Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-03-23
TO TELL SPURIOUS GEMS.
It Is Not Necessary to Go to an Ex-
pert When These Facts Are
Known.


Known.
II you doubt the commences Of your
diamonds or stones which you contsm-
plate purchasing, 1t is not necessary to
submit them to an expert-by studying
the following methods OF testing these
gems you may become your own expert:
For the first lesson, take real dia-
mond and an imitation Drop them in
glasses Of water. The imitation will
blend with the water and become almost
invisible, while the real one will be dis
tinctly visible, shining out Whitley
through the liquid. Dry and clean the
two stones, and on the fiat side Of each
put tiny drop of water. On the real the
drop will hold its gloublar form and can
be led about with pin point The drop
on the glass one will spread.
Study the two stones with a magnify
ing glass. The facets Of the false one are
even and regular. On the other they are
of varying sizes. The reason for this Is
that diamond cutter with good gem
will sacrifice symmetry to weight, pre-
ferring to leave some slight irregulari-
ties in the planes and edges rather than
to reduce the stones value. The ma
terial in false stone being Of little
value, the cutter makes as finished job
as he can of it, appearances counting for
more than the stone itself.
II real diamond be used as NINA
ture reading glass, aided by large mag
nifying glass, tiny dot on paper APP
pears clear and clean. Substitute the
false stone and several points, or one
badly broken one, will be seen, owing to
the unequal refraction.
Then you can try the familiar expert
ment Of scratching sheet of glass. Be-
cause your stone will scratch does not
prove it's genuineness, however. Try to
break the glass evenly on the scratch.
No other stone can cut through the outer
skin of sheet of glass and give certainty
to an even fracture like the diamond.
Your diamond is proof against the
hardest file, but the instrument will cas-
lily scratch any imitation that has ever
been made.
Having scratched your pretty bit OF
glass till it is worthless, drop it and the
diamond into hydrofuoric acid. Before
long the glass will be dissolved. but the
diamond will suffer not at all.
Then there is still another experiment
Take bit OF stuff with red and white
markings, pass the stone to be tested
over it, and closely observe the result.
If the stone be an imitation the colors
will be distinguishable through 1t; If it
be a diamond no difference or color will
be appreciate.
A genuine diamond rubbed upon wood
or metal after having been previously
subjected to the rays of the electric arc,
becomes phosphorescent in the dark;
this cannot be said OF any Of the imita-
tions. If the stone TO be tried be COW
cred with borax paste and after being
we'll heated in the alcohol flame dropped
into glass of water the proof will be in
Simultaneous. The glass imitation will
fly into bits, while the genuine stone will
not be affected Finally, try to crush be-
tween two hard plates diamond and an
imitation and learn the difference.
After the diamond, the sapphire is the
hardest stone; with her more beautiful
sister. she possesses also the quality of
resisting the attacks of the file, but she
is, however, cloudy in appearance and
IF milky hue. The topaz is slightly
yellowish and surrenders to the cutting
teeth of the file. There are a great
number of white diamonds, but pure,
clear transparent stone without shade
of color is more rare than is often sup
posed.
Besides white diamonds, there are
some which exhibit the shades OF red,
blue, green, yellow, brown, black and
pink. Heat sometimes causes diamond
to change it's color, and after time the
color thus acquired becomes permanent.
Yellow diamonds or those commonly de-
nominated "off color" furnish the
greatest variety of shades and some OF
them exceed in beauty all other stones
of that color.
Specimens of canary-colored diamonds
are by no means rare They may almost
be said to be common A pink or rose
colored diamond is Of great value, and
the red diamond, surprising the ruby in
its magnificent coloring, is considered
the most beautiful of all the precious
stones, being exceedingly rare. The one
bought by Paul, car Of Russia, weighed
ten carats and cost him $500, 900 francs.
A perfectly black diamond is almost as
rare as red one.
For beauty the blue stones come d.
rectly after the red diamonds. Those
possessing the deep blue, and In this re-
spect resembling the sapphire, are in
deed most beautiful gems, differing from
the sapphire only in quality and by the
magnificent fiery colors peculiar to the
diamond. The only true blue diamonds
come from the mines in India The va
rieties of green are not SO rare as the !
blues, reds, blacks and pinks, but those /
of grass green hue like the beautiful en-
erald are seldom found. Where they do |
exist. however, they surpass in brillian-
cy the finest emerald.
In place Of the Brazilian diamond,
which of late years has become quite
scarce, Cape diamonds of much inferior
value ana brilliancy are often sold. To
be able to distinguish between these
gems is an accomplishment possessed !
by few.