The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1893-02-08
couNTERFElTlNc OF PRECIOUS GEMS.
Real Gems Will Probably at Some Time
Be Produced ArtificiaIly

"The finest imitation diamonds are
made out of rock crystal" said dealer
in precious stones to a Washington
Star man. "The basis of the most sue
cessful counterfeits of all kinds OF
gems is pure, very dense, and high
ly transparent sort of glass, which is
termed paste in the trade. For false
diamonds this glass is simply cut and
polished in facets, while for initiating
other stones, such as rubies, emeralds,
sapphires etc., metallic oxides are
mixed with it.
ain manufacturing glass for such
purposes the processes employed have
to be conducted with the utmost nice
ty. For making even the best mirrors
the necessary silica is obtained from
ordinary white quartz, while common
window panes are produced from sea
sand to large extent; but IN this case
rock crystal is su substituted, composing
about so per cent of the ingredients of
the paste. To it must be added % per
cent of carbonate of soda and due pro.
portions of calcined borax, saltpeter,
and red lead. All of these things are
reduced to the finest powder, fused to-
gether by heat in crucible, and cooled
slowly.
"The density, transparency, and
beauty of the plate depend upon the
care taken in these processes. Thus
made, it is all ready to be cut up into
diamonds and prepared for market.
It may be, however, that the manu-
facturer desires to produce counterfeit
gems of other sorts. If so, he has the
| means readily athand. Supposing that
he wants ubies, he fuses with paste
small quantity of peroxide of man.
ganese, and trace of Cassius purple,
which will give the proper color. For
emeralds he employs in like manner
oxide of iron, and for sapphires oxide
of cobalt.
TOPAZ is easily formed in the cruel
BILE by mixing with 1000 parts of paste
40 parts of glass of antimony and /
part of Cassius purple. For manu-
featuring other kinds of gems there
are methods equally simple. Of course
none of these imitation precious stones
has the chemical constitution, hard
ness, specific gravity, or optical proper
ties of real ones. Accordingly their
falseness is readily perceived by an
expert. Inasmuch as the elements of
which various gems are composed are
well known, synthetic chemistry has
attempted to reproduce them by put
ting the ingredients together and eff
fecting capitalization in the labora-
tory. In this way large masses of what
might be termed true ruby and sap
phire are turned out artifcally, such
gem-like material having some useful
ness for industrial purposes, although
lacking the brilliancy of natures pro-
ducts.
"For my own part am confident
that sooner or later some, if not all, of
the stones deemed precious will be re-
produced by artifice. The chemists
who have hitherto confined their at
tention to taking things apart are be-
ginning to learn how to put them to-
gether. AL the gems are very simple
in composition and the problem is
merely to make their elements crystal
lize properly. In all such knowledge
science has made but little progress as
yet. We do not even know for what
reason one substance is transparent
while another is Opaque, though pre-
sumably there is some relation between
the arrangement of the molecules in
the transparent body and the length of
the light waves, which, in the case of
the transparent body, permits the lat
| ter to pass through"