The Henkel Glossary of Mineral Species

The Henkel Glossary of Fluorescent Minerals, edited by Dr. Earl Verbeek and Dr. Peter Modreski, was published as a 1988-89 as a special issue of the Journal of the Fluorescent Mineral Society. All of the original 1000 copies have been distributed, so it has been reprinted in 1995.

The Henkel Glossary of Fluorescent Minerals by Dr. Gerhard Henkel, Journal of the Fluorescent Mineral Society, volume 15 (1988-9), was the most exhaustive listing of fluorescent minerals known.

In 91 pages, it lists 566 mineral species and 59 related substances, plus entries for numerous variety, group, and alternate names. For each substance, it gives the name, chemical formula (or composition), longwave UV fluorescence colors, shortwave UV fluorescence colors, and the number of localities reported from.

The Henkel Glossary is printed in small-book format for portability and is generally patterned after Michael Fleischer’s ‘Glossary of Mineral Species’.

Copies are available. To order or obtain further information, contact us.

About the Author

Gerhard Henkel was born on January 25, 1899, in Berlin. After completing high school he was a soldier on the front lines during the last year of World War I. He then studied at the University of Berlin where he was graduated in 1925 with a Doctor in Philosophy degree in chemistry and physics. Dr. Henkel was employed in industry until 1936. He subsequently studied to become a patent attorney and operated an independent law office until the end of Word War II in 1945. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as scientific consultant to the U.S. Navy, a position he occupied until the reopening of the German patent office in 1950. At that time he re-established his law office and expanded it with offices in Berlin, Munich, and Baden-Baden. Dr. Henkel then resided in Baden-Baden as the senior officer of a patent law firm with worldwide dealings.

Henkel married in 1925 and subsequently fathered three children. Over the years his hobbies included stamp collecting and cacti, both of which he pursued with evident zeal. His stamp collection was of international caliber and won numerous awards in competitions, and his extensive collection of cacti was maintained in several greenhouses below his home in Baden-Baden. Dr. Henkel was an ardent student of mushrooms as well and made numerous trips to the Black Forest (Der Schwarzwald) to observe them. He also enjoyed fishing.

In 1975 Dr. Henkel’s interest turned to minerals, and beginning in 1980 he specialized in the fluorescent species. At that time he started his compilation of all available sources of information about the visible response of minerals to ultraviolet radiation. Among many other sources, he personally examined for fluorescence the large mineral collection of the Australian National Museum in Sydney. He was a member of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society and the Fluorescent Mineral Society. Dr. Henkel passed away on September 7, 1990.