TO TEST BOGUS GEMS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2651, 30 October 1906, Page 7

TO TEST BOGUS GEMS.

\ "It. has frequently been asserted," says a jeweller, "that there are certain kinds of artificially made gems ; in fact. 1 believe the statement has been made to cover all kinds of such stones, that it is not only impossible, practically, for the human to detect them, but that even experts are often deceived. This is a mistake, however, for by the simple light test an.v irem, except a pearl, may be proved false or real by the veriest, tyro at such an undertaking. "I assume that the light test as regards diamonds is comparatively well known, and this is the same test that, may be applied to emeralds rubies, and so forth. It consists of holding the gem directly on a horizontal line between the eye and a light held at a distance of about a foot from the stone, and preferably this light should lie a candle. In the case of a diamond, but one light will be seen clearly through the stone, whereas if it is bogus, no matter how much expert care may have been bestowed upon its making, a hundred lights may be observed, none of them clearly defined."