OCR Text |
Show 4 I , I Vanishing Gems i i By Frederic J. Haskin. 4 WASHINGTON', Nov. 7. Precious siones were never so precious as they are loday. With cut diamonds worth $1000 a carat, and rubies, emeralds and sapphires of the finest quality worth even more than diamonds, the truly precious stones have gone beyond the reach of all but the most wealthy. Waldemar T. Schaller of the geological survey, who is an expert on precious stones, says that this, like almost everything every-thing else, is due partly to the war. The mining of precioua siones lias fallen off greatly in the last few years. But It is d-.ie even more to the fact that the supply sup-ply of these stones in nature is steadily diminishing. This, of course, does not apply so exactly to pearls, which are manufactured by oysters. Pearls are not within Mr. Schaller'a jurisdiction, because be-cause they are not minerals, but pearls are also becoming constantly more expensive. expen-sive. The astonishing value which precious atones have acquired by becoming scarce has given rise to many interesting developments. devel-opments. When a bit of diamond the size of the tip of-a lead pencil is worth $10u0. and with the struggle for the necessities of life as bitter as it is. it lakes a bold man or woman to wear many diamonds. Many, of course, do it in spite of the risks, but the number of gems which repose re-pose In caskets and never ee the light of day is undoubtedly increasing. There are many famous jewels which have not been seen for generations. Such, for example, ex-ample, is the famou.-; Braganza diamond owned by the government of Portugal. It is kept locked up in a safe and no one is ever allowed to see it. It is said one reason for this is that the famous Bra-ganea Bra-ganea stone is not a diamond at all, but merely a chunk of quarlE. No one is allowed al-lowed to see it, because If It were seen by an expert Its real nature would become be-come known and the Portuguese government govern-ment would be the subject of an International Interna-tional laugh. The alue of gems at this lime is nothing noth-ing to the value that they will have in the future, for they are becoming scarcer every day. There is no better investment than a diamond, a ruby, a sapphire or an emerald, provided the stone is genuine and of the highest quality. Such a stone is more certain to rise In value than any siock or bond you could possibly buy. But, unless you are an expert, or have he advice of one. do not rush Into this Kne of investment, There are two precious stones which we all will probably always have in abundance. The.o axe the ruby and the sapphire, for rubies and sapphires are manufactured not imitation stones, but genuine ones. A ruby or a sapphire is nothing but aluminum oxide, otherwise known as alumina, otherwise yet known as corundum, which has been melted. When melted this substance takes a crystalline crys-talline form and a cl-ar and beautiful appearance. The color Is due to impurities impuri-ties in the corundum. If the color Is red It Is a ruby, and if yellow It is a sapphire. Perfectly good rubles and sapphires can he made by melting corundum and coloring color-ing It with various substances. These rubles and sapphires have exactly the mme chemical composition as the rubios and sapphires that occur in nature, and tru-fl)" the same appearance, except for very minute differences, which It takes an expert to detect- The artificlaJly-tnade stone usually contains tiny air bubbles which may be detected with microscope, tl Is also more perfect than ths natural (.tone. To any but an expert these dlf- ferences are Imperceptlole. i et Da I ural rubUs are worth 1000 or more a carat, while synthetic n.bles may be bought wholesale for 40 to iO enta a carat. Naturally, this affords one of the great-eat great-eat opportunities for fraud in the world, and It Is. no doubt, consistently Improved. Im-proved. For example, a man advertised for aa.'e a very fine ruby whlrh had been pronounced senuine by an expert whom he named a student of seme In the National Na-tional musf.im. This man did have Iter.ulne ruby. whbh h showed to the expert. He also had a supply of synthetic syn-thetic rubles of the same else and shape. When be got a customer he substituted one of tn nyr.thetlr rubles for the genuine, genu-ine, putting It In the same setting. The customer might eatl up the Ckpefi and ask about the stone the expert had ex-amlned ex-amlned for jjignd gn The expert would ay that he had examined such a stone for the man named. The customer might evtn' go to the expert and show him the stone, and the expert, thinking he had seen It before, wou'.d merely glance at H and sav that It was all right. 1'nless he h1 reason to auspe.-t fraud, he would not again plac th stone under the ml-Toacope ml-Toacope In th!a way the enterprising rreok poM several svnthetb'' stonca at a profit of $100A or more each. It Is dsJmed Cm: diamond have been mnd synthetically eJo. but this Is not tru. according to Mr. Schaller. ool imitation of diamonds are made from suss, of course, both for purposes of frti ! and far society women to wear In public while leaving their real gems at home. These class diamonds arc ninde of a speclsl soft glass which has exactly the same refractive power as a diamond. They took exactly like diamond a The Only difference la that thv are not as hard and win not wear as long. They must be polished and touched up onco in a while. a a Another rMUH of th crowing precious-naas precious-naas of precious atone has been to MlmuUtr tha use of the IcM prlcis, hut In manv ra vrv beautiful. stons. -; -:irt . Opk&t, I urrjnnl). bSpU, tOUrOvs-linos tOUrOvs-linos and chrys-ipras aro some of the bttT known of these; but there are numeroMn othera. Kvwl quarts, one of ihe r.i-mtTtnn''st mlnrr-ils In nature, Is quite wiey vft, in jewelry. Many of these itAftM aro nearly. If not oulte. as beautiful as the more valuable ones, but there l n unfortunate tendency to pell them unoVr false nmes. Thus, Ksmet Rloie hnve been sold under some fifty different name, ptjch as American ruby. Ariaona ruby, BOhtnilan dinmoml. almini!te( revlon hyacinth, g unrnaertnn, hesonlte. Trsl!an (tmerald and others equally fantastic. The chief reult of this r rs otic p that the ons' onicr does no! know what h Is pettlnr. and hence bss no ld what It Is worth He asks In amusement wbst n t'rsllan emerald la, sn1 (he atorekeeper perhaps tellp him thnt It Is so met M mr new nnd very rare, and may thus he able to t an axoajsjtv. price for the stone rtut In the bmir run thl niftkes people swplclons of nil the rlienp-er rlienp-er stones, and tends to defeat It-altlmatA iradf In theso renllv bMutlful NIM An SX4fjtani and somewlmt fla :rn HUalttpl4 of t Ills rnmoufVise lewd business Wwi f.ftwn In A (lap tic nt v, where ordlnarv quartflj stained yellow hv Iron In its eompoplt Ion, was sold tinder the name of "aprlrotlne" for quite a fancy price. Tn sn effort to rhe.'k such pmctico. Mr rVhallrr hns prepared an aJfjhtbaAloal Itai In wliirh all of the BrvrloUt and sem!-preclons sem!-preclons si on op re 1th 'Hided . tognthcr with the names umler which thry lmvo i.ccn sold iu- nMAfM "f tbta list Mkyons can And nut wbst anv atone offered hlui under a fancy tin me renllv Is. The ares i wsr undoubtedly deslrnwd rrnnv precious stonrs The- were lost hv civilians In haetv ej'aht, burned up In building snd hurled on dcd Imilles, Many Inr .e stone were dotibttess tolen by lnnrrs. cut up Into smnller pieces and sold. No one remg to know what hns happened tn the ffiesl ftjwel collectl(in oT the Pl'isslpn imperlnl iro crnment. It IP SSld t Hflt wenllhv i JerplflOS took manv diamond off Ihe. iniukM when the bean to dOUbl t'le nblltty uf flrtrnisnv to win tM wsr Uv putting their nionev ntO dlnrnon.l thev had Ihfltf WMlth tn a form which was remllly ports ble. Mn.l coubl esslly he conccnid o ns ! eecni-n t s vMt Ion nnd con H sent ton. ThiM ilia -mond csn now be sold at 'srenlly cu- ' hnncnrt values. |