[f. L. fulgur lightning + -ITE.]
1. Geol. (See quot. 1865.) Also written (less correctly) fulgorite.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxvii. (1835), 312. Dr. Fiedler exhibited several of these fulgorites in London dug out of the sandy plains of Silesia and Eastern Prussia.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. (1852), 60. At Paris MM. Hachette and Beudant succeeded in making tubes in most respect similar to these fulgurites.
1865. D. Page, Handbk. Geol. Terms, Fulgurite, Fulgorite.Any rocky substance that has been fused or vitrified by lightning. More strictly applied to a bore or tube produced by the passage of lightning into a sandy soil, which it sometimes penetrates to a depth of twenty feet, fusing and vitrifying the sand and gravel in its downward progress.
1884. Cornh. Mag., Nov., 526. In sand or rock, where lightning has struck, it often forms long hollow tubes, known to the calmly discriminating geological intelligence as fulgurites.
2. An explosive substance (see quot. 1889).
1882. H. S. Drinker, Tunnelling (ed. 2), 102.
1889. Cundill, Dict. Explosives, Fulgurite consists of nitro-glycerine mixed with some coarsely ground farinaceous substance.
1894. Daily News, 22 Jan., 5/5. At Geneva a trial has been made in a quarry with the new explosive, fulgurite, under the direction of the inventor, Raoul Pictet.