Evening star., 1926-11-07


With, !drear November: fog and, snow
Should prize the topaz's amber hue
Emblem Of friends and lovers true.
THE topaz. the natal stone for
November, is the gem of faith
fulness. It is symbolic of true friend
ship and is thought to endow its
wearer With optimism and cheer.
In olden times topaz charm, worn
about the neck. was believed to ward
off the plague. asthma, yellow fever
and cholera Topaz comes from the
Greek word meaning Ito divine or
conjecture" and for this reason 1t
was long thought to possess the mys-
tic power of guiding the departed
spirit Of man on its journey to a bet
ter land. To this stone were at
tributed the additional virtues of
strengthening the intellect. banishing
fear. soothing the passion for extrava-
CANT worldly pleasures and enabling
it's possessor to see into the future.
That it is a charm against drowning
is. however. perhaps the most uni
versally accepted superstition asso-
ciated with the stone.
An illustration of this belief is given
in the story told of the wife Of a
prominent Australian, whose life was
thought to have been saved by her
topaz charm. while travelling to Eng
land during the last war. The boat
was Summarized and all the passen-
gers thrown into the sea. The lady
seized a piece of wreckage and sup
ported herself until some time after
ward, when. as she was picked up
by rescue boat, 1t was noticed that
she had clutched the topaz charm
from her neck and had been holding
it tightly in her hand while struggling
In the water.
Although the accepted color Of the
best quality topaz is an amber vel
low, the pure white topaz. when
properly cut, exhibits a brilliant re-
ection Of light resembling that of the
diamond. When colorless, the topaz
Is often known as pingos d'aRua
drops Of water). such stones being
highly priced as articles of jewelry.
The imperial mines of Russia pro
duce an excellent quality of the white
topaz very fine series of which
may be seen at the National Museum
in Washington.
The Sanskrit word topaz" mean
ing heat, we'll describes this stone.
for under heat and pressure the
topaz exhibits strong electrical prop
critics. while by very gradually heat
ing the yellow topaz to a low red
heat, its color may be permanently
changed to a beautiful pink. The
process Of 'pinking" is quite simple.
since the selected stone need only be
packed in asbestos or lime. heated
very slowly and allowed to cool grad.
ually to prevent breaking.
The topaz is silicate of alumina,
but stones of a very different chem
ical nature like smoky quartz-the
so-cailed Spanish topaz-and the or
dinary colorless quartz are often sold
for the true topaz. This practice is
very harmful and unjust since quartz
lacks many of the finer qualities of
the high grade topaz.
The topaz is very abundant in ma
ture and occurs at numerous localities
the world over-stones ranging In
size from a fraction Of carat TO as
much as Is pounds in weight being
known. Foreign countries produc
ing the topaz in abundance are Rus
sia, Brazil, Portugal and Japan.
This stone occurs at numerous places
in the United States. notably in Utah,
Colorado. New Hampshire and Con-
necticut.
Because of its abundance in nature.
the topaz has a relatively low in
trinsc value, but since no other stone
afford the rich amber color Of the
high grade topaz. its native beauty
will doubtless retain for 1t the place
of high artistic esteem it has enjoyer
for centuries.