HOW PEARLS ARE MANUFACTURED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 184, 29 April 1908, Page 3

HOW PEARLS ARE MANUFACTURED.

.Tnp: imitation .'has grown so like/the'real, it, needs an expert to decide on .its''merits now. , The demand-is.so great; -everybody boaste of a: pearl necklace, high, low, rich : iand-poor. ' The facsimiles are lighter .than tno, real, and. brittle; 'those are -made solid of'.fish scales f have more durability. The holes, however, in v 'a' real-pearl are smaller. The ordinary' imitation is glass filled with a composition;. The glass blower is responsible for the charm of many superior makes; he spiders his tube when the com- ; •position is of this: right consistency, a slightly opalescent ■ tube 'being used for-the best kinds;, and slight -inequalities in the pearl are ' i produced by /tapping them with an iron bar. . The art'is not a now one. Fifteen hundred ■■ iyearsv ago;' : those' wonderful .Egyptians were. I working away on false, pearls, as did the Romans after , them, ;when Pliny .tells us. the '! ..demand iwas'greatl ' In' the' fourtte'nth con- ; tury we read of the Paternoster makers, and i pearl makers established either at Murano or Venice, but it was'not tiir the seventeenth century that Tracquiri made a more harmless misture, omitting, mercury, .but far more beautiful,in colour.' _ A. little ..white, fish, the * ablette, contributes its scales.toythe mixture.The poor/fish are roughly i; rubbed in "pure ■, water, which i 6 strained through a cloth, tlib ■ Tesidue left to settle;: chemical agents are employed [ to -preserve the mixture, but in its -! actual ! employment'there ; are many trade i secrets. : Russia has* discovered the method i of preserving, fish,scales in- their original brilliancy, and does'a large trade in exporting- ; them;;these:fish .'are very mipute. Mother-of-pearl is also ' employed in pearl-making, cut to the required shape and polished..