Richmond daily palladium., 1901-10-02
NATURES MISTAkI
SOME THAT MEN CONSIDER TO EE
REMARKABLE VALUE.
Paradoxical as Ii May Appear.
Perfection of a Preciou. stone
Largely Due to some Imper.ectI
In Its Making by Nature.

Largely Due to some inper.ecIt
In Its Making by Nature.
Paradoxical as it may appear
perfection of a gem is largely due
some imperfection in its make. S1
little mistake made in the labora toryT
nature produces a defective stn
which is perfection itself from the q
idary's point Of view. Ninety-Eine .
OF ever Lc1dred emeralds dug fro
the mia 1. < almost white and OF litt
v1lCe. TIT the hundredth one is of
rich velTety green and. If without I'd
er flaws than its color. sells for S3taI
carat or 240 times as much as its col
oriess brother The reason of the rie
color which gives the emerald its valu
is that nature. in making the stone. pu
in too much oxide of chromium. just a
the cook sometimes gets too much sd
eratus in the biscuits. The standard d
perfection in the laboratory of natur
is the colorless emerald. and her deel
green ones are some of her failures
failures which. nevertheless, deligh
mankind, however much they may dis
gust nature. You could buy a ton d
oxide of chromium for the price which
half grain of it gives TO a cLeap and
common crystal
When nature makes mistakes in man
ufacturing diamonds, the results arr
equally remarkable. Her standard fol
Il diamond is a pure white stone. bui'
sometimes a foreign substance gets int
the crucible, and the result is a red ol
blue diamond. \ fine white brilliant oi
one carat can be bought for S125, but a
blue stone OF that size would be cheaI
at SO. 500 A red diamond is of even
greater value. a red stone of fifteer
grains having been sold for $1,000. YET
the little particle of foreign materia.
which nature carelessly let fall into the
mixture when she was making thai
stone down in the heart of some prime
val volcano is of less value than q
grain of common salt and only got
there by mistake.
Nature manufactures in her laborate
nv a material called spinel. You can
buy block of spnel as large as you
can carry for a few dollars. Sometimes
in making spinel small quantities OF
chronic acid get into the material and
color it a deep red. The pieces so col
ored nature rejects as spoiled in the
making and throws them in the dust
bin. from which men dig them out and
call them rubies. \ ruby of thirtytwo
carats recently sold for So. 900. Yet
the material of the cheap spinel and
the valuable ruby are practically the
same, save for that small fraction OF
chronic acid which got into the ruby
by mistake.
When nature starts out to manufae-
ture opals. she endeavors to make them
without any cracks in them. In this
she seldom succeeds, coming nearest to
perfection in the Mexican opals, which
have few cracks in them and therefore
little luster. The fiery glow of the ORR
entail opal and the play of light in the
depths of that exquisite stone are due
entirely to the numberless cracks
which seam the surface of the gem. 1t
must give nature a poor opinion of
mankind when she sees him selling the
Mexican opals. which are nearly per-
feet. for y cents a carat and paying
SO a carat for her failures. the cracked
fire opal of the east.
Not only in gems, but in many other
things. does nature make mistakes and
failures. the results of which are high
ly valued by man. The chank shell.
shell much like the conch shell of these
shores. is one of the commonest shells
on the beaches of India. and millions
of them are gathered and burned for
the lime that is in them. Yet in a tenn
pie near Randy. Ceylon. are two chank
shells which hold the place of honor in
a shrine covered with gold, and no
amount of money could buy them from
their guardian priests. Their value
consists in the fact that nature was not
quite herself the morning she fabricat-
ed these shells and gave a right hand
ed twist to them instead of left hand
ed one, such as has been given to all
other chank shells. so far as man
knows. since the beginning.
Baron Rothschild once paid $500 a
dozen for some Schloss Johannsberg
wine, and ii is admitted that, taking
everything into consideration, it was
not an exorbitant price. Yet the wine
of the same year from the vineyard di-
rectly adjoining the Johannisberg vine
yard. on the same bank of the Rhine,
a vineyard whose soil is, TO all appear
ances. the same. only brought 50 a
dozen. And there is no special secret
about the manufacture of Johannisberg
wine or about the variety of grape
used Its great value comes from d
little joke of nature. In the soil of
the Johannisberg vineyard there is an
infinitesimal amount of certain salt
which is found in the soil of no other
vineyard. The admixture is so slight
that no chemist has ever been able to
initiate it. yet it is worth many thou
sands a year TO the owner of the vine
yard.
Wher Gold Looks Green.