From: glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst)
Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics
Subject: Re: Epsom Salts
Date: 23 Nov 1995 21:56:08 GMT
Organization: Consulting Chemist
Lines: 27

In article <491dd8$45q@ixnews5.ix.netcom.com>, silent1@ix.netcom.com (The
Silent Observer) says:

>BTW, Epsom salts don't look all that much like table salt -- the texture 
>is all wrong, due to the long, thin monoclinic crystals, instead of the 
>nearly cubical crystals of table salt.  The Epsom salts are also less 
>transparent, and somewhat yellowish in hue, at least as sold for foot 
>baths and the like.

Why, thank you silent. I guess I need to get me some epsom 
salts with larger particle size so I can see if mine are in
the rhombohedral or monoclinic crystal form. You know, ammonium
nitrate also occurs in the rhombohedral and monoclinuc needle
form, but in the fine state it also looks (to me) just like
table salt. In larger bits it looks like flakes or prills or 
needles and sometimes it looks yellow.  When I referred to Epsom 
salts as looking white, I was just following the silly chemist's 
habit of referring to the properties of pure compounds. Almost 
everything that ought to be white looks dingy sometimes.  Tell 
you what, though, If you grind your Epsom salts a bit finer it'll 
get whiter, and I'll bet that if you put the stuff in a shaker, 
no one will notice the difference, except that they'll think it 
needs a few rice grains to make it flow.

Things must be slow in rec.pyro.

Jerry