Structure of the Crystals
Like many discoverers, Abbe Hauy had only a nodding acquaintance with his field of discovery - the science of crystallography. He was a humble school teacher, who had cultivated a hobby of collecting specimens of plants and mineral.
One day while admiring a friend's collection of minerals, Hauy accidentally toppled a tray full of prismatic minerals. The crystals broke into pieces. Hauy was quite surprised to see that the fractured faces in these prisms were smooth, and showed the appearance of a rhomboidal structure. This was similar to some other crystals of a different variety which he had seen earlier.
Sensing that he had found something of significance, when he reached home,he broke his own little collection. In fact, he even broke some of the crystals lent to him by friends. Everywhere he found a structure which was based on the same laws. When he published his findings in The Treatise on Mineralogy, it earned him the membership of the French Academy, and is still considered a pioneering contribution to the science of mineralogy.
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