Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-07-03
ALMOST NATURAL.
Wonderful Precious Gems Alleged to
Have Been Made With Radium.

Consul General Frank H. Mason of
Paris transmits report upon the re-
Gently announced discovery by a
French scientist of a process by which
corundum spar may be converted into
rubies, sapphires, topazes and other
gems by exposure to the action of
radium. He writes:
The scientific sensation of the mo-
mcnt in Paris is the fact, which is
profusely announced in the news
papers. that Professor Frederick
Bordas of the College of France, has
succeeded after long and patient ex-
pertinent, in producing precious stones
by exposing the coarse ordinary form
of crystaliZed aluminium known as
corundum or adamantine spar to the
action of radium.
The possibility that this process may
be used industrialy for the production
of certain kinds of precious stones at a
cost which will seriously modify the
present market values of the natural
gems invests the subject with so much
interest that a brief report may be of
value.
1t will be remembered that all these
gems are in composition cryStaliZed
aluminium, but through long exposure
to varying conditions of heat and
pressure during the slow cooling and
development of the carthS surface
they have assumed different colors, to
which the names ruby, amethyst, etc.
have been given. The discovery of
radium revealed the active agent
through which various changes in GER
tain SuhS which had N
been of slow progress, might be in
tcnsificd and accomplished in a COM
paratively brief time.
Tho present discovery of Professor
Bordas was suggested by the fact that
the minute glass tubes in which ra-
dunn is confined for scientific use
gradually take on beautiful azure
color resembling the sapphire This
was attributed by Professor Berthelot
to the presence of minute traces of
manganese in the glass, which the
marvellous protective power of the
radium reveals and revives with vary
ing grades and tints of celebration.
Professor Bordas, therefore, placed
crystalized corundum of several tints
in contact with minute tubes of ra-
dunn, laid them away in a dark place
not subject to changes in temperature,
ana found after a lapse of several
weeks that the white corundum had
become yellow like the topaz, the blue
crystals had become green like the
emerald and the violet had turned to
blue like the sapphire.
Thus was overthrow the theory
held hitherto by scientists that each of
these precious stones has it's own
special coloring oxide, and that these
several oXides-green, blue, red or yell
loW-have no definite relation to each
other. Professor Bordas, as the pub
i1sheh accounts relate, took his newly
created gems to leading lapidary
JeWeler, from whom he had purchased
the corundum crystals, who identified
ard tested them and found that they
had been converted into topaz, a
ruby, and sapphire which fulfilled all
the tests and requirements of natural
stones.
He then obtained from the same
JeWeler new series of corundum
crystals in pairs, each pair of an ex-
actly similar color. One stone of each
pair was exposed for a. month to the
action OF radium, the other retained
for comparison, and the result of this
second experimsntfwas the sametsas
before. The light reddish corundRAn,
valued i'm commerce. at ~aDout@ 50 cents