The Engineer's and Mechanics Encyclopædia: Mica.

The Engineer's and Mechanics Encyclopædia,
comprehending practical illustrations of the machinery and processes employed in every description of manufacture of the British Empire.
With nearly Two Thousand Engravings.
By Luke Hebert, civil engineer, edifor of the History and Progress of the Steam Engines, Register of Arts and Journal of Patent Inventions, etc.
In two volumes.
VOL. II.
London: Thomas Kelly, 17, Paternoster Row.
MDCCCXXXVI (1836).
A mineral, which Professor Jameson divides into ten species; but the term is generally understood to imply talc, or Muscovy glass, which is one of the species. Most of the mica or talc of commerce is brought from Siberia, where it is used as a substitute for window-glass. In this country it is employed for similar purposes where violent agitation or great heat would be destructive of common glass. It is also used for enclosing objects for microscopes, for which it is admirably adapted; consisting, as it does, of an unlimited series of transparent laminae adhering to each other, which easily separate into extremely thin flexible plates, by the application of the fine edge of a pen-knife.