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Webster 1913 Edition

minium

min′i-um

(?; 277)
,
Noun.
[L.
minium
, an Iberian word, the Romans getting all their cinnabar from Spain; cf. Basque
armineá
.]
(Chem.)
A heavy, brilliant red pigment, consisting of an oxide of lead,
Pb3O4
, obtained by exposing lead or massicot to a gentle and continued heat in the air. It is used as a cement, as a paint, and in the manufacture of flint glass. Called also
red lead
,
lead tetroxide
,
lead orthoplumbate
,
mineral orange
,
mineral red
,
Paris red
,
Saturn red
, and less definitively,
lead oxide
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Minium

MIN'IUM

,
Noun.
[L.] The red oxyd of lead, produced by calcination. Lead exposed to air while melting is covered with a gray dusky pellicle. This taken off and agitated becomes a greenish gray powder, inclining to yellow. This oxyd, separated by sifting from the grains of lead which it contains, and exposed to a more intense heat, takes a deep yellow color, and in this state it is called massicot. The latter, slowly heated, takes a beautiful red color, and is called minium.

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