Talk:Amber

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  • To rate higher in ratings one of the big failings in this article is citations. WIth inline citations this article would be improved dramatically.
  • Talk page issues cover mythology content and lack of sources for claims

SauliH 02:29, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
This article is supported by WikiProject Gemology and Jewelry, gemstones subpage.
WikiProject Gemology and Jewelry To-do:

I'm not sure how to handle the "folklore" stuff. Certainly it's all nonsense (aside from being badly written), but if it's nonsense that some specific group of people believe, there's no reason not to report on that belief. I suspect that all of this comes from a single source, so that source should be named. Otherwise, there's no way to know whether this is actual folklore or just one man's ramblings. --Lee Daniel Crocker

yes, Lee - see my entry on Corvus's page. I think it's from a source. If Corvus is capitalizing this way himself, he's an exception. --MichaelTinkler.

What makes you say it's badly written?

No, it's not from one source, it's from several years' worth of research and study, and I wrote it myself --corvus13

"...leading to the general formula C10H16O": shouldn't this be "empirical formula"? Dweir

Might want to separate the Amber (fantasy world) section from the Amber (fossilised resin) stuff. Are we going to have entries for fictional countries such as Oz, Narnia, Middle-Earth, Lilliput, Brobdingnag, etc? Might have to decide on qualifier for the name "Amber" (eg. Amber (fictional country) ). I'll leave it in the hands of a Wikipedia expert. Michael Green - mfg@mfgreen.net

The Baltic Amber is old resin from Pseudolarix amabilis.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

English people usually call burnstones “amber”. Etymologists suggest the Arabian word anbar = Ambre gris, describing the secretions of a sperm whale, may be the source for a great number of amber-like words in modern languages, but with “burneability” in our minds another Latin word "Amb-urus" = "the burning (stone)" may be much more suitable for explanation.

The Latin verb amb-uro, ambussi, ambustum is related to combustion and is translated into the English word “to burn”. The word “amburus” in the sense of “Amber” did belong to vernacular language and will not be found in Latin scriptures. Historic documents are using the Germanic word “Glaesum” instead.

The etymology of the verb „amburo“ is rather complicated. Amburo sources from the Latin verb “uro”:

Latin: uro – ussi - ustum,

1. to burn something or somebody,

2. to dry up, to scorch

3. to passion

Besides uro also buro developed in time, eg. in comburo, bussi, bustum, translated: to burn / to scorch or to bust.

In contrast we find also de-uro, translated: to burn down, indicating the original core must be read "uro" and not "buro".

Maybe/Probably the English verb "burn" sources from "buro".

The word amber is spread accross a great number of people and modern languages, like French (ambre jaune), Italian (ambra gialla), Spanish (el ambar). Unlike the British sailors they certainly were not familiar with walefishing and some early language, maybe Latin, must have provided the word.

Originally the adjective “amburus” in Latin accompanied the male word “Lapis” (Stone) and checking the gender in languages we do not find any discrepancies.

See for complete details:

English Version:

http://www.joannesrichter.homepage.t-online.de/Androgyn/SpellingTUI.pdf

German/Deutsche Version:

http://www.joannesrichter.homepage.t-online.de/Androgyn/DasBuchTuisco.pdf

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.248.171.161 (talk • contribs) 04:45, 23 May 2005./—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.248.175.62 (talk • contribs) 03:03, 24 May 2005.

Sorry, these were my contributions. I just forgot to log in

Johannes.Richter 07:11, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

re: Greek etymology: Electrum refers to an alloy of gold and silver. Disambiguation? Ancient sources?
It'sWhom (talk) 17:40, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Electricity and amber

i read somewhere that archemedies or someone like that rubbed amber with fur and he noticed small objects started to stick to it and he "discovered" static electriicity. could someone verify that?Omgwt..bbq (talk) 02:15, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gdansk/Danzig

I actually think that it's reasonable to mention "Danzig" in this article, since there are many connections from historical Danzig to amber. E.g. the famous Amber Room, built in 1701, was created by ethnic German amber artisans from Danzig (as they presumably would have called it, and as Wikipedia policy calls for it to be named at that point in time). The entry for "Gedanite" may not the best place to mention it, though; perhaps the paragraph which mentions the amber room could mention that some of the amber workers came from "Danzig (now Gdansk)". Noel (talk) 19:35, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Royal Prussia was an integral part of Poland, and so the proper name is Gdansk not Danzig. Space Cadet 20:47, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I (naively) assumed that Royal Prussia was the same thing as the Kingdom of Prussia. I have modified my comment (above) to take this into account. Noel (talk) 21:56, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Jurassic Park

I think the use of amber as a major plot point in Jurassic Park is notable and should be included in the article, although I don't know where. --Grouse 10:53, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

A 'Trivia' section?

[edit] Value

what is the value of raw amber?

[edit] Sub-fossil

What is meant by sub-fossil at end of first paragraph? This must be a slang (i.e., non-scientific) term. SNP 22:43, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] age of most amber?

The statement in the first paragraph: “Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30–90 million years old” is puzzling, and as far as I can tell is un-verifiable. Science does not know when plants first evolved the ability to produce biopolymers for defensive purposes, but for sure, they have not lost the ability; consequently, unless data disputes the obvious, there should be a greater amount of younger than older resinites in sediments. Does anyone know where this statement cam from? SNP 01:27, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

There have been several studies to investigate the age and pretty much every sample has yielded a different result. As far as I can tell the age range should be more like between 20-120 million years, but as you stated correctly it is pretty much unverifiable. That may be because the age samples tested where not the amber itself but the sediment it is found in. Talk about incongruent. There are a few examples on amber dating technique here here.

Your reference includes the statement "time and the environment influence the decaying speed" in reference to radiodating, which is utter nonsense. This reference is linked from the blue amber page, and thus appears to be commercial link spam. SNP 00:19, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, ya might want to be careful. The statement was probably a misunderstanding of the statements made here and here and here. But you would know better.--The Singularity 21:41, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Some schmuck has been reediting the amber article to include "F... you" and some such. I reverted it, but what on earth?! --The Singularity 17:39, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Just divide them by zero. SNP 00:19, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] expert tag

Is there a "outdated tag"? The bulk of that page is from the 1911 EB. Is all of that still true? -lysdexia 07:19, 15 May 2007 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.108.161.118 (talk) 07:19, 15 May 2007 (UTC).


[edit] Errata: tides in the Baltic

The sentence "Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves, and collected at ebb-tide." is clearly erroneous. I live by the Baltic Sea, and the tides are 10 cm, tops, and along most of the Baltic coast, this is not visible to the naked eye. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.231.89.46 (talk) 16:29, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation?

"Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30–90 million years old. Semi-fossilized resin or sub-fossil amber is called copal. It can hold insects or even small mammals."

Woah, small mammals? Can anyone provide a source for that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.199.20.98 (talk) 23:05, 16 May 2008 (UTC)