Galena (PbS)
Location source = St. Louis, MO
Size of PbS crystal = 1/8” cube
Colors = accurate
Air bubble holes in plaster tablet due to hasty preparation and lack of stirring when plaster was wet.
Image taken with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial labs and then digitized.

10x
Galena (PbS)
Location source = St. Louis, MO.
Size = 1/8” cube
Color of PbS xtal = accurate
Color of sublimate = should be more blackish, but focus is on the PbS xtal and light shadows are influencing the color of sublimate.
It’s obvious that only minor heating was used as slight surface melting is beginning to occur.
Image captured with B&L SZ5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.

10x
Galena (PbS)
Location source = England
Size of specimen = approximately 2” x 2” x ½”
Purity = Unknown (most galena harbors a variety of elements and sometimes carries significant silver)
Color = accurate with the shinning reflective light, but the physical specimen is decidedly more gray.
Image captured with B&L SZ5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.
This is an unusual crystalline structure for most types of galena, but galena can have a variety of peculiar crystalline shapes, and yet remain cubic.

Galena (PbS)
Location source = England
Size of PbS crystal = 1/8” x 1/16” x 1/16”
Colors = accurate
Air bubble holes in plaster tablet due to hasty preparation and lack of stirring when plaster was wet.
Image taken with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial labs and then digitized.

10x
Galena (PbS)
Location source = England
Color of PbS crystal = accurate
Color of sublimate = not nearly blue and black enough due to focus being on the PbS crystal and the intense lighting is casting a shadow thus hiding and altering colors.
Image captured with B&L SZ5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.

10x
Galena (PbS)
Purity = Unknown (most galena harbors a variety of elements and sometimes carries significant silver)
Location source = Unknown (I bought from a rock shop in Morganton, GA. several years ago, and have used pieces from it for a variety of tests)
Size of PbS specimen = approximately 2” cube
Photomicrograph of only a small part of one surface showing the layered cubic structure as is typical for Galena, regardless of location derived from.
Colors = accurate although reflective lighting is causing distortion (considerable tarnish in some areas.
Image captured with B&L SZ5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.

Galena (PbS)
Location source = Unknown
Size of PbS crystals = approximately 1/32” cubes to 1/8” cubes
Colors = accurate
Air bubble holes in plaster tablet due to hasty preparation and lack of stirring when plaster was wet.
Image taken with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial labs and then digitized.

10x
Galena (PbS)
Location source = unknown
Color of PbS crystal = accurate
Color of sublimate = not black enough, due to focusing is on the PbS crystal and the intense lighting is casting a shadow. Should have used multiple lights, but I then gain to much reflection. This kind of trouble is due to working at night, whereas, if I simply allowed the daylight in better color is generated. There are yellow fringes not readily noticed on the above image.
Image captured with B&L SZ5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.
Very little heat from torch (oxidizing flame only). Reduction was not the objective. A slight amount of surface melting is visible, but some parts of xtals are totally intact, but darkened by heat.

Cerussite -- Lead Carbonate or white lead ore

Source = China
This above image is a thumbnail specimen about 3/4” long x 1/8’ wide and thick.
Color = Accurate

Cerussite or Lead Carbonate (PbCO3)
Color = accurate
Size = Approximately 1/8”
Image taken with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial labs and then digitized.

10x
Color = Too much yellow color on tablet, due to lighting, but the partially melted and reduced cerussite color is accurate. The sublimate color is also accurate.
Image created with B&L SZ5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.
Partial melting and actual reduction to lead metal with extensive heat from the oxidizing flame.
Cracking of plaster tablet indicates considerable heat.
Direction of lighting shows a shadow within the carved out cavity to contain this very light fragment from being blown away from torch blast, which was not much, but was prolonged to generate this small sublimate area.

St Louis Galena (PbS)

St. Louis galena or Lead Sulphide (PbS)
Image obtained with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial lab and then digitized.
Colors = accurate
Cold Plaster tablet
This galena was reduced to metal in a small fired clay dish prior to this sublimate test.
The white color is indicative of Lead, but this sample may be contaminated with Sb. There is also a very light green sublimate, indicating another contaminate.

20x
St. Louis, MO galena
Top of metal button prior to sublimation test.
Image created with Bausch & Lomb Stereo Zoom #5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.
Color = Too much brownish coloration due to shadows from this curved surface. Should be more gray. Only a small area is in focus due to curvature of button.

Red Lead Oxide & Antimony Sulfide

Red Lead Oxide (Pb3O4) & Antimony Sulphide (Stibnite -- SbS)
Image obtained with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial lab and then digitized.
Colors = accurate
Cold Plaster tablet
White sublimate is primarily Sb. The typical yellow of Lead oxide is masked by the Sb oxide.

Pb304 and SbS
Color = most accurate in the well illuminated area (silvery-gray)
Image is of the bottom side of metal button prior to sublimation test.
Image created with Bausch & Lomb Stereo Zoom #5 microscope, coupled to a ccd camera and computer.

Galena + Stibnite and the metal Tellurium

St. Louis Galena (PbS)+ Stibnite (antimony – SbS) & Tellurium metal.
Image obtained with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by Kodak 1 hour commercial lab and then digitized.
Colors = accurate
Cold blackened (propane soot) Plaster tablet. Colors were much more vivid when plaster tablet was hot.
White sublimate is primarily Sb and Te. The typical yellow of Lead oxide is partially masked by the Sb oxide. Some white and brown of Te is also visible.
This metal button was reduced to metallic form in a small fired clay dish and blended with Tellurium prior to this sublimate test.

Galena (PbS)

These two images are of finely crushed galena that I do not know where the mineral originated from. It is nice to know the source of a mineral, but when purchasing minerals at rock shops there really is no way to be sure. The only way to be positive where a mineral originated is to collect it from an outcropping.
These two images depict the somewhat normal white, brown and blackish sublimates produced by the oxidizing flame of propane torch. But, it appears that some antimony may be present. I did not smell the odor of garlic so it is unlikely that arsenic is present. The normal yellow color is hidden, but if the oxidizing flame is directed onto the sublimates the typical yellowish color would become dominate.
Colors = accurate
Image obtained with 35mm camera and a 135mm lens, set at macro for close-up focusing, shutter speed = 1/125th of second in semi-cloudy conditions using 200 film and developed by a CVS Kodak 1 hour processing lab and then digitized. I have tried using various commercial film processing and found them all wanting except CVS pharmacy.

Wulfenite (Lead Molybdate)

Wulfenite = PbMoO4
Source = unknown location
Size = overall rock is 3” x 3” x 2”, but and although there are several wulfenite crystals I broke off a small 12 o’clock corner segment from the reddish appearing crystal in center of the rock to obtain a potential sublimate.

50x
Image Created with a Reichert Monocular microscope coupled to a ccd camera & computer.
No sublimate formed either on blackened or plain plaster tablets.
In order to stop the chips from exploding due to encapsulated water Na2CO3 was mixed with a few tiny crystal particles and these promptly melted (light yellow-green) into the plaster.
I did not add any flour with the sodium carbonate, which might have created a reduction to form a lead bead.
Because of the irregular surface contours this image was a compromise in focusing in an attempt to show colors and melted particles that became blackish and greenish in color.
Color = almost correct, a little too much green tinting and not enough yellow.