Bob Cutmore, Age 12, of Shawnee, Okla., for his question:

What is soapstone?

This rocky mineral was used by the early settlers of America to make durable laundry tubs. But soapstone cannot be used as a substitute for soap. It is named for its smooth surfaee, which feels to the touch somewhat like waxy soap. It is found most often among mountains which have a past record of volcanic activity.

Imagine a stone that is soft enough to be carved with a knife. Its color may be milky white or some pastel tint of green or yellow, pink or bluish gray. Rare samples are bright apple green or almost black. The material may be opaque, like dense rock, or translucent, like a gob of foggy glass. It can be polished to a waxy surface which feels somewhat like soap.

This delightful mineral is soapstone, alias steatite. Its main ingredients are magnesium oxide, silica and a trace of water. These are the ingredients of talc, the soft mineral used to make talcum powder. In a lump of soapstone there may be traces of a mica, quartz and other impurities, but most of the material is talc.

Soapstone or steatite forms in ancient metamorphosed rocks, where the minerals have been changed from their original state. Its original rocks were rich in magnesium. Steam and heated ground water, We think, may have done the work of remaking soapstone from these older rocks. Deposits of soapstone are found where We would expect to find them, if this theory is true. It is quarried among the Appalachians of the east and among some of the western mountains of California.

We have many workaday uses for this interesting mineral. It resists heat and acids and in powdered form can be used as a body builder filler in many substances. As a filler, it is used in paper and paint, rubber and face powders. Its soapy textile makes it useful as an oily lubricant.

The mineral talc is the softest of all. Natural stones. It is rated in class one on the scale of mineral hardness. Soapstones have a hardness of one to 1.5. The qualities of these minerals were discovered by the Chinese, who for centuries have used them to carve delicate figurines.

The eskimos of the far north also discovered the qualities of soapstone. They carved the soft, heat resisting stone to make lamps and cooking pots. The Babylonians of ancient Mespotamia also knew about soapstones. They carved it to make signet rings and Other seals for pressing marks into damp clay. In many eountries, fine tales are still carved to make artistic objects, as smooth as waxy soap and glowing with translucent tints of pastel colors.