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Look up silex in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Silex, in modern usage, most frequently refers to a finely ground, nearly pure form of silica or silicate.
The first known use occurs circa 1590 as a post-medieval/Early Modern Era term in Latin for (presumably) powdered or ground up "Flints" (i.e. stones, generally meaning the class of "Hard Rocks") in alchemy, and was later used famously when describing experiments in a published paper by Antoine Lavoisier where such earths are mentioned as the source of his isolation of the element silicon in 1787. Silex is now most commonly used to describe finely ground silicates used as pigments in paint.
Other uses
"Silex" may also refer to:
- a coffee machine, sometimes in a genericised trademark sense, but originally the Silex was a specific brand of vacuum coffee machines made by the eponymous company that later became Proctor-Silex.[1][2]
- Proctor-Silex, a company making small appliances.
- the Silex Process, a laser separation technique for uranium enrichment.
- Silex Flash CMS is an Open Source RIA which lets you build Flash websites for Flash Player 7, 8 and 9
References
- ^ http://www.oldcoffeeroasters.com/1914_silex.htm
- ^ The script for the 1979 movie Alien contains an example of generic use of the term "Silex" for "coffee machine". [1]
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