Abstract: Fluorspar is formed into briquettes by thoroughly mixing fluorspar ore with water and an agglomerating agent, for example sodium carbonate, pressing the mixture and calcining the pressed product.

Abstract: Improved building compositions are prepared by including in CaO-containing components/SiO.sub.2 -containing components admixtures a small amount of chemically precipitates silicic acid containing flourine as an impurity.A steam-cured building material preferably prepared by first pre-grinding sand with the chemically precipitated silicic acid and water, storing the resulting slurry for at least 0.5 hour and then mixing it with the CaO-containing component. The wet grinding and storing steps have been found to have a surprisingly favorable effect on the viscosity of the pumpable sand slurry and on the behavior of the risen mixture at the cutting.

Abstract: Fine-grained halide bodies are formed which have comparable optical properties to a single crystal halide body. The halide bodies are formed by press forging while an essentially constant fluid pressure is applied to the halide body.

Abstract: A multi-layer ceramic capacitor is characterized by a ceramic composition including barium titanate and lithium fluoride as essential ingredients resulting in the capability of sintering the composition at temperatures below 1100.degree. C. As a consequence, the electrodes for the capacitor can be formulated from pure silver or a silver palladium composition in which the major component is silver thereby decreasing the expense of such capacitors as compared to those requiring platinum, gold, or mixtures of these precious metals and/or similar precious metals in making up the electrodes.

Abstract: A method of forming fluorite briquettes from a fluorite flotation concentrate wherein the fine dry powder of the fluid concentrate is preheated, briquetted under pressure and fired after the formation of the briquettes to form solid dust free briquettes.

Abstract: A finely-grained fluorspar briquette and a process for producing a fine-grained fluorspar in briquette form in which the fine-grained fluorspar is intimately mixed with from 1 to 5%, by weight of blast furnace cement, the mixture is further mixed with from 1 to 6%, by weight of water glass and the ultimate mixture is compressed into briquette form.

Abstract: A rare earth ceramic having a microcrystal phase buried in a glassy phase for the coversion of radiation in the near-infrared band from about 0.85 to 1.06 um into visible light. It comprises a mixture of lead fluoride PbF.sub.2, ytterbium oxide Yb.sub.2 O.sub.3, at least one glass-forming oxide selected from the oxides of B, Si, P, Ge, Te, and at least one compound of a rare earth doping element chosen as a function of the desired emission color, i.e.A compound containing thulium ions Tm.sup.3.sup.+ for a blue emission mixture;A compound containing erbium ions Er.sup.3.sup.+ for a green emission mixture;A compound containing holmium ions Ho.sup.3.sup.+ for a green emission mixture;A compound containing erbium ions Er.sup.3.sup.+ for a red emission mixture, whereby the oxygen ions from the oxides are exclusively located in the glassy phase while ytterbium and the rare earth are exclusively located in the microcrystal phase.

Abstract: New compositions of matter each consisting essentially of a solid solution of compounds and a halide binder aid. The novel compositions have melting points above 1800.degree. C, high mechanical integrity, low thermal conductivity, and are essentially non-reactive with molten reactive and refractory metals. The novel compositions sinter at 1000.degree. to 1300.degree. C.