Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1886 — AS TO PRECIOUS STONES. [ARTICLE]

AS TO PRECIOUS STONES.

Coloring Diamond!) and Fusing Several Ruble# Into One. Not long since a shiver was sent through the diamond-dealing world at the discovery, which in this country was made at New Haven, Connecticut, that second and third’class stones with some decided off color were being turned into first-water diamonds of the purest ray by a bath in some violet solution which an industrious investigator at Paris had discovered. Upon an investigation being made it was .found that many of the most expert and reliable judges in the business had been taken in. i Two or three men were sent to prison in consequence, but the dissovery of the solution was a permanent contribution to our diamond lore, and purchasers should be more than ever careful, as nothing but the most severe tests will disclose the fraud. Now comes the announcement from Paris of further “progress,” by some Swiss artificer, who has actually succeeded in taking a dozen small rubies and melting them into one of- the first quality. There is no limit to the size of the ruby that may be produced by this method, and a rapid fall in the price of these gems may soon be expected. H this method of fusion can be successfully applied to diamonds no end of consternation will ensue. A ruby is a red sapphire. It is composed of nearly pure aluminum, and in value and hardness stands next to the diamond, so that if some one has succeeded in melting rubies together it is possible that something similar may be done with diamonds. The amethyst, the topaz, the emerald, the sapphire, and the ruby are the same stone, differing only in color. What can be done with one in the way of melting may be done with all. The finest ruby sapphires come from Pegu, Burmah, and Siam. The best blue sapphires come from Ceylon. A hlua sapphire of ten carats is worth about $250. The red sapphire or ruby is the most precious variety, a perfect one weighing more than three and a half carats being more valuable than a diamond of the same weight, and when it weighs ten carats the ruby has three times the value of the diamond. A ruby of four carats is worth $2,000. The tint of the ruby is as fine by artificial light as by the iight of day, and when of the finest tint it has the color of the center of the red band of the solar spectrum, or that peculiar shade known to the jewelers as “pigeon’s blood”; but it' varies from the lightest rose tint to the deepest carmine. A deep-colored ruby exceeding twenty carats, a very rare stone, is usually called a carbuncle. The largest fine ruby known in the world was brought from China to Prince Sagarin, * Governor of Siberia. It afterwards came into the possession of Prince Menschikoff, and is now in the imperial crown of Eussia.— New York Graphic.