A.tifICIAL ROBIES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1696, 31 August 1904, Page 14

ARTIFICIAL ROBIES

PROCESS THAT DECEIVES EXPERTS. A jeweller recently laid two rubies on his counter, and asked a customer to select the bet ter stone. They were of about the same size. The customer examined each carefully, and then made his selection. “I thought that would be the one,” said the jeweller. “Many experts would have selected it. The one you have chosen is worth only £7, however, while the other one is worth £50.” “The cheaper one has the better colour,” said the customer. “It certainly has, but it is a composition stone. It is made of rubies, but the process is so perfect that few can deteot that it is not real stone. The process of its manufacture is known only to the man who made it. He is an Englishman, and lias found out a way of taking ruby chips and making them into what look like real rubies. What ha does no one knows, but’ from an examination made under a powerful glass it would seem that he grinds the chips into a paste and then works the paste into a solid, and after wards outs and polishes it. He is so oareful about the colour that the made stones are invariably better than many genuino on»BiS. Many experts would bo fooled with these stones if they did not know about them. A- powerful glass will reveal what they are. In ] ’ ea * stone the grain always runs stnugut, but in one of these mado gems there is no grain at all. The maker of these coinpositions can’t manufacture diamonds y©t, ibut I understand he lias been Hying and be may succeed. Emeralds and other stones have been experimented with but none has been imitated so successfully as the ruiby. ”