Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-08
yhe aaiehta Badly gaae gridag oruiug ousubsr g. 1888
COUNTERFEIT GEMS.

l -
PRECIOUS JEWELS PRODUCED BY
SkliLFUL CHEMISTS.
| Not Impossible to Make go, 900 Gen,
from S5 worth Of sparAs-How to De-
tect Frauds-Interesting Facts Abopt
| Valuable Stones.
"That is very beautiful stone, /" said re-
porter to Washington jeweler, calling the
.atter's attention to dark purple gem of
considerable size, with vivid red fire, which
lay in satin lined box within the glass show
case. st seems very cheap, too, for its APP
parent valuen
| st is cheap for the reason that it is not .
real stone," replied the dealer.
IAN imitationp
mo, it is not an imitation. On the con-
| trary it does not at ell resemble, to the eye
OF an expert any gem that is known in nat
ure. 1t Is simply chemical product, that is
all You see, the chemists, having abandoned
the manufacture of gold as hopeless. are
trying now to make precious stones artificial
~, and with some success. dare say you
are not aware that actual, bona fide dia-
monds have been produced in this way. And
yet diamonds have been artiicially manu-
featured for years. An English experimenter
first accomplished the feat, and it has been
successfully repeated many times since. The
only trouble is that the diamonds turned out
by chemical artifice are almost microscopic,
and therefore practically worthless. At the
exposition in London some dozens of them
were exhibited, gummed on paper, under a
magnifying glass Every effort has been
made to increase their size, though in vain.
Apparently the production of diamonds big
enough to be worth anything could only be
accomplished by forces and elements working
on the mighty scale Of natures laboratory
when the world was being rendered out Of
chaos into habitable shape"
ARTIFICIAL RUBIEs
"But other stones can be made artiicially
Of profitable sizeg'
IA few. No real gem, however, except the
diamond, has been fairly reproduced exactly
as it is found in nature, though limitations
are plentiful enough. The precious stones
made by the chemists, if such they may be
called, are new inventions to the lapidary.
Many Of them are very beautiful This pur-
pie one you have asked about, for instance,
is lovely. 1t has been named the 'violane du
cap and las attractive jewel as many nat
ural ones four times its price. French chem
lists are the great experts in this branch of
manufacture, and their inventions are usually
kept secret. Some of the artificial gems they
make are doubtless pretty costly to produce,
as for that matter are the microscopic dia-
monds, which are as expensive to turn out as
good big ones in the market"
"Are rubies made artifciallyf"
eyes; but not with entire success. Two
or three years ago certain French chemists
claimed that they had discovered process
for absolutely manufacturing big rubies in
the laboratory by fusing together small ruby
sparks, such as can be bought for almost
nothing. If you will remember that the
value Of the ruby is nearly double that of the
diamond, the color and quality otherwise
being first rate, you can imagine what an
agitation such an announcement occasioned
among the dealers Nor was the announce
ment altogether without truth, as appeared
from the report made on the subject by the
celebrated Professor Friedel, Of the French
institute, who said that he found the chemi-
cal composition, density, crystalline form
and retroactive power of the artificial speci-
mems to correspond in every respect with the
natural ruby. The only difference he could
find was slight variation in the shape of
the tiny air bubbles. However, the dealers
threatened to prosecute any one for fraud
who ventured to issue the artificial rubies as
real ones, and inasmuch as their combine
ton is very rich and powerful and the laws
against selling counterfeit jewels for actual
ones is very strict in France, the fused rubies
have never got upon the market. 1t was a
great scheme to make a $4,000 ruby out of
S. worth of sparks"
1.-THE sparks you speak of are real rubies,
Of coUrsep
'Oh yes. That is the trouble about rubies
There are plenty of them, but very few good
sized ones. The greatest ruby fields in the
world are those Of Burmah, where the natives
have for centuries been digging for them in
the most primitive and therefore most I'M
profitable manner. They are found in guam
titles in successive strata, with layers of
earth and clay between at little depth be-
low the surface soil. But nearly all are so
small as to be scarcely valuable. Only oc-
casionally big one, with the true pigeons
blood color, turns up.
KING THEEBAw's JEWELS.
There used to be wonderful accounts of
the jars full of large rubies which King Thee
baw Of Burmah had in his palace ut Manda-
lay, but not many were found by the British
when they looted the city. Perhaps they
were carried OFF and hidden away by the ma
tives.
"Curiously enough, tho anticipation Of the
finding Of these boards Of the king by the
English soldiers had quite depressing effect
upon the ruby market, a lowering in the
value Of the gem being feared as result of
sudden throwing of great supplies before the
purchasing public. Rubies are also largely
obtained in Ceylon, where the natives make q
business Of hunting for them in the streams
that come down from the huge cone Of noun
tains In the central part Of the island. where
it has been supposed for centuries that great
matrix Of rubies existed above the clouds,
from whence those found in the rivers are
washed down. Nor is such theory entirely
without reason, though nobody has been able
to find the matrix yet. When discovered, it
will afford profitable opportunity for the
use of few pounds Of dynamite"
Are there pearls from Ceylon7'
Yes the waters thereabout are q great
pearl fishing ground. Between the harvests
the natives wait patiently for the oysters to
grow. Pearls are largely counterfeited, as
you know. the best limitations being made Of
hollow glass beads lined With transparent wax
and scales taken from living FISH, The pearl
is chiefly composed of carbonate Of lime with
films of animal membrane between its many
layers. These paem brane films becoming dry
gives the pearl its hardness The substance
of the pearl is a shiny secretion Of the oyster,
which is ordinarily deposited upon the in