The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1874-01-28
SHAM-JEWELRY.
rom Chambers Journal.

SHAM-JEWELRY.
From Chambers Journal.
The passion for iwelry has been (
habit of mankind from the days o
Solomon to those of the shah. It wa!
illustrated by the idoIators of Som
nath; it blazed at the feet of the Ester
hazies it has eliminated in the tiart
and belt of Nasr-Shah- -Eddin. This
potentate made himself the cynosure ot
Europe by means of the diamonds fam
ing upon his aigreete, his breast, and the
hilt and sheath of his cimetar; and SC
the subject of gems has been wonder,
fully upon the carpet lately. But with
fashion comes ambition. People will
wear glittering ornaments somehow,
and prefer the false to none at all In
romance, these lustrous deceptions have
played a high part, as in the story, by
Dumas, of the Three Musqueteers, u
where brilliant bit of dissimulation
saves Anna of Austria from disgrace.
Everybody, too, has read tales of ex-
travagant ladies pledging their gen
uine jewels and wearing shams for the
deception of society. And the art has
reached such perfection that, apart
from certain tests, which of course are
impossible to apply, they really do de-
ceive. In fash and splendor the imi-
tated are often scarcely inferior to the
originals whence by the chemists magic
they are copied. In dealing with this
consummate kind Of forgery one pre-
liminary remark has to be made. jew
els viewed in a natural and jewels
viewed in an artificial light are like
certain sorts of beauty, not to be COM
pared. There is q fluid radiance in
them which wants refraction the for
mer take it from the sun, the latter
from the chandelier. In the case of
the peerless stone, however, the dia-
mond, the object of the splendid illu-
sion is to produce perfectly colorless
substance, thoroughly luc:d, and capa-
pie of rejecting all lights. To this
pebble-for it is nothing more-have
been attributed many virtues but it
can be fabricated by science with a
very near approach to reality. First, it
is necessary to dissolve charcoal. Then
follow processes trequiring crystaliza-
ton mingling of pure water, lit
tie carbonate of sulphur, and certain
proportions of 1iquifed phosphorus.
Still, all this may not yield a thorough
Iy deceptive diamond. Another COM
position is made from silver-sand, very
pure potash, minium, calcined borax,
and form of arsenic, varied occasion
ally by a mixture of 8tro88-a mixture
for which an equivalent is paste, and
which represents transparent pebbles
burnt to powder, white lead, and other
similar materials. SOMETIMES rock
crystal is used, with borax acid from
Italy, and nitrate of potash. OF the e
materials is composed the false diamond
which figures so alluringly in the shop
windows of the Palais Royal.
Let us turn to the sapphire, the next
esteemed among precious stones, even
above the emerald and the ruby. It is
a product of the East, though found of
inferior quality in Bohemia, Saxony,
and France, among rocks of the second
ary period. There are white sapphires
occasionally mistaken for diamonds !;
crimson, or carmine, resplendent beyond
description; vermilion and topaz-tinted.
Indeed we may assign rank to the emer-
aid rs the daughter of the sapphire.
Do you covet them in order to beam
with borrowed lustre at ball? Take,
as the cookery-book gays, one ounce Of
paste, mix with two grains of precipi-
tated oxide of cobalt, and there you
have the colored and glowing neoklet,
which none except a jeweler can detect.
Supposing, however, that you desire
earrings of chrysoberyl, or chrysopal-
or cymophane, as the French term it,
which means FLOATING light''-the trife
is exceedingly pretty, with its surface
of asparagus, green as its heart of Iadi
ating fire. Yet it is to be emulated by
combination of aluminium SILICA, OK
ide of iron, and lime.
Coming to the splendid gem, the ru-
by, whether of Brazil, Barbary, or Bo-
hemia, with its cherry or purple red,
varied by opalescent or milky aspects,
there are various methods of rivaling it
with litharge and calcined shells ;
with paste, antimoDy, glass, and purple
of Cassius; with white sand washed in
hydrochloric acid, minium, calcined
potash, calcined borax, and oxide OF
silver stirred in crueible. We are fur
n'shing our iewel-box rapidly, and at q
very moderate expense. But care must
be taken less, through an imprudent ad-
mixture, your fictitious ruby should
suggest the idea Of garnet, which is q
poor and unrecognizabIe relation of the
family. The topaz has never been very
fashionable in England; but it is 8
charming gem in all its varieties-yel,
low, white, oolorless-" drops of water,
the Dutch lapidaries call these--orange
shining to little disadvantage among the