Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-31
GEMS THAT ARE COUNTERFEIT.
Precious Stones Produced From the
Crucible of the Chemist.


SOME THAT NATURE HERSELF NEVER THOUGHT
oF-THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL RuBrEs
a $4,000 GEM FROM $5 WORTH OF SPARKS
REAL PEARLS AND THE IMITATION.
'That is a very beautiful stone" said q STAR
| reporter to Washington jeweler, calling the
latter's attention to dark purple gem Of con-
siderable size, with vivid red fire, which lay in
a satin-lined box within the glass show case. 1T
seems very cheap, too, for its apparent value. +"
at is cheap for the reason that it is not q
real stone," replied the dealer.
"An imitation"
mo; 1T Is not an imitation. On the con-
trary it does not at all resemble, to the eye OF
an expert, any gem that is known in nature
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 artifcially, and
with some success. 1 dare say you are not
aware that actual, bona fide diamonds
have been produced in this way.
And yet diamonds have been artifcially manu-
featured for years. An English experimenter
first accomplished the feat and it has been sue
cessfuily repeated many times since. The only
trouble Is that the diamonds turned out by
chemical artifce are almost microscopic and
therefore practically worthless. AT the recent
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. Appar-
emily, the production of diamonds big enough
TO be worth anything could only be accom-
pllshed by forces and elements working on the
mighty scale of natures laboratory when the
world was being rendered out OF chaos into
habltable shape"
OTHER STONES.
"But other stones can be made artificially Of
profitable size?''
"A few. No real gem, however, except the
diamond, has been fairly reproduced exactly as
1T Is found in nature, though limitations are
plentiful enough. The precious stones made
py the chemists. If such they may be called,
are new inventions to the lapidary. Many of
them are very beautiful. This purple one you
have asked about, for instance. is lovely. 1t
has been named the ''violane du cap" and is as
attractive jewel as many natural ones four
times its price. French chemists 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 diamonds, which are as expen-
market"
ARTIFICIAL RUBIEs.
"Are rubies made artifcially?"
three years ago, certain French chemists
claimed that they had discovered process for
absolutely manufacturing big rubies in the
iabratory, 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 announce
ment occasioned among dealers. Nor was the
announcement altogether without truth, as ap-
peared from the report made on the subject by
the celebrated Prof. Friedel of the French in
stitute, who said that he found the chemical
composition, density, crystalline form and re-
fractive power of the artificial specimens to
correspond in every respect with the natural
ruby. The only difference he could find was a
slight variation in the shape of The tiny air
bubbles. However. the dealers threatened to
prosecute any one for fraud who yentured to
issue the artificial rubies as real ones and, in
asmuch as their combination is very rich and
powerful and the laws against selling counter
ielt Jewels for actual ones are very strict in
France, the fused rubies have never got upon
the market. 1t was great scheme, to make a
SlO,OOO ruby out of 50 worth of sparks"
RUBIEs AND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND.
"The sparks you speak of are real rubies,
of course?'
'Oh! yes That is the trouble about rubies
There are plenty CT them. but very few good
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 a little depth below
the surface soil. But nearly all are so small as
to be scarcely valuable. Only occasionally a
big one, with the true pigeon's-blood color,
turns up. There used to be wonderful accounts
OF the jars full of large rubies which King
ha n Rnry, h haI, l.
lay, but not many were found by the British
when they looted the city short time ago.
Perhaps they were carried off and hidden away
By the natives. Curiously enough. the antici-
patton OF the finding of these boards of the
king by the English soldiers had quite a de-
pressing effect upon the ruby market.
lowering III the value of the gem being feared
as result OF a sudden throwing of great SUD-
plies before the purchasing public. Rubies
are also largely obtained in Ceylon where the
natives make business of hunting for them in
the streams that come down from the huge
cone OF mountains in the central part of the
island, where 1T has been supposed for centu-
r1es that great matrix of rubies existed above
the clouds, from whence those found in the
rivers are washed down. Nor is such a theory
entirely without reason, though nobody has
been able to find the matrix vet When
discovered 1t will afford a profitable opportun-
lty for the use OF a few pounds of dynamite"
PEARLS AND INVITATIONS.
care there pearls from Ceylon?'
"Yes, the waters thereabout are great pearl
fishing ground. Next spring will be the harvest
of pearls at Ceylon, which comes only once in
three years. Between the harvests the natives
wait patiently for the oysters to grow. Pearls
are largely counterfeited, as you know. the
best imi tations 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 membrane films, becoming dry, gives
the pearl its hardness. The substance of the
pearl is Shiny secretion of the oyster, which
is ordinarily deposited upon the interior sur
face of the shell, forming what is called mother
of pearl Grains of sand or other foreign
bodies, lodging within the SHE'LL produce an IT.
ritation of the tissue which causes the deposit
OF pearly matter around them for the OYSTERS
protection. This matter Is deposited layer after
layer until the pearl is formed BY the artificial
introduction Of finty particles pearls can be
made to grow. The Chinese in this manner
compel a certain kind of fresh water mussel to
produce pearls in great numbers, though of
small size. Sometimes they introduce diminu-
tive images of their gods and other thingswithin
the shells and have them turned into pearls by
sort of oyster-plate process"
INVITATIONS OF DIAMONDS
81 suppose that the diamond is more largely
initiated than any other stone?"
Probably. Most Of the limitations scarcely
resemble real diamonds closely enough to de-
ceiya any one lint the finer sorfs ~ cor,tn.