Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-14
Stones Worth Fortunes and Where
They Are Found.
DIAMONDS AND RUBIES.
How Precious stones Are Cut-BIeach.
ing and Dyeing Gems-SOme Wonder.
ful Sapphires-Emeraids and Opals-
Turquoise From MammOths' Teeth.

/ SSAhAS h'och thc utst tuluS III udture, COulu
not be broken by hammer upon an anvil.
Accordingly, it was customary to determine the
quality Of diamonds brought for valuation by
seeing if they would Withstand this severe
| trial"
| So said jewel merchant to a STAR reporter,
| and added;
| would be shivered upon the anvil into thousand
| pieces; 1t was simply an accident when such
result did not follow. For this gem, though
harder than any other known substance is none
the less brittle on that account, readily split
| ting If rightly struck. A few years ago. when
| the historic koh-i-noor had just been recut the
| jewel was placed for moment in the hands of
Benj amin Disraeli, who let it drop from his
| fingers upon the tiled floor Of the room in
which the occurrence took place. His heart
leaped to his throat, and there was the biggest
KIND OF fright for a moment among the
courtiers and others who stood around lest the
diamond should have been broken. II it had
fallen as to strike in this or that par
tlcuar way it would have been smashed to a
certainty, and ever so many thousands of
pounds would have vanished into nothingness
with the destruction of one of the great gems
OF the world. Fortunately it suffered no HARM
1t Is worth saying parenthet1cally, that the
koh-l-noor has itself suffered some of the r.is-
fortunes which it brought upon it's owners
through so many centuries. Originally weigh.
ing 703 carats, 1t was reduced by an unskillful
Venetian lapidary to 1856 carats, thus sacrificing
nearly three-quarters Of its original dimen-
sions. And SO clumsiy did the iapidary per-
form the work that when he was through the
stone looked more like piece OF glass than
anything else. Subsequently it was recut and
now weighs only LOG carats."
HOW DIAMONDS ARE CUT.
THAT seems a woeful diminutioh.n
eyes; but you must remember that the dia-
mond cutters art is of very modern Develop
ment. The ancients did not understand it to
any extent. In polishing such of their diamonds
as survived the hammer and anvil test they
were content to merely rub down the angles of
the rough stones and polish off the natural
facets. To them the notion of losing by cutting
even one-half of the weight of a gem would
have been horrifying Diamond cutting as it
Is now praetced, was first tried in Bruges
about the year 1856 by a man named Louis
Berquem, who was the inventor of the facet
idea as matter mathematical. Toward the
end OF the seventeenth century experiments
were made in the bleaching of colored dia-
monds white by means of such chemicals as a
distillation of anthony; but no way was ever
found OF preventing the color from returning
after while. Amsterdam is the great da-
mond-cuttlng workshop of the world today,
10000 Hebrews in that city being more
or less directly engaged in the business.
Everybody knows that only diamond Will
cut diamond, and for the purpose diamond
dust has to be used, mostly made from
anu ullHldEheIaDIo diamonds known
as bort, pounded up in a steel mortar. A dia-
mond to be cut is first stuck in a lump of ce-
ment on the end of a short stick, the cement
having been softened by the heat prelimna-
rily. 1t becomes fastened solidly in the cooled
cement and then it is ready for work. Suppos-
ing that it ID big stone, it is likely that pieces
will have to be Clipped off it here. and there in
order to dispose of flaws. On an average a
large diamond loses from one-third to two
thirds of its weight in this way. Frequently
hn ah taIFN
into smaller gems with profit. A little steel
chisel introduced into a nick skillfully made
with another diamond performs this operation,
called cleavage 1t is tick1ish thing and
must be performed with great care, lest the
stone be ruined by an unintended break. The
next thing Is to grind the facets by contact
with another diamond, wetting the opposing
surfaces from time to time with the tongue, SO
that they may not get too hot. After this they
are polished by flat wheels carrying diamond
dust which revolve 1000 times a minute. the
operator adj ustIng the edges and planes of the
facets to the wheel with his fingers and keep
ing the wheel moist with olive oil.'
ARTIFICIAL GEMS.
''What is the most beautiful form of dia-
mcndl"
1.-The brilliant by all odds. This shape is
like two cones united by their bases the upper
cone being cut off at the top by plain surface
of some size and the lower cone coming
almost to point. The older style. known as
the rose cut, is a low pyramid, fiat the
bottom. Several sorts of precious stones are
burnt to bring out their colors. Among these
is the oriental carneian. found in the Bombay
presidency. Likewise the Brazilian topaz de-
rived its pale red hue from fire. Before being
sent to market it is rolled up in a sponge and
burned. similar process is employed upon
rubies, sapphires and amethysts for removing
spots that interfere with the play Of light in
the stones. The dyeing of many sorts of gems,
chiefly by cooking in honey, was known as an
art to the ancients, and modern chemists have
many devices for that purpose. Agate, for in
stance, can be Colored to any shade that may
be desired. Within few years real diamonds
have been produced artifcially though so small
as to be OF no value commercially. Also rubies
have been manufactured by melting up num-
bers Of little ones together in the crucible; but
although the novelty caused big scare among
the gem merchants for time, these artificial
jewels have never found many purchasers.
The origin Of the diamond has never been sat-
isfactorily accounted for. Good authorities
are now of the opinion that the stone. which is
known to be composed of pure carbon, was
formed at the beginning by the decomposition
OF vegetable matter Besides the ordinary
colors seen in diamonds--blue, white and yell
low-there are green and red diamonds; the
red ones are particularly rare and valuable.
In Brazil diamonds were used by the gold
hunters, before their value was discovered, as
counters In playing cards, just in South
Africa the children first employed them
piaythlngs."
RUBIEs OF TIE WORLD.
Chow about rubies?"
"The ruby is the most valuable of all pre-
cious stones though most people are not aware
OF the fact. 1t, like the sapphire, is composed
almost wholly OF alumina. Usually rubies are
10 und loose in the sand with which they have
been washed ont of the rocks. The finest of
them have always come from Burmah the king
OF which-until the British overthrow the mon
archy-caiied himself Lord Of the Rubies.' He
owned enormous quantities of them and great
jars in his palace at Mandelay were filed with
rubies. Many, doubtless, were cabbaged by the
English troops when they captured the town,
but 1t Is supposed that nearly all were secreted
by the natives. The Burmese king would have
had very many more big ones were it not for q
law which declared that all above a GER
tain size should be handed over to him
as tribute. This naturally served as
an lncItement for miners to break up
any good-sized ones they came across.
iye-carat ruby today is worth ten times as
much as a diamond of the same weight, while
oae OF ten carats unexceptionable in color is
simply priceless. In the Russian regalia is one
OF the finest rubies in the world, the size of a
pigeons egg, which was presented to the EN-
press Catherine by Gustavus of Sweden in 1777.
A former KING OF Burmah had perfect ruby
the size OF pigeons egg that he used as an
ear drop. The two most important rubies ever
known IN Europe were brought to England in
1873. One OF them was cushion shaped and