Galena
Galena names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Galena the sulphide of lead
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the sulphide of lead, found both in masses and crystallized in cubes, but sometimes in truncated octahedra; its color is bluish-gray, like lead, but brighter. For the most part it contains about 86.6 per cent. of lead and 13.4 of sulphur, generally some silver and also antimony, zinc, iron, and bismuth. Where the proportion of silver is high it is known as argentiferous galena, and worked with a view to the extraction of this metal. Galena occurs principally in the older or Primary rocks, being found in England mainly in the Mountain Limestone (base of the Carboniferous formation). In the United States it is very abundant, the deposit of galena in which the mines of Illinois are situated being the most extensive and important hitherto discovered.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
lead ore. Chemically, it is lead sulphide. It occurs in cubic crystals and in masses. It has a brilliant metallic luster, and is bluish gray in color. Galenas are quite likely to contain a percentage of silver. The city of Galena, Illinois, was named for lead ores found in the vicinity.
Galena a city and county-seat of Jo Daviess co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of Jo Daviess co., Ill.; on the Galena river, near its junction with the Mississippi, and on the Illinois Central, the Chicago and Northwestern, and the Burlington and Chicago Great Western railroads; 165 miles W. of Chicago. It has steamer connections with all important river ports, and has numerous smelting, marble, and stone works, foundries, bridgeworks, machine shops, planing mills, and a large trade in farm and dairy products, and live stock. It is noted as an early residence of General Grant and received its name from the numerous lead mines in the vicinity. Among points of interest in the city are its public parks, Grant Park, United States Marine Hospital, Custom House, and the Grant Homestead. The city has an abundant water supply from artesian wells, fine natural drainage, public high school, daily and weekly papers, National banks. Pop. (1919) 4,835; (1920) 4,742.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The chemistry has not moved: galena is still lead sulphide, still cubic, still about 86.6 per cent lead, and still the world's chief lead ore. What has changed is where it is mined and what the lead is for. The Upper Mississippi Valley field that Collier's called in 1921 "the most extensive and important hitherto discovered" is worked out, its last mines closed by the 1970s; US lead mining is now concentrated in southeast Missouri's Viburnum Trend, opened from the late 1950s, and the country's last primary lead smelter, at Herculaneum, Missouri, shut in 2013, leaving recycled car batteries as the main domestic source. Lead itself went from an everyday metal in paint and petrol to a regulated poison (US lead paint banned 1978, leaded petrol phased out by 1996), while Galena, Illinois, which had 4,742 people in 1920, has shrunk to about 3,300 and lives on tourism built around Grant's home.
Written for this edition, 2026.