The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-22
1T is ORNAMENTAL IN ITS NATIVE
STATE.
It's Range of Color Greater Than
That of Amy Other Stonc-The Lus-
ter and Many Shades of the BeryI
MANY meteorological Gems
Found in the United States.
Copyright, 1896, by George F. Kunz)

emeralds, opals, pearls, garnets an6
agates, but now it is not unusual fol
the meteorological gems, such as zir
| con, star sapphire, star ruby, tourma
line, spinel or titanite, to be called for
not only by collectors, but by the pub
| lie, whose taste has advanced as much
| in the matter of precious stones as il
has in art.
| Spinel is the most valuable of the
semi-precious stones. and is one of the
few minerals that are ornamental and
beautiful enough for gems in their ma
tural state. No other stone has sc
wide range of color, and each color
in turn is represented by many distinct
shades. The flame-red and crimson
stones have been mistaken and sold for
rubies, but although the hue may be
vivid, yet 1T lacks the richness of the
ruby The orange-red spinels are
called rubdcelle, the pink ones balas
ruby, and a charming variety of blues,
blue-greens, inky-blues, puppies and
violets, terminating in the black spinel,
called pleonaste, give this some a
range of color almost unequalled
One would little expect to find the
any other than true rubies; but the
English officer who in 1886 took the
halnpin from the private chamber of
p-Y-La, the queen of Burma, in the
palace at Mandalay, was surprised TO
find that the red jewel in it was not a
true ruby, but a fine ruby spinel.
Beryl is one of the most lustrous and
brilliant gems and occurs In variety
of shades Of yellow. golden yellow, yell
low brown, brown, green, sage and
grass green. Aquamarine, so-called,
comprises the white, light green light
blue and yellowgreen beryls, so called
from their resemblance to the color of
sea water. The yellow ones have been
called golden beryls. All these varie-
ties are often exceedingly beautiful and
brilliant. The finest aquamarines are
found in Russia, Brazil, Ceylon, Maine.
New Hampshire, Connecticut and
Mount Antere.s Colo, at the latter To-
cality, at an elevation of $4,000 feet,
almost on the line of perpetual snow.
The large aquamarine now at the
Field Columbian museum in Chicago
the finest ever found in the United
States, is from Stoneham, Me- 1t is
brilliant-cut and weighs 1881 carats.
The color is light blush green, and,
with the exception of a few hair-like
internal situations, it is perfectly clear.
One of the finest known beryls is a SUI
perb- blue-green crystal found in the
Urals in 1926. weighing six pounds and
valued at $4,000. 1t is now at the
School of Mines in ST. Petersburg.
Others worthy special mention are the
one in the sword hilt of Prince Murat,
sold in the Hope collection, and the
frog of Sea-blue aquamarine on a jade
leaf, shown at the Paris exposition of
1878, and now in the James Garland
collection in New York City.
The name topaz generally suggests
only yellow stone yet there are light
blue and green varieties which have
frequently been sold as aquamarine,
though the topazes are heavier than
aquamarines, and / have frequently
detected the difference without opening
the paper containing them. Topaz adj
mits of a very high polish. and is s-ery
slippery to the touch. Strange to say
the yellow topaz. when slightly heated
becomes pink; heated further. the pink
grows paler. and by long heating is en-
tirely expelled. leaving the gem coll
lorless. The sherry colored or brown
topaz is bleached in very short time
by the rays of the sun. or strong day
light. and all the white topazes found
in nature have been Gecolorized in this
way. The topaz is found in granite
rocks, in Siberia. Japan, Peru, Ceylon,
Brazil and Maine and in
rocks in Colorado, Utah and
New Mexico.
One of the most beautiful of all
gems, and one not known two decades
ago, is the green garnet called deman-
told, or "Uralian emerald" or Bob
rowska garnet" found at Poldnewaja,
near Sysserk, in the government of
Orenberg, Russia. IT varies from yell
loWish green to an intense emerald
color, and has such power of refract-
ing light that it shows a distinct fire
like the diamond or zircon and in the
evening has almost the appearance of
a green diamond.
Pyrope. or Bohemian garnet, has
been long and extensively sought and
worked in the region near Meronitz,
where it is gathered from
surface deposits and conglomerate
rocks, coming from decomposed peri
dotite. The gathering and cutting
form a great industry in that country.
PyrCpe occurs under similar conditions
in the demonstrating rocks of South
Africa, and also in Arizona and New
Mexico; and from both these regions
gems of rich color are obtained and
sold under the name of Cape rubfes
are larger than the American, and
perhaps equal to them in color by day
light, but the latter are much richer
by artificial light. Only the clear,
blood-red color then remains visible;
while the Cape rubies retain a dark
Jint inclining to brown. About $1,000
worth of cut stones from Arizona are
sold annually, and some peculiarly fine
ones have brought from $50 to $500
each.
The turquoises of commerce are from
-hese localities: Nishapur, Persua. the
Desert of Sinai, Egyptian TURQUOISE
md several localities in New Mexico
Those from Persia are of softer blue
1n6 Opaque those from Egypt dark
sr blue and translucent. frequently
changing to a green; those from New
Mexico are "a fine blue. and fully half a
million dollars worth has been sold
n the past FIVE years. The best speci-
mems come from Nishapur, where they
,olor OF the best turquoises a peculiar
luality PARTLY arising from the fact
hat the delicate blue tint is mingled
With slight infusion of green. and
partly from a faint tranSlucency of the
stone. Turquoise is not opaque thin
'plinters transmitting light easily, and
,utting and scraping like ivory with a
polished cut
The true turquoise, which shows va
'lous 'hues and tones of blue, greenish- !
blue, bluish-green. is not to be con-
ounded with the blue fossil turquoise, |
N odontohte, which is a. fossil ivory,
n, rather, fossil bone, colored by phos-
shate of iron.
Turquoise often becomes green by.
lge, as may be frequently seen in tur-
luoise canoes of the Italian cinque-
'ento. When green spots appear on
turquoise, the color can often be re-
tr.r H. 49,
i solution of equal parts of alcohol
md ammonia OF. Unloading them for |