Amber

Chemawinite or cedarite is an amber-like resin from the Saskatchewan river in Canada. The new Audi A6 (the sixth-generation) has been drawn by Italian Walter Dà Silva. Schraufite is a reddish resin from the Carpathian sandstone, and it occurs with |jet in the Cretaceous rocks of the Lebanon; ambrite is a resin found in many of the coals of New Zealand; retinite occurs in the lignite of Bovey Tracey in Devonshire and elsewhere; whilst copaline has been found in the London clay of Highgate in North London. The updated 2005 A6 won the World Car of the Year award for 2005. Many other fossil resins more or less allied to amber have been described. The A6 was on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 2000 and 2001. Besides succinite, which is the common variety of European amber, the following varieties also occur:. The C6 design was available with the following engines:.

These Central American ambers are formed from the resins of Legume trees (Hymenea) and not conifers. It is powered by a Lamborghini-derived V10. Blue amber is recorded in the Dominican Republic. The sporting S6 was introduced in the Frankfurt Motor Show, with sales beginning in early 2006. A fluorescent amber occurs in the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico, and is used extensively to create eye-catching jewellery. The Allroad model is slated to make its debut during 2006. Amber and certain similar substances are found to a limited extent at several localities in the United States, as in the green-sand of New Jersey, but they have little or no economic value. The Avant arrived during the course of 2005, while in China, a longer version was introduced in the same year, named A6 L (the A8 is not sold in this country).

It was re-created in 2003. Like the previous model, the A6 is available with other body options. It is presumed lost. Quattro four wheel drive is available in most of the lineup, and standard in the most powerful models. What happened to the room beyond this point is unclear. The Multitronic automatic transmission continues as an alternative alongside a new 6-speed Tiptronic gearbox available in the high end models. The room was hidden in place from invading Nazi forces in 1941, who upon finding it in the Cathrine Palace, disassembled it and moved it to Königsberg. Although the line of engines represents the same progression as the former model, all engines were new.

The Amber Room was a collection of chamber wall panels commissioned in 1701 for the king of Prussia, then given to Tsar Peter the Great. On the engine side the new FSI direct injection technology was introduced for the first time outside the race track. Amber was carried to Olbia on the Black Sea, Massilia (today Marseille) on the Mediterranean, and Hatria at the head of the Adriatic; and from these centres it was distributed over the Hellenic world. Most notably is the MMI (Multi Media Interface) which is an optional system controlling radio, satellite navigation, climate control and (when available) suspension settings through a central screen interface. Some of the amber districts of the Baltic and North Sea were known in prehistoric times, and led to early trade with the south of Europe. The new model is a larger car (492 cm) with more sophisticated technology. Amber has indeed a very wide distribution, extending over a large part of northern Europe and occurring as far east as the Urals. The new A6 (C6-design) came in 2004.

On the shores of the Baltic it occurs not only on the German and Polish coast but in the south of Sweden, in Bornholm and other islands, and in southern Finland. The C5 design was available with the following engines:. On the other side of the North Sea, amber is found at various localities on the coast of the Netherlands and Denmark. This model saw the end of the C5 design which was replaced in 2004 by a new model. Cromer is the best-known locality, but it occurs also on other parts of the Norfolk coast, as well as at Great Yarmouth, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Felixstowe in Suffolk, and as far south as Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, whilst northwards it is not unknown in Yorkshire. Producing a staggering 450 PS (331 kW) and 560 Nm (413 ft.lbf), it propels the A6 from 0-100 km/h in 4.7 sec and on to 200 km/h in under 18 seconds. Rolled pieces of amber, usually small but occasionally of very large size, may be picked up on the east coast of England, having probably been washed up from deposits under the North Sea. In the late years of the A6 C5 design, a monstrous Audi RS6 model was presented.

It is still believed to possess a certain medicinal virtue. A four wheel drive version of the estate with raised ground clearance and slightly altered styling was sold as the Audi Allroad Quattro, Audi's first crossover SUV. Beads of amber occur with Anglo-Saxon relics in the south of England; and up to a comparatively recent period the material was valued as an amulet. All models, except the 2.0 petrol and 1.9 TDI, were available with Audi's four wheel drive system, quattro. A remarkably fine cup turned in amber from a bronze-age barrow at Hove is now in the Brighton Museum. Also new was the revolutionary Multitronic drive by wire continuously variable transmission, available in most front wheel drive models in the lineup. It has been found in Mycenaean tombs; it is known from lake-dwellings in Switzerland, and it occurs with neolithic remains in Denmark, whilst in England it is found with interments of the bronze age. A new more powerful V6 diesel was also introduced presenting 180 bhp and 370 nm.

Amber was much valued as an ornamental material in very early times. The V6 Diesel was also slightly modified resulting in 163 PS (120 kW) (after the second modification) and 350 Nm (258 ft.lbf). True amber is sometimes coloured artificially. The turbocharged 2.7 L was given a tweak on the turbo resulting in 250 PS (184 kW) and 330 Nm (244 ft.lbf), controlled by standard quattro. Amber has often been imitated by other resins like copal and kauri, as well as by celluloid and even glass. The 2.4's power was slightly upgraded and the 2.8 V6 was replaced by a 3.0 L engine boosting 220 PS (162 kW). This pressed amber yields brilliant interference colours in polarized light. The 1.9 L TDI was tweaked into producing a maximum of 130 PS (96 kW) and 310 Nm (228 ft.lbf), receiving a 6-speed gearbox in the process.

The product is extensively used for the production of cheap jewellery and articles for smoking. The 1.8 L engine was removed and replaced by a 2.0 L powerplant with 130 PS (96 kW). The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then compressed into a uniform mass by intense hydraulic pressure; the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. In 2000 the A6 received a facelift which saw little change in the design of the car but presented a few notable changes in terms of engines. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish, are now utilized on a large scale in the formation of "ambroid" or "pressed amber". The Avant body arrived in 1998. Cloudy amber may be clarified in an oil-bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores to which the turbidity is due. As an alternative to the manual transmission, a 5-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission was also available.

Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. The crisp 30-valve 2.4 and 2.8 V6 engines represented the bulk of the A6's development programme, but the resilient 2.5 V6 TDI and the powerful all-new Audi S6 were the flagships. When gradually heated in an oil-bath, amber becomes soft and flexible. The new A6 presented itself with a wide range of engines and configurations. During the working much electricity is developed. With the introduction of an ambitious new design (C5) and a new pack of engines, the A6 moved up a notch and was positioned alongside the hegemonious BMW 5-Series and the solid Mercedes E-class. In working amber, it is turned on the lathe and polished with whitening and water or with rotten stone and oil, the final lustre being given by friction with flannel. In 1997 the scene changed strikingly for the A6.

Some of the best qualities are sent to Vienna for the manufacture of smoking appliances. The C4 design was available with the following engines:. The variety most valued in the East is the pale straw-coloured, slightly cloudy amber. Like the 100, the A6 was available with. It is regarded by the Turks as specially valuable, inasmuch as it is said to be incapable of transmitting infection as the pipe passes from mouth to mouth. The exterior was largely left unchanged from the C4 100 as well as the engines; up until 1997 the A6 came with several different engines, two of them Diesel, and most of them available with Audi's quattro four wheel drive system. Amber is extensively used for beads and other ornaments, and for cigar-holders and the mouth-pieces of pipes. In 1994 the last version (C4) of the Audi 100 was facelifted and re-badged as the A6, to fit in with Audi's new naming policy (as the A8 had just been introduced).

The sea-worn amber has lost its crust, but has often acquired a dull rough surface by rolling in sand. . The nodules from the blue earth have to be freed from matrix and divested of their opaque crust, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. Its primary competitors are the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5-Series, Alfa Romeo 166, Jaguar S-Type, Lexus GS and Volvo S80. The pit amber was formerly dug in open works, but is now also worked by underground galleries. The second generation A6 was also used as the basis for the Allroad. At the present time extensive mining operations are conducted in quest of amber. It is available in two bodywork configurations, the sedan and the station wagon (Avant).

Systematic dredging on a large scale was at one time carried on in the Kurisches Haff by Messrs Stantien and Becker, the great amber merchants of Königsberg. The Audi A6 is an executive luxury car produced by Audi. Divers have been employed to collect amber from the deeper waters. Sometimes the searchers wade into the sea, furnished with nets at the end of long poles, by means of which they drag in the sea-weed containing entangled masses of amber; or they dredge from boats in shallow water and rake up amber from between the boulders. Pieces of amber torn from the sea-floor are cast up by the waves, and collected at ebb-tide.

Although amber is found along the shores of a large part of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the great amber-producing country is the promontory of Samland, now part of Russia. In the Dominican Republic exists a type of amber known as the Blue Amber. Bony amber owes its cloudy opacity to minute bubbles in the interior of the resin. The so-called black amber is only a kind of jet.

Enclosures of pyrites may give a bluish colour to amber. Impurities are quite often present, especially when the resin dropped on to the ground, so that the material may be useless except for varnish-making, whence the impure amber is called firniss. The abnormal development of resin has been called succinosis. Sometimes the amber retains the form of drops and stalactites, just as it exuded from the ducts and receptacles of the injured trees.

Fragments of wood frequently occur, with the tissues well-preserved by impregnation with the resin; while leaves, flowers and fruits are occasionally found in marvellous perfection. Even hair and feathers have occasionally been represented among the enclosures. In most cases the organic structure has disappeared, leaving only a cavity, with perhaps a trace of chitin. The resin contains, in addition to the beautifully preserved plant-structures, numerous remains of insects, spiders, annelids, crustaceans and other small organisms which became enveloped while the exudation was fluid.

It is improbable, however, that the production of amber was limited to a single species; and indeed a large number of conifers belonging to different genera are represented in the amber-flora. Goppert named the common amber-yielding pine of the Baltic forests Pinites succiniter, but as the wood, according to some authorities, does not seem to differ from that of the existing genus it has been also called Pinius succinifera. R. H.

Relics of an abundant flora occur in association with the amber, suggesting relations with the flora of Eastern Asia and the southern part of North America. It appears, however, to have been partly derived from yet earlier Tertiary deposits (Eocene); and it occurs also as a derivative mineral in later formations, such as the drift. The Baltic amber or succinite is found as irregular nodules in a marine glauconitic sand, known as blue earth, occurring in the Lower Oligocene strata of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast, where it is now systematically mined. It enables the distinction between baltic amber and non-Baltic varieties because of a specific carbonyl absorption and it can also detect the relative age of an amber sample.

An effective tool for Amber analysis is IR spectroscopy. Its specific gravity varies from 1.05 to 1.10. Succinite has a hardness between 2 and 3, which is rather greater than that of many other fossil resins. True Baltic amber is distinguished by its yield of succinic acid, for many of the other fossil resins which are often termed amber contain either none of it, or only a very small proportion; hence the name succinite proposed by Professor James Dwight Dana, and now commonly used in scientific writings as a specific term for the real Prussian amber.

The aromatic and irritating fumes emitted by burning amber are mainly due to this acid. True amber yields on dry distillation succinic acid, the proportion varying from about 3 to 8%, and being greatest in the pale opaque or bony varieties. Heated rather below 300°C, amber suffers decomposition, yielding an "oil of amber", and leaving a black residue which is known as "amber colophony", or "amber pitch"; when dissolved in oil of turpentine or in linseed oil this forms "amber varnish" or "amber lac". Heating amber will soften it and eventually it will burn, which is why the German word for amber is bernstein.

The average composition of amber leads to the general formula C₁₀H₁₆O. As amber matures over the years, more polymerization will take place as well as isomerization reactions, crosslinking and cyclization. Labdanes are tetrameric terpenes (C₂₀H₃₂) and trienes which means that the organic skeleton has three alkene groups available for polymerization. Amber is a macromolecule by free radical polymerization of several precursors in the labdane family, communic acid, cummunol and biformene ^[1].

Amber is heterogeneous in composition, but consists of several resinous bodies more or less soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform, associated with an insoluble bituminous substance. During the fourteenth century, the Teutonic Knights controlled the production of amber in Europe, forbidding its unauthorised collection from beaches on the Baltic coastline under their jurisdiction, and punishing breakers of this ordinance with death. There is also strong evidence for the theory that the Baltic coasts during the advanced civilization of the Nordic Bronze Age was the source of most amber in Europe, for example the amber jewelry found in graves from Mycenaean Greece has been found to originate from the Baltic Sea. Tacitus in his Germania talks about the Aesti people as the only ones to gather amber from the Baltic Sea.

Pliny the Elder complains that a small statue of amber costs more than a healthy slave. Amber was mentioned by Homer, Aristotle, Plato and others. The German word is Bernstein. The Old Hebrew חשמל hashmal seems to have meant amber, although Modern Hebrew uses Arabic-inspired ענבר `inbar.

By Latin writers amber is variously called electrum, sucinum (succinum), and glaesum or glesum. This property, first recorded by Thales of Miletus, suggested the word "electricity", from the Greek, elektron, a name applied, however, not only to amber but also to an alloy of gold and silver. True amber has sometimes been called kahroba, a word of Persian derivation signifying "that which attracts straw", in allusion to the power which amber possesses of acquiring an electric charge by friction. The name comes from the Arabic عنبر, ʻanbar, probably through Spanish, but this word referred originally to ambergris, which is an animal substance quite distinct from yellow amber.

. Most of the world's amber is in the range of 30–90 million years old. Although not mineralized it is sometimes considered and used as a gemstone. Amber is a fossil resin much used for the manufacture of ornamental objects.

Most of the Burmese amber is worked at Mandalay into rosary-beads and ear-cylinders. Burmite and simetite agree also in being destitute of succinic acid. The Burmese amber is yellow or reddish, some being of ruby tint, and like the Sicilian amber it is fluorescent. The mines were visited some years ago by Dr Fritz Noetling, and the mineral has been described by Dr Otto Helm.

It occurs in the Hukawng valley, in the Nangotaimaw hills, where it is irregularly worked in shallow pits. It is found in fiat rolled pieces, irregularly distributed through a blue clay probably of Miocene age. Until the British occupation of Burma but little was known as to its occurrence, though it had been worked for centuries and was highly valued by the natives and by the Chinese. Burmite is the name under which the Burmese amber is now described.

The amber of Sicily seems not to have been recognized in ancient times, for it is not mentioned by local authorities like Diodorus Siculus. Moreover, yellow amber after long burial is apt to acquire a reddish colour. It has even been supposed that amber passed from Sicily to northern Europe in early times - a supposition said to receive some support from the fact that much of the amber dug up in Denmark is red; but it must not be forgotten that reddish amber is found also on the Baltic, though not being fashionable it is used rather for varnish-making than for ornaments. It has been conjectured that the ancient Etruscan ornaments in amber were wrought in the Italian material, but it seems that amber from the Baltic reached the Etruscans at Hatria.

Amber is also found in many localities in Emilia, especially near the sulphur-mines of Cesena. It is remarkable for its fluorescence, which in the opinion of some authorities adds to its beauty. This beautiful material presents a great diversity of tints, but a rich hyacinth red is common. It occurs in Miocene deposits and is also found washed up by the sea near Catania.

Simetite, or Sicilian amber, takes its name from the river Simeto or Giaretta. According to Gheorghe Murgoci the Romanian amber is true succinite. Sulphur is present to the extent of more than 1%, whence the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen when the resin is heated. The nodules are penetrated by cracks, but the material can be worked on the lathe.

Roumanite, or Romanian amber, a dark reddish resin, occurring with lignite in Tertiary deposits. Allingite, a fossil resin allied to succinite, from Switzerland. Krantzite, a soft amber-like resin, found in the lignites of Saxony. Glessite, a nearly opaque brown resin, with numerous microscopic cavities and dusty enclosures, named from glesum, an old name for amber.

Beckerite, a rare amber in earthy-brown nodules, almost opaque, said to be related in properties to gutta-percha. Stantienite, a brittle, deep brownish-black resin, destitute of succinic acid. The name comes from Gedanum, the Latin name of Gdańsk at the Baltic Sea. It is often covered with a white powder easily removed by wiping.

Gedanite, or brittle amber, closely resembling succinite, but much more brittle, not quite so hard, with a lower melting point and containing no succinic acid.