Crystal Identification with the Polarizing Microscope

The book reviews optical theory and methodology, with an emphasis on dispersion methods. The contents cover asbestos identification and include original methods developed by Morse. Some of the simpler measurements of optical mineralogy are so precise and powerful that they provide all a beginning student needs. Very little training and almost no theory are needed to achieve these skills. But there inevitably comes a time when theory is needed, either to get on with the art, or simply to reconstruct from first principles what is going on, when rote memory fails. "Crystal Identification with the Polarizing Microscope" provides both the methods and the theoretical background for practitioners at all levels of experience. It should serve the needs of industrial and forensic scientists, as well as petrographers who deal with rocks and upper-level and graduate students. This book should be of interest to industrial and forensic scientists; petrographers; and upper-level and postgraduate mineralogists.