The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-08-27
,vuERE RUBlES COME FROM.
e,ineI and Diamond Age Of In.
dian Mines.


All the worlds great rubies come
80, the mines of the Mogok river,
,ndia There are four principal mines
!, the valley. in each OF which mod
.rn tools and machinery are used,
which facilitate the proper examina.
zion of large amount OF byon, or
,uby.bearing clay, every day. In ad.
,,cent valleys the Burmans still pros
scute their searches in the old way,
digging and washing by hand labor,
hur often with astonishing results.
In the large workings the system
&c reduced to a science, with cor
,asuouding results. The work goes
nm day and night. The byon is ex-
.racted by the open quarry method OF
removing all the surface down to the
ubv bearing clay, which is then dug
kup, carried en- trolleys to the steam
4 cleansing mil, washed, passed
through the sieveS, and then exam
med for rubes and spinels.
The byon stretches almost every
where along the Mogok valley, and
wherever this rich old gold crumblinS
clay exists, rubies are to be found.
Besides the pure ruby, spinel or
balas rubies are found in large guam
tites at Mogon Wherever the ruby
is found the spinel is certain to crop
I'D close beside il. They are both
CRYSTALS Of aluaiina, but of different
shapes. While the true ruby is pure
corundum only, the spinel has a mi
mute quantity Of magnesium. which
lessons its hardness one-fifth. Ex-
eept in few rare cases, the expert
can distinguish readily between the
two.
At the mines the rubieS are sepa
rated to a certainty from the spinels
by the use of the dichroiscope. The
gem is placed in the instrument so
that ray of light passes through it
and is polarized. The true ruby
shows a pure red ray, while the spin
Ell shows a slight tinge of blue with .
the red. There a few really magni
fcent spinels in existence, the first |
among them all being the great Ag-
incourt ruby in the English crown.
Although the mines in the MagOk /
valley have produced practically all
the rubies of ancient and modern
times, it is difficult to learn how long
these mines have been in operation,
for it was always the policy of the
Burmese kings TO keep them as mys-
FERROUS and secluded as possible
1t is known, however, that mines
were in operation for long time
previous to 1G0G. At one mine alone
1,400 tons of byon is washed daily
through the busiest seasons, with re-
sulting prosperity to the population.
During the season as many as 1000
rorkmen, nearly all Burmans. are
Employed.
Rubies are mere precious than dia-
nonds and are practically indestruc-
tible except by fire. While a flawless
diamond may be worth roughly about
100, a perfect ruby of the same
weight would be worth at least dOu-
Die. But the increase in value as the
lie increases is much greater in ru-
,ies than in diamonds A diamond
II ten karats is worth perhaps $4,-
100, while a ruby of that weight may
'e worth any price up to $4,000,
which was the value placed on
tone exhibited at the Franco-Brit-
sh exhibition in London last year
The Burman is inclined to invest
is savings in rubies and diamonds,
hitch may readily be realized upon
times of financial stress-Chicago
ribune.