Albertite
Albertite
Variety of asphalt
Albertite is a variety of asphalt found in the Albert Formation in Albert County, New Brunswick, and in a deposit at Dingwall, in the north-east of Scotland.[1] It is a type of solid hydrocarbon.
Albertite has a black colour, a resinous luster, and a hardness of 2½.[2] It is less soluble in turpentine than the usual type of asphalt.[3] It was from a mixture of albertite and pitch that kerosene was first distilled in 1846 by Abraham Gesner,[4] a New Brunswick geologist who had heard stories of rocks that burned in the area and gave the material its first scientific study.