image of a coin or metal cutout interposed between the crystal and paper wrapping.
Visitors may not expect so much instructive reading amid the antique sapphire and diamond jewelry and mineral samples, lent by private collectors, including the banking heir Marc P. Weill.
They could not date the teeth directly, but analysis of nearby mineral samples and animal fossils indicated the teeth are somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 years old.
But then Mr. Roberts meets Gordon McWhorter, a laid-back California-type surfer dude who knows how to make discreetly illegal offerings of stolen mineral samples via the Internet.
Therefore, the mineral samples have to be carefully selected.
Elemental sulfur was formed most significantly at pH 2 in all sulfide mineral samples.
