- Series
- World of the rockhound
- Air Date
- 1969-03-07
- Duration
- 00:29:08
- Episode Description
- Series Description
- Subject(s)
- Creator(s)
- Contributors
- Genre(s)
- Geographic Region(s)
- regions
- Time Period
- 1961-1970
[00:05 - 00:10]
Within about 15 miles of my house that lived in England there would
[00:10 - 00:29]
be about five or six different breaks going on where they found these Roman visitors.
[00:29 - 00:34]
Second largest craft lobby in America today is said to be rock counting with all of its
[00:34 - 00:39]
branches of interest some of which are gem cutting making jewelry and the
[00:39 - 00:44]
collection of gem stones rocks minerals and fossils. This universal
[00:44 - 00:48]
hobby has grown to astonishing proportions in the last 25 years and shows
[00:48 - 00:53]
signs of even more rapid growth as the need develops for more people to pursue
[00:53 - 00:58]
more leisure time activities due to the fact that the working few hours
[00:58 - 01:03]
have more days off and get more vacation time. Rocks
[01:03 - 01:08]
and minerals are specimens of extreme importance to the rock. I evar.
[01:08 - 01:13]
Most people do not realize the important role. Rocks and minerals play in everyday living.
[01:13 - 01:18]
For example fluorite used in toothpaste clothing. This series of
[01:18 - 01:22]
programs is designed to give an overall picture of the rock on offer
[01:22 - 01:27]
encouragement to the newcomer in this hobby. And present information of general interest to
[01:27 - 01:31]
everyone. All of this will be examined as we explore the
[01:31 - 01:40]
world of the rock.
[01:40 - 01:45]
Today's programme is entitled My universal hobby. The
[01:45 - 01:48]
narrator is Len felt.
[01:48 - 01:52]
The word rockhound means friend in any language and in any lie and
[01:52 - 01:58]
that's the way it seems because when two rock icons get together to share collections and talk about
[01:58 - 02:03]
their experiences any differences they may have fade into the background.
[02:03 - 02:09]
Last week's program was devoted to servicemen and their lapidary work in the craft hobby shops at
[02:09 - 02:12]
military installations in this country and overseas
[02:12 - 02:18]
servicemen have an opportunity to seek and find minerals in most unusual
[02:18 - 02:24]
places. But the civilian rockhound has opportunities to do this also.
[02:24 - 02:29]
They can go on classic tours especially planned for Iraq around tours such
[02:29 - 02:33]
as a 21 day gem and mineral tour to Brazil and South America
[02:33 - 02:38]
visiting emerald mines and other places where rich deposits of topaz
[02:38 - 02:43]
Amalekite And as you write are found he will
[02:43 - 02:47]
travel by means of jet plane auto bus Jeep dugout
[02:47 - 02:52]
canoe and mule. Perhaps he prefers a gem safari
[02:52 - 02:57]
to Africa a planned thirty two day tour which includes game
[02:57 - 03:02]
viewing as well as searching for unusual rock specimens.
[03:02 - 03:07]
Nairobi Serengeti Amboseli Victoria Falls are only a few of the
[03:07 - 03:12]
stops then onto your honest Bergen Kimberly to see the gold mines and the
[03:12 - 03:17]
big hole where the diamonds are. Not only does he have an opportunity
[03:17 - 03:21]
to dig but these trips are planned to include social get togethers with the
[03:21 - 03:26]
local gem and mineral club members at most every location as well as
[03:26 - 03:30]
visits to see out standing collections in museums.
[03:30 - 03:37]
The rock hound may wish to fly to Australia and New Zealand on another
[03:37 - 03:42]
tour. Well along with finding agate Jasper petrified wood
[03:42 - 03:47]
Opal and sapphire he'll mingle with the miners and the dealers in the
[03:47 - 03:51]
gem cutter's and have a chance to noodle the mine dumps
[03:51 - 03:57]
here and there and take part in specially arranged trips for panning gold.
[03:57 - 04:02]
You can see kangaroos and wallabies and if he's a bird watcher he'll
[04:02 - 04:07]
be in a bird watchers paradise. Some people do they're all
[04:07 - 04:12]
coming this way. Many go to foreign countries for other reasons
[04:12 - 04:17]
but if they're rock hounds they'll generally find others with the same interest
[04:17 - 04:22]
regardless of the country. Leona Hughes was sent to New
[04:22 - 04:26]
Zealand for her church. She returned to this country with a collection
[04:26 - 04:31]
of carved taking arms with a black rock much like soft
[04:31 - 04:36]
coal to be used for carving. And she had the names of several new
[04:36 - 04:41]
rockhound friends whom she exchanged rocks with I was in
[04:41 - 04:45]
Christchurch New Zealand a bed where 60 say a.
[04:45 - 04:50]
And did you happen to meet any rock hands there. I thought they had the thoughts of people in
[04:50 - 04:54]
New Zealand that rocks rock. Do you think it's as popular as it is here in the
[04:54 - 04:59]
United States. I didn't have enough time to find out if it was as popular but I think
[04:59 - 05:05]
it is because the rock over there are so beautiful they make lots of Deore out of their rock.
[05:05 - 05:10]
Do they have the same kind of rock that we have here. No there's no fossils over by
[05:10 - 05:14]
a phony mineral rock. Can you name some of the minerals.
[05:14 - 05:22]
Mostly AFAIK it's the green stone that I think most of the people by Mike the Tiki.
[05:22 - 05:27]
But those are the were carved figures like good luck
[05:27 - 05:32]
charm. Yes that's true. Did you see a lot of those when you were there. Yes they
[05:32 - 05:37]
did they were on sale at all the shops and NGO restores most anywhere that you
[05:37 - 05:41]
walked along the street you could stand big to take both in rings
[05:41 - 05:47]
bracelets and necklaces. Do you have any conversations with.
[05:47 - 05:52]
Several conversations with Collin Marston that collected rocks and
[05:52 - 05:56]
waste. He gave me some rocks and when I came back home I asked him some we just made a
[05:56 - 06:01]
swap. And then there was David Macey said he enjoyed rocks
[06:01 - 06:06]
too and we exchanged rocks when I came back. And it was a little boy in the
[06:06 - 06:11]
sixth grade that enjoyed rocks and I sent him some of the petty tears when I came back.
[06:11 - 06:17]
Do they have rock clubs over there like we do. I didn't have a chance to find that I own
[06:17 - 06:19]
I was did missionary work.
[06:19 - 06:23]
While I was doing part of my work in mission work going from door to door I ran across an
[06:23 - 06:28]
invalid or crippled person that enjoyed rocks and he carved out of the soft
[06:28 - 06:34]
coal that was more like a rock and he made jewelry out of it he made little hearts
[06:34 - 06:39]
and little rings and bracelets and he gave me a priest to
[06:39 - 06:44]
come bring back and try to carve something out of my chest and every year
[06:44 - 06:50]
we have tried to cover anything. If it was such a soft.
[06:50 - 06:55]
How was he able to carve it and keep it that way keep it.
[06:55 - 07:00]
It had a slick hard finish to it but you could just walk almost like a
[07:00 - 07:07]
soap. But yet it would keep it shut and not be brutal.
[07:07 - 07:12]
You could quit alone it just might get into most any
[07:12 - 07:17]
show but it's still here.
[07:17 - 07:22]
What were some of the things he cut. He showed me advice with that he
[07:22 - 07:26]
had carved out of it. He had made a heart necklace. He had made a ring out of it
[07:26 - 07:33]
and he had made several little tiny liberty bails out of it to use the pipe away.
[07:33 - 07:37]
How long did you stay in New Zealand. I was there the entire month of
[07:37 - 07:42]
February and the first week in March 6th. Did you stay
[07:42 - 07:47]
in the city or did you go out. Into the. Outside areas to
[07:47 - 07:52]
do your work. We stayed at the stone heard tale but we went
[07:52 - 07:57]
out into the city to do our work in the suburbs. Now you being a rock and I know
[07:57 - 08:02]
that you wouldn't miss an opportunity to walk on a beach where you can. Did you do that in New
[08:02 - 08:07]
Zealand. Yes I did I had one day to look around and go and have fun
[08:07 - 08:11]
and we went down on the beach and we looked for rocks and pebbles and shells and we collected
[08:11 - 08:16]
quite a few of them and while we were down there there was a large huge boat
[08:16 - 08:21]
there when the tag came in it was entirely covered with water and we waited till the
[08:21 - 08:26]
pad went out and there was a hole through it and we went through it and this large
[08:26 - 08:31]
boulder was volcano rock and it just looked like a great big cinder with a hole through it
[08:31 - 08:35]
and we climb through it. I am out the tad like a goddess before we got out.
[08:35 - 08:42]
That's most of the rock around there. Yes I believe it is it looks like a T
[08:42 - 08:48]
as I'll put it like that most of the rock that's on top of the surface looked like with volcano.
[08:48 - 08:53]
That was Leona Hughes who made many rockhound friends in New Zealand as she went
[08:53 - 08:58]
from door to door doing missionary work for her church rockhound
[08:58 - 09:02]
Jo Gilbert looks for fossils are most of the trips he takes. Recently he
[09:02 - 09:07]
went on a pleasure trip to Yucatan. He didn't find any fossils there
[09:07 - 09:13]
and if he had found them in all probability he would not have been allowed to take them up
[09:13 - 09:20]
to look for fossils but most of the.
[09:20 - 09:24]
I haven't been too lucky in finding and I've just got back from a trip to the
[09:24 - 09:29]
Yucatan which is. Composed the limbs down
[09:29 - 09:35]
somewhat. Geologists some of the men of Kentucky.
[09:35 - 09:42]
And it should have been some fossil but I saw lots of caves and Sankoh when I couldn't get any
[09:42 - 09:47]
decent fossils and man I was so busy looking at Mayan ruins that
[09:47 - 09:50]
I didn't have to get a chance to look for fossils.
[09:50 - 09:54]
Maybe too many tourists have been there maybe all the fossils have been taken.
[09:54 - 09:59]
No the tourists are not looking for fossils it too is looking for Mayan artifacts make sure
[09:59 - 10:03]
that more of them than the fossils and the
[10:03 - 10:09]
Mayan artifacts they want you pick up in fact around the
[10:09 - 10:14]
ruins. They don't even want you picking up odd stones they get I would know about picking up
[10:14 - 10:16]
anything.
[10:16 - 10:21]
Although the reasons are clearly understood for prohibiting the picking up of stones at historic
[10:21 - 10:25]
sites or accounts who collect artifacts most find this frustrating
[10:25 - 10:30]
not only in Yucatan but in other historic places as well.
[10:30 - 10:36]
The ways Davis found plenty of stones last summer as she drove through England by
[10:36 - 10:41]
car. She did have a problem though wondering how to get these stones
[10:41 - 10:47]
home with their on the plane. She returned with a stone of stone.
[10:47 - 10:53]
My friend and I found England a very fascinating place from the standpoint of
[10:53 - 10:59]
stones although we really called them rocks. And
[10:59 - 11:03]
one day out at all to bar and saw folk out on the east coast of South England
[11:03 - 11:09]
we were spending the day and. And being very fascinated by this
[11:09 - 11:14]
complete beach of nothing but rather large pebbles. And.
[11:14 - 11:19]
I spoke to one Britisher and said something about you have lots of rocks here.
[11:19 - 11:23]
Oh no those are not rocks he said those are stones.
[11:23 - 11:28]
So I never quite knew what I was supposed to expect in the way of the difference between
[11:28 - 11:33]
a rock and a stone or a pebble. For that matter.
[11:33 - 11:38]
I actually and probably would would have been called pebbles.
[11:38 - 11:43]
But of course being on the beach as sand is on many beaches these were
[11:43 - 11:48]
very water washed and very rounded and and in their
[11:48 - 11:53]
own way partially polished. And they were fabulously.
[11:53 - 11:58]
Different to us and very beautiful. You know
[11:58 - 12:02]
Iraq was an interesting and I should say was an interesting
[12:02 - 12:07]
and. My friend and I. Were really.
[12:07 - 12:12]
Just. Well you know they say you if you're Iraq and you have rocks in
[12:12 - 12:16]
your head. Well it sounded like we had talks about it that way I guess
[12:16 - 12:22]
because we just couldn't quit gloating over how beautiful the next pebble was.
[12:22 - 12:27]
But they were washed in from the North Sea. And and there was practically
[12:27 - 12:32]
no science on this beach. It was a wide beach and a Long Beach.
[12:32 - 12:37]
And and relatively flat and went as far as you could see in both directions
[12:37 - 12:42]
and the pebbles seemed to be if you dug down you diskette finding more pebbles.
[12:42 - 12:47]
So there were just oceans of them. And of course we we couldn't resist
[12:47 - 12:52]
collecting and we kept getting our pockets full and our bags full.
[12:52 - 12:56]
And then the floor of the car was full and then the boxes were full
[12:56 - 13:01]
and of course we kept wondering what we would do with these. Well we
[13:01 - 13:06]
knew that we would have the car until we had to ship it home
[13:06 - 13:11]
and we knew when we shipped it home we could not ship anything in it. So the question
[13:11 - 13:16]
would be when would we dispose of the rocks. And we knew we would be
[13:16 - 13:21]
flying from the airport at Brussels and we decided that we would take what we
[13:21 - 13:26]
could to the airport at Brussels and then if we were forbidden to carry this
[13:26 - 13:30]
weight our take these rocks are whatever the answer might be. We would build
[13:30 - 13:35]
ourselves R.K. or in the Brussels airport. And
[13:35 - 13:40]
so this story kept of course growing all summer because this was not the only
[13:40 - 13:45]
place that we picked up rocks. But this was the bulk of our source.
[13:45 - 13:50]
We did find rocks stones I suppose I should say
[13:50 - 13:56]
everywhere all over England. And. The
[13:56 - 14:00]
beaches would be one major place that we found them and they seem to be
[14:00 - 14:05]
on our beaches. And then the other place was
[14:05 - 14:10]
wherever there was Roman ruins. And and the Romans.
[14:10 - 14:15]
Had used a very a very flat like rock.
[14:15 - 14:19]
A lot of their building and their walls seemed to be made of
[14:19 - 14:24]
nodules Flint. And I suppose that this is
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