Unsigned memorandum received by Banks titled 'A person who intends to examine the mineral Substances of any Country ought to have...', ca 1772 (Series 06.101) - No. 0001

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A person who intends to examine the mineral substances of any Country ought to have -

1.  A Bottle of pure Spirit of Nitre.
2.  A Bottle of Spirit of Salts.
3.  A Bottle of Oil of Vitriol.
​4.  A Bottle of Spirit of Sal Amonia.
5.  Some pounds of Borax or rather Glass of Borax.
6.  Some pounds of Nitre.
7.  Some pounds of Tartar.
8.  Some pearl Ash, or some fossil Alcali.
9.  A blowpipe, if the person can use it.
​10. Some hessian Crucibles.
11. Cramer's Art of essaying metals.
12. Cronstedts Mineralogy.
13. An aqua regia may be made by adding to three parts of Spirit of Nitre, one part of Spirit of Salt, or one part of common Salt.
​14. Some small Specimens of the metals and semimetals [indecipherable] with which the metal found may be compared.  These are bismuth, Antimony, Zinc, Regulus of Cobalt, platina nickel.

Observations

1.  Cronstedts Book will enable to distinguish mineral substances by their appearance & properties & Cramer will show the methods of discovering the Contents of any mineral substance.

2.  The outlines or characteristical marks by which the different classes of Earths are distinguished ought especially to be remembered and when from these, the class of any Earth or Stone is found, the species it belongs to of that Class will be found by Cronstedts descriptions.  Thus the principal classes of Earths are, 1) The Calcareous, 2) the argillaceous or clayey, 3) the Siliceous, flinty or vitrifiable & 4) the gypseous.  The characteristic mark of the first class is that it effervesses with Acids & by burning is changed into quicklime.  The second Class is distinguished by its property of forming a tough paste with water & of becoming hard like bricks by fire.  The third Class is distinguished by striking fire with steel and the fourth Class by the