Arizona republican., 1910-09-07
RADIUM WILL BLEACH AND IMPROVE
 DIAMONDS
Brown Diamonds Whitened, Dirty Pearls Improved, Emeralds Deep
 ened in Hue.

London-That radium will bleach and improve off colored diamonds and that it will change the coIors of other precious stones has been demon strated by London chemist, M. Arm brecht He has made elaborate eX- periments on the effects of radium upon various jewels and reports that he has found that radium bleached brown diamond almost white, that 1t improved the color of dirty pearls and that it deepens the color of light col ored emeralds.
 I began my experiments" he told a reporter, with white sapphire, which is pure oxide of aluminium. l placed a number of sapphires, about two hundred in all, in contact with pure radium. In the course of two or three weeks the greater number Of them had turned yellow or orange.
 "A few of them, which apparently came from another source, had turned a green, pinkish, or amethyst color and fewer still to a rose color. I should say that roughly speaking about 90 per cent of the whole num- ber had turned yellow, and the yellow varied from lemon to dark orange. Two or three of them turned very slightly blue, but not sufficiently blue to take the color of blue sapphire, the expensive and fashionable color.
 The color of precious stones, paru- cularly of sapphires. depends on i'm purities. The color of the blue sap phire. for instance is due to titanic acid. manganese and oxide of iron.
 Yellow color is supposed to be combination of manganese, but that has not yet been proved beyond doubt. Lilac color is believed to be due to Iithium. Sapphires come from different localities. Ceylon. Australia, and a few from Siberia. which ex- plafns their different impurities.
 By the use of radium I have man aged to change very pale emeralds into emeraIds of a darker green, but they are not sufficiently dark to equal the true green emerald. which is of considerable value. In experimenting with diamonds I have produced clearer. lighter color; in other words, I have bleached a brown diamond all most white.
 aI have not yet been able to obtain blue uldllpHu, buL Anll " i4i'''''' Crookes has a most beautiful blue green specimen, which was orlglnallE a yellow stone. The bleaching of diamond is an easy process, but It re- duires very long time. Agaln an amethyst, under the influence Of ra- dium. may turn into smoke topaz or yellow topaz.
 "I have also treated pearls but have only been successful in cleaning dirty looking pearl into a clearer white Opals have not proved amend blc to treatment. That failure was to have been expected because the color of the opal is produced by the refiec- ton of light from the different laml- nae or layers of the opal. just in the same way as the iridescence of the pearl is caused.
 As to the commercial value of the experiments I am not very hopeful. Radium is very dear; at the present time about S1O0 a millegram IS falr prjce. and I know of one medical m stitution which is> willing to spend s15OOOO on the purchase of radlum and can not obtain all it requires Sulphate of radium rules at Sl25 milIegram. because unlike the prom ide and chloride of radium. it IS an jnsoluble salt and gives off emana- tions without ever becoming inert.
 "Artifical stones are made very cheaply. nowadays. genuine white sapphire. for instance, which costs s25O to $35O a carat can be initiated bv a stone which costs from 25 to 50 cents q carat. and in color. hardness and specific gravity the two are III distiuguishable The same is true or blue sapphires. and in this case the real stones can be distinguished from the artificial only by the miscroscope.
 .The miscroscope reveals little air bubbles. which in the natural stone fall into line with the cleavage put in the artificial kind the bubble as surnes something of the shape of thermometer tube or an elohgateu peardrop. While sham gems can De manufactured so cheaply l am afraid there is no commercial opening for radium improved precious stones.